Among the participants of the Fireside Chat with Six Bold and Daring Sri Lankan Entrepreneurs was Mr.Ashok Pathirage an eminent business leader in Sri Lanka, providing strategic leadership to one of the leading conglomerates in the country. Currently, he heads the diversified conglomerate SoftLogic. His key business interests include insurance, IT, furniture, General Trading, Properties, Financial Markets and Leisure. He is also the Deputy Chairman of the National Development Bank PLC and Chairman, NDB Capital Holdings PLC.
The panel included Harry Jayawardena, Dhammika Perera, Merril Fernando, Janak Hirdaramani, Ashok Pathirage and Sumal Perera. The discussion was moderated by Daily FT Editor in Chief Nishtar Cassim and HNB Chairman Dinesh Weerakkody.
“I don’t think I have any regrets. But I think as Mr.Hirdaramani said, I had done only up to A/L so if I had the opportunity of doing a degree or business management. At our time unfortunately I didn’t chose to do that. So I think that’s one thing I would have regretted. Well, I would like people to remember me as a honest businessman that’s all,” Mr.Pathirage commented during the discussion.
“As long as you can sustain the debt, if you have a business and the growth model is there. I don’t see there’s a problem about taking debt. Why people are so worried about taking debt. As long as you know you are sure that you have a good business plan and you think that you can employ the money to get that return, I think there is nothing to be so alarmed of. As Sri Lankans we are so very conservative. We are always looking at people go wrong rather than people becoming successful. I think that’s why as a nation also we have almost gone wrong. Any business there is a risk, whether you take debt or not, if you just stay home and if you sleep suddenly you will find that you are uncompetitive and you will have close down your company. So it’s the same philosophy. So I don’t think as long as you are calculative and you know what you’re doing, I don’t think there’s an issue”, he said.
