Sampath Bank recently conducted two webinars under its ‘Sampath Saviya’ entrepreneurship development programme to offer advice to SMEs on how best to recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their businesses. These webinars were facilitated by top professionals and conducted free of charge for any SMEs that wished to attend.
The first webinar focused on creating a positive business mindset and planning for rebuilding business especially addressing cash flow management and was facilitated by Dr. Premasiri Gamage – Senior Visiting Lecturer, Management Consultant and International Trainer.
The second webinar covered creating a positive business mind-set, planning for sustainability of the business, psychological development to defeat challenges, sales tactics to enhance sales as well as key practical approaches to re-build the business and drive business success. This event was facilitated by Deepal Sooriyaarachchi – Former Director of Sampath Bank PLC, Chartered Marketer, Management Consultant and Trainer, Author; Chandana Gunawardane – Author, Speaker, Master Trainer & Senior Consultant in Human Potential Development & Psychology; and Suranjith Godagama – Senior Consultant and Trainer, Certified Master Practitioner of NLP and Member of John Maxwell Team.
These two programmes, which saw the participation of nearly 200 people from SMEs as well as future entrepreneurs, also allowed participants to clarify doubts or gain further insights via the chat function. Furthermore, recordings of the webinars were uploaded to the Bank’s social media platforms for future access.
Speaking about this initiative Thusitha Nakandala – Group Chief Human Resource Officer of Sampath Bank said, “SMEs around the world have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. There are several SMEs in Sri Lanka who also need guidance on how to rebuild their businesses and recover from this crisis. We identified that SMEs need proper guidance, motivation and help with reengineering their business model in order to rebuild their businesses in line with the new normal. We also wanted to help them expand their innovative thinking to meet new challenges, capitalise on available opportunities and unlock their full potential. This will also assist in overcoming some of the current economic challenges facing the country.”
‘Sampath Saviya’ is the Bank’s entrepreneurship development programme which aims to develop the MSME sector. Since its launch in 2013, Sampath Bank has conducted several projects across the island in partnership with the National Chamber of Commerce, Export Development Board, Universities, Technical Colleges, Regional Chambers and Divisional Secretariats and helped MSMEs as well as budding entrepreneurs including youth, women and differently abled persons.