MTI Consulting

Save the Children Bangladesh retained MTI’s Advisory services to review and upgrade the Performance Management System of Underprivileged Children’s Education Program (UCEP) in Bangladesh  which is the single largest NGO in Bangladesh providing basic education integrated with technical and vocational education with subsequent employment support to children and young people from under privileged families with the ultimate aim to improve the socio-economic status of the urban poor and support industrial growth by generating skilled manpower. The purpose of this exercise was to interact with UCEP donors, Board of Governance and senior management along with the teachers and administrative members to review and upgrade UCEPs’ Performance Management System to incorporate applicable best industry practices and learning and orient and acquaint developed system and tools to staffs through roll-out workshops.  According to Ms. Ayesha Parvin Majumder, Chief People and Admin Offic...

Carmart, one of Sri Lanka’s pioneering auto businesses, has retained the services of MTI Consulting to chart the group’s strategic direction and to gear the business to capture the opportunities that the Sri Lankan economy will offer the transportation sector in the next 5 to 10 years. Carmart was founded in 1948 by late Mr. Clarence P. Amerasinghe, who began by importing used Peugeot and Volkswagen cars. In 1953, the company obtained official agreements and became the authorized distributor in Sri Lanka for the brands. This family owned business had evolved over the past six decades and has established its legacy not only in the Sri Lankan market, but also in the Asian region as the oldest importer for Peugeot. Today Carmart is the Sri Lankan authorized importer, authorized repairer, and spare parts distributor for Peugeot and Mazda, and has just commenced working with Sinotruk, China’s largest export-market manufacturer of heavy vehicles. Director and CEO of Carmart, Yasendra Am...

South Asia Textiles Limited, a leading Sri Lankan textile manufacturer specialized in producing exceptional quality weft knitted fabric, is to implement the 5 year Strategic Plan developed with MTI Consulting.  In developing the strategic plan, MTI employed its internationally acclaimed 8S® Model framework to conduct a detailed review of SAT’s current position and chart its future strategic direction. The development cycle engaged the management team of South Asia Textiles through a highly inclusive process of strategic planning consisting of eight stages namely; Scope, Scan, Sights, Strategy, Structure, Staff, Sustainability/Social Responsibility and Systems. Given the dynamic, fast-paced and intensely competitive nature of the global fashion industry, the implementation of the strategic plan will enable South Asia Textiles to respond more effectively and profitably to the fast-changing dynamics of the industry. South Asia Textiles, a subsidiary of Lanka Century Investments P...

MTI CEO Hilmy Cader arrived in Perth to strengthen ties with The University of Western Australia (UWA), with the intention of jointly exploring opportunities in Sri Lanka for research and executive education. UWA, which is ranked 91 st in the world, appointed MTI as their Sri Lankan representative in 2016. UWA pertains to be one of the strongest research intensive Universities in Australia. It successfully holds its place in the Group of eight (Go8) as one of Australia’s eight leading research Universities. UWA's Pro Vice-Chancellor (International), Mr. Iain Watt stated, “We are excited to be working with MTI and for the potential opportunities that Sri Lankan students now have better access to. UWA offers a variety of courses, subjects and cutting edge research opportunities, all of which are highly acclaimed. The university and prospective Sri Lankan students, have much to benefit mutually, in both cultivating the rich culture of research, and allowing for a holistic e...

‘idea2fund’ – the year round venture competition powered by MTI Corporate Finance is on the verge of launching its 3rd wave this October. Since its inception in 2016, the mission of idea2fund has been to create a platform for prospective entrepreneurs to present their venture ideas, get linked with potential investors, be challenged and receive constructive feedback from pioneers in the respective fields. The first 2 rounds proved successful, having received over 300 applications from enthusiastic prospective entrepreneurs covering various spheres. In its past two waves, idea2fund proved successful in scouting several great talents including the introduction of the mixed media lifestyle design brand, Bakamuna in 2016. According to MTI CEO, Hilmy Cader, “The role of conventional business models are being radically transformed by disruptive business models, and ‘startups’ will soon become the name of the game. We at MTI believe that this new breed of entrepreneurs will challenge th...

