CONCERTS, IDOLS, COCONUTS & MARKETING – Part 17

CONFESSIONS OF A GLOBAL GYPSY

By Dr. Chandana (Chandi) Jayawardena DPhil

President – Chandi J. Associates Inc. Consulting, Canada

Founder & Administrator – Global Hospitality Forum

chandij@sympatico.ca

Classical Shows

As a young child I virtually grew up on stage. My father was an award-winning playwright, stage producer, director and actor. His other artistic talents such as set and costume designing enhanced the overall quality of his productions. In 1956, his play ‘Janma Bhumi’ was chosen by the government to celebrate 2,500 years of recorded history of Sri Lanka, as a part of Buddha Jayanthi celebrations. With the opening of that play, he became the first-ever to use now famous Lumbini Theatre in Colombo. Growing up in a culturally rich environment meant frequent visits by our family to art galleries, theatres, cinemas and traditional cultural events. My parents also sent my elder sister and I to learn Kandyan dancing. I was lousy at it and gave it up after a few sessions.

During my Ceylon Hotel School (CHS) student years, my favourite show was the first ever solo concert by a Sri Lankan singer – Victor Ratnayake. His concert known as ‘Sa’ (the root or tonic note in the Indian music scale) was first performed in 1973. I saw ‘Sa’ four times over four decades. I had mixed feelings when Victor finally ended ‘Sa’ in the year 2012, with the 1,450th concert. For the final show he chose Lumbini Theater where the first ‘Sa’ was held 39 years before that.

I never had the privilege of talking with Victor, but had the opportunity to work with the other two greatest classical musicians in Sri Lanka – Amaradeva and Nanda Malini. They occasionally entertained the guests at the Hotel Ceysands, during the oriental food events which I organized. I was the Executive Chef and the Food & Beverage Manager of that hotel in late 1970s. Arranging such high caliber classical musicians to entertain tourists was not common in hotels in Sri