28 January 2013 – Before a group of 60 Sri Lankan business leaders, HummingBird International joins Consulus regional network in providing business design and brand consultancy services to fast-growing Sri Lankan Brands seeking to expand internationally. The addition of the Sri Lankan partnership which also covers the Maldives strengthens Consulus presence in South Asia which already includes Bangladesh and India. The partnership in Sri Lanka is led by Shiraz Latiff who serves as Chairman of HummingBird International and is a Director of CIM Holdings UK and a Trustee of the Chartered Institute of Marketing UK. Shiraz has over 22 years of commercial and industry experience in strategic marketing, business optimization and corporate restructure.
“We continue to seek opportunities in South Asia as the quality of senior management tends to be high and they will appreciate our unique approach of business design in order to build innovative brands.” said Lawrence Chong, CEO of Consulus. Prior to the formal ceremony, Chong shared his thoughts about how Sri Lankan brands can evolve their business models by taking advantage of their inherent strengths of having a strong professional diaspora, cultural identity and high education. The event was held at the prestigious Galadari Hotel and was well publicized in partnership with Ceylon Today, one of the nation’s leading daily.
During his 2-hour presentation, Chong shared that Sri Lanka as a small nation compared to India can take heart in the trend that smaller nations such as South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan have produced more world-beating brands than larger nations such as China and Russia. But he cautioned against complacency by saying that Asian brands are at a cross-roads and that they must be prepared to redesign their business models to meet the challenges of the 21st century. He then presented case studies which demonstrated how Consulus’ approach of combining business and design have helped brands move up the value chain through innovation.
‘Historically, Sri Lanka, like other many Asian countries, has been a production house for leading brands in Europe and US. With the learning curve attaining its maturity, this is the ideal time for the Sri Lanka companies to build their own brands on top of their competencies achieved over the years. We see this is the right time to partner with Consulus to help build Sri Lankan companies their own suite of brands globally’. Said Shiraz Latiff of Hummingbird International.
Other than the countries in the South Asian network, Consulus is now present in Brunei, Dubai, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam.