One of Kenya’s fastest growing niche tea brands, APT Commodities has  signed up MTI Consulting to further strengthen their internationalization process– as part of the company’s aggressive growth strategy.  The project will also have a M&A competent,   that focuses on identifying an international tea company as a strategic investor to work with APT in reaching new markets. APT Commodities Limited is a fully owned Kenyan tea trading company with an international outreach in markets such as Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia and Egypt. The company houses several brands such as Jambo, Hassan (in the Black CTC segment) Sinbad (in the Orthodox segment) and Equator (in the Green Tea segment).  APT is a member of the Tea Directorate and East Africa Tea Trade association. “The time has come for APT to incubate new ideas and partners in order to stay relevant in this volatile geo political market. Our early success in international markets has inspired to pursue...

Meanwhile the Group is rationalizing some of its legacy operations Sri Lanka’s long-standing leader in agriculture – the CIC Group – has elevated the country’s agriculture sector via futuristic investments amounting to over Rs. 2 billion, which are now infusing state-of-the-art technology into the industry, thereby making an enduring impact on the livelihoods of farmers. Cropwiz, one of the country’s largest agriculture project to be resilient to seasonal weather patterns, is one such futuristic investment, which indicates the potential for protected agriculture at a time during which changing weather patterns are wreaking havoc on the country’s agriculture and food production. The project, with an investment of approximately Rs. 1 billion – is an international Joint Venture and employs cutting-edge greenhouse technology which enables ‘climate smart,’ year-round production, mitigating impact of climate change. The project employs automated climate control and fertigation s...

Gulf Insurance Group (GIG), which is owned by Kuwait-based KIPCO and Canada-based Fairfax Financial Holdings , has recently concluded their 2016 Strategizing Exercise for Bahrain Kuwait Insurance  (BKIC) subsidiary. “The senior management team of BKIC-GIG  were actively involved in this strategically critical exercise, which included a detailed review of the regional insurance market challenges and opportunities” said Mr. Ebrahim Al-Rayes, the CEO of BKIC  BKIC was the first insurance company in Bahrain to have been interactively rated by an independent international rating agency and currently enjoys A- (Excellent) rating of A M Best. The company has grown to become the market leader in the Insurance Industry in Bahrain since the year 2008 in terms of gross premium and net profits.  The GIG companies currently operate in Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Egypt.  BKIC is among the founders of United Insurance Company  and Gulf Assist – ...

MTI Consulting led by Darshan Singh (Senior HRM Consultant – MTI Middle East & Europe) has successfully facilitated in Spain and United Kingdom, on the Management Development Program for the Club Managers Association of Europe (CMAE). In these challenging economic times Club Managers are under greater pressure than ever from their committees, owners and members to create and implement business strategies that guarantee the continued success of their clubs. The Program focuses on strategic and business planning, performance and service standards and the professional and communication skills to develop every aspect of both the individual Club Manager’s performance and that of their club. This Program is also endorsed by the Club Managers Association of America as part of the educational pathway to the Certified Club Manager (CCM) qualification. Michael Braidwood, Director of Education for the CMAE, said” we are delighted to have MTI’s Darshan Singh as one our lead presen...

MTI Consulting, based on their experience and thought leadership work in international trade strategizing,  have highlighted important export policy and governance issues that Sri Lanka should address. What is the bottom-line on exports? Sri Lanka’s measurement of exports is entirely based on revenue (essentially top-line) and does not measure the degree of value addition that would help determine export profitability to the country, as this is what Sri Lanka will eventually benefit from.  For instance, in the case of tea bags, the bagging machine, energy, paper, printing machines, printing inks and additional freight are mostly imported. With apparel too, there is a high import-input component.  Therefore, the focus needs to be on the net value-addition and not just the top-line.  Having a consistent national formula for sector-wise value-addition would help Sri Lanka to make more effective policy decisions. The export sectors must be told how much ‘value-addit...

