Imal Fonseka
PGPMAX Founding Class

 

Tell us a little about your family background/ history. How has it influenced you?
I come from a long line of tea planters. I bucked family tradition and gave up life in the plantations for life in the corporates in the city. Growing up in the plantations, I watched both my grand fathers and father build empathy with a large workforce as a precursor to the many initiatives they took on to improve productivity in the estate. I didn't realise it at that time, but it inculcated a strong personal belief in winning the heart before winning the mind. It's a key attribute for transforming mistrust with the management, toward building culture of shared values and goals.

Briefly describe your personal and professional achievements (including recent awards/ special projects).
Professional Achievements:
As I started my career journey, I clearly established time lines for heading a function before I was 30 and heading business before 40. I became Divisions manager of Glaxo-Smithkline Consumer/OTC division in Vietnam by my 26th birthday and Managing Director of Sri Lanka’s largest personal-care/home-care company before my 39th birthday. However, through this journey I have always asked myself, how can I contribute to my country? This has been an integral desire of mine. In this vein, I was the founder and Chairman of the Sri Lanka advertising awards; and I was the Chair of Effies Sri Lanka in two separate years and continue to serve as an advisor. Recently, I have also accepted a request from the Ministry of Finance to sit on the Boards of the Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation and Sri Lanka Investment Holdings.

Tell us about your profile prior to attending ISB and recap your professional life after ISB, including your career progression.
The fundamental transition, post ISB, has been by efforts to harness my entrepreneurial skills and focus my time on enterprise strategy development and influencing leadership development across the organisation.

How do you think your time at ISB has contributed to your career and personal growth?
Pre-ISB, the industry saw me as a marketing specialist now in a business leadership role. The engagements I now get invited to seem to indicate that the community sees me as a more diverse business leader who is equally comfortable in operational excellence as well as people development and other facets of the business.

What do you enjoy most about your current career position?
Working with a local company as opposed to life with multinationals changes one from being a strong process manager to an entrepreneur who envisages the future direction of the enterprise. This is what I enjoy most.

Briefly describe a typical day at work, in a way that illuminates the kind of challenges and opportunities your role involves.
I am up at 5.00 am, jog for an hour and am at my desk by 7.45 am. Nobody sees me till 9.00am. During that time, I clear my emails and plan my tasks. The rest of the day is a combination of engagements with employees, community, industry matters, internal and board reviews and strategy discussions. I generally knock off at 6.00pm as I value time with my family. 

What was the main highlight or most memorable aspect of your programme at the ISB?
The peers of the Founding Class created a multitude of memories and experiences, which have bonded us for life.

If you could offer a word of advice to the current class at ISB, what would it be?
Learn from peers. The greatest asset in the class mix is the diversity – in terms of their specialisations, their passions, the career stage and their experience. Hence keep your ego and your fixations at home and come to learn from each other. This will be undeniably more beneficial than the theory.

How do you feel you can contribute to ISB?
I can share my experiences in the role of an executive coach to graduates.