Leverage on the Rush or the outcomes from the Rush

It is evitable that Sri Lankan society is going through significant socio cultural environment changes. With effects from globalization Sri Lanka is shifting more towards a westernized culture.

Walawwa is no longer luxury

40 years back, if a Sri Lankan lived in a Walawwa they were considered to be the richest people living in this country. Walawwa used to be a symbol of inherited wealth. Living in a Walawwa was the luxary 40 years back. If you observe the current Sri Lankan social behavioral patterns it is evitable Walawwa is no longer the luxury living place but apartments are. Real Estate industry has cleverly positioned apartments as the ultimate luxury mainly through the choice of place of the apartment buildings where most are located in prime locations. They also augment their product offering through value additions like fitness centers, community socialization areas, and security services in addition to luxurious furniture and state of the art apartment designs.

Healthier Life Styles

Nowadays the society is becoming more and more concerned on healthier life styles. Generation before this was not concerned on health and they are increasingly having health problems which are indirectly pushing the younger generations to be more concerned on healthier life patterns. The modern society is pushed through various stimuli around them to spend time and money on physical fitness. So many business opportunities are out there leveraging on these transforming life styles.

Sri Lanka among top boozing nations

Sri Lankans drink till they die. Sri Lankan culture was enriched with its routes strengthened through core

principles of Buddhism. The fifth core principle in Buddhism is you should not booze. The reason is it affects the “Samma Ditti” or alcohol effects the state of mind. But now Sri Lankan society is boozing for purposes like fun or devastatingly because life is a problem to them. Sri Lankans no longer looks for solutions they drink alcohol for temporary sensation. These trends are shifting the core routes of Sri Lankan culture and there are a lot of businesses leveraging on these life style shifts.

 New Sri Lanka Rushing

If you closely observe these trends societal trends a question that arises is the new Sri Lanka rushing. If you look at the core reasons of why a preferred luxury living option is apartments, or why people are concerned on healthier life styles. Or why they booze don’t you think that new Sri Lanka is rushing.

Key reason for opting for apartments is the convenience of place, less travel to office. An average Sri Lankan now spends more than 55 hours at office where as the expectation is only 45 hours. The workplace has become more competitive that people are making all their decisions based on the career that their involved in. Healthier life styles, more than anything else Sri Lankans are having health concerns because of the enormous stress levels. Unbearable stress levels demands for people to look balance both physically and mentally.  Even boozing it is the same reason; people look for a temporary escape from their current state of mind. Percentage increase of working women is directly proportionate to the increasing trend of women boozers. Sri Lanka is rushing at a deadly pace.

From a business perspective, majority of the businesses are centered on the outcomes of a rushing nation. But there are fewer businesses focused on the root cause of all these outcomes. Sri Lanka is rushing there is tremendous opportunity both while rushing and around the outcomes of rushing.

Kumbhakarna Syndrome Explained

Most of you have heard about King "Rawana". King Rawana defines the prehistoric era of Sri Lanka with his kingdom still seen as the highest state a Sri Lankan king has ever been in. King Rawana had a brother named Kumbakarana. Kumbakarana is known for this very famous trait of his where he sleeps for days. Not a single person in this world is able to wake Kumbakarana up. Even today a person who sleeps too much in Sri Lanka is called a "Kumbaya" evolving from the Kumbakrana story. 

One fine sunny warm day Kumbakarana went to sleep. Since it was warm day he was not wearing the typical heavy King's clothes but was dressed in light clothes since he was going to sleep and he orderred his servants to keep the window open expecting that breeze flowing through the windows will suit the warm weather conditions. He went to sleep on this warm day and he went on sleep for days and days. One fine day he wakes up and starts shouting at the servants why they have kept the windows open? Kumbakarana has slept througout a season. It was the winter season the environment has changed and you can't keept he windows open in the winter season. 

This is an amazing example of how important it is for us to understand that the enviromment around us is changing. If you do not adapt to the environmental changes then you end up being just another kumbakarana.

Walt Disney any childs dream with 200 outlest across the globe with a theme "It's a small world after all" ventured in to France where 17 millino Europeans live less than a two hour drive and 310 million can fly  there in the same time or less. Everyting sounded perfect French Government granted $ 1 Billion worth incentives expecting 30000 jobs. Company made a blunder in understanding the French Culture.

1. Monday Vs. Friday - Friday and Fun both starts with "F". Friday is the Fun day in the calendar. Walt Disney went with the same assumption and capacity planning was done in away that they expected more people to come on Friday. Assumption was wrong majority came on Monday.

2. No Wine - In Sri Lanka serving wine on a Themes park would have been a crime but in France people have wine for their every meal its a part of their culture. Not having wine in restaurants was a disaster. 

3. Europeans don't eat breakfast - Again incorrect assumption, Americans eats the Lunch and Breakfast together. But French had breakfast, breakfast was very important to them. 

Walt Disney had made a blunder in analysing the evironment. Walt Disney being the giant it  failed to realize that the seasons change, envirnments change.

There are some companies that levrage heavily on changing environmental conditions. An example is Diet Coke, in 1981 Coke invested on Diet coke predicting that peopl'e life styles would chagne and be centric towards being healthy. Diet Coke is now ahead of Pepsi and second to Coke 2nd Best brand in the carbonated drinks market. In 2013 Sri Lankans are concerned about being healthy eating less sugar where as Coke predicted this trend way back in 1981. 

The envirnoment is changing everyday observing these changes will define how successful a comapny or how successful a person is.