Delivering the key note speech at the CIM Future Marketer’s Conference , MTI Consulting CEO, Hilmy Cader inaugurated the session with two hard-hitting questions of whether there are sufficient marketers as CEOs and is marketing the most respected function. After the ‘target audience’ agreed that neither one of the questions can be answered satisfactorily, he continued to discourse the importance of ‘value creation’ by the marketers, since the profession is misunderstood and the scope is not appreciated.  His presentation was themed “Forget Marketing – Focus on Cross-Functional Value Creation, Drawing from his consulting experience, he emphasized on how marketing in many scenarios had failed to produce or effectively convey the business value creation made by marketing and that marketing was largely high on ‘silo impact.’ This established the game plan for the session which was to drive the thinking, in order to achieve career progression and respect for the future marketers. He ...

MTI Consulting’s CEO Hilmy Cader will be delivering the keynote at the 4th CIM Future Marketer’s Conference organized by the CIM SL region students committee, which is scheduled to be held on 26 th  September at the Kingsbury Hotel. This year’s conference is themed on “The new age marketer” and cover presentations of topics such as the power of consumer insights and engagement, adding value to an organization and the 2020 digital marketing mix followed by a panel discussion comprising of CIM study center specialists. “The role of Marketing and therefore Marketers in the new-age domains (like tech, telecom, travel, e-commerce, financial services, entertainment) is markedly different to the role marketers played in conventional FMCG domains.  Marketers are now challenged to find their role in these emerging domains” said Hilmy Cader. Hilmy Cader - MTI CEO

According to a recent study by MTI Consulting (who are also currently studying the feasibility of it), crowd funding has the potential to propel the next generation Sri Lankan entrepreneurs into the global market, while also helping conventional industries and entrepreneurs to seek new vistas. Crowd funding is the process of attracting small amounts of capital from a large number of individuals to finance a new business venture ranging from product and service launches to movie development and travel sponsorships. However, as fledging industry, caution needs to be exercised – in a domain where regulation is still very fluid. Crowd-sourcing: As opposed to using internal employees or established services, crowdsourcing allows tapping into cloud labour and obtaining services, ideas or content on a more competitive basis. Emerging trends * In 2013, crowdfunding platforms raised billions of dollars – $ 5.1 billion, to be exact – a third of which went to social causes * The Crowdf...

Sri Lanka’s apex Trade Promotions Organization, the Sri Lanka Export Development Board (SLEDB), has just completed a 9 month long strategizing process with MTI, culminating with the final draft of the strategic plan for the EDB. Financial support to develop the EDB strategic plan was made possible through the USAID program, Facilitating Economic Growth in Sri Lanka, which was implemented by the International Executive Service Corps (IESC) through the Volunteers for Economic Growth Alliance (VEGA). The SLEDB is the country’s foremost state organization mandated for the promotion and development of exports. Performing the roles of Policy Advisor, Monitor, Promoter, Facilitator, and Knowledge Provider, the EDB‘s key role is to achieve the national export goals, and to increase the country’s export value of products and services. Mr. Bandula Egodage, Chairman and Chief Executive of the EDB stated, ‘I have no doubt that the development of this Strategic Plan, based on MTI’s internati...

Dialog, Sri Lanka’s leading mobile operator, successfully concluded its annual employee recognition program for 2014 with MTI Consulting   being retained as the independent judging partner. Operating within one of the most competitive industries, the awards program seeks to identify and reward Dialog’s individual and team achievements, vital to the year’s business performance. Having encountered tremendous growth since its inception in 1995, Dialog has grown to become one of the most prominent telecom and technology companies in Sri Lanka, building a SLR 63 billion business in the process. Keeping true to its vision of “The Future, today,” Dialog has also excelled in introducing the latest innovative mobile technologies within the country. With an employee base of 3000+ serving over 8 million customers, Dialog is constantly looking for newer ways to improve its HRM function and ensure its workforce remains motivated. It is in this context that the unique awards program la...