Mr Sunil Wijesinha is an amazing personality. For a person who is an engineer, an accountant, a productivity practitioner with decades of rich industry experience in top positions, he is very down-to-earth and simple. He took time off his busy schedule to discuss his experience as an industry leader, a productivity practitioner and a person with a wealth of experience one has so much to learn from.
In an interview with BMD he expressed his views on many areas in management. Some excerpts are given below.
Q: How important is the role of the chairman in an organization? And how can a Board of Directors support you in your role as the chairman?
The Board has overall responsibility of a company. An ideal Board should comprise of directors that come from different disciplines, different experiences, different personalities etc. For example, some people are cautious by nature, and some are more aggressive. The Board has to set the mission, vision and values of a company and should also devise various policies that govern the activities of the company such as HR, finance, manufacturing, procurement policies.
The most important thing is to appoint a suitable CEO. Depending“on the type of CEO, the Board has to be involved. Say for example, the CEO is quite cautious; then it is important to put pressure on the CEO. The chairman’s role is to align the Board towards a commonly agreed goal. There tends to be many disagreements among Board members. In such situations, a chairman should be capable of helping the Board make objective decisions that are not coloured by personal biases. The chairman has to set the agenda, or where the agenda is set, make necessary interventions in the agenda to get the most out of Board meetings. The chairman should be skilled to get the maximum contribution from the Board. With many years of experience, I am capable of getting the Board to contribute collectively, despite having conflicting opinions.
Q: A chairman is a leader in an organization. What traits would make a good leader?
It is important that a chairman has experience and knowledge. S/he also needs a lot of patience and people skills. Some people by nature are confrontative and as a chairman, one has to be able to balance a Board productively. Good communication skills are important – whether it is within the Board, to shareholders, media or the general public. A CEO may take up most of the communication, but there can be occasions where the chairman has to communicate as well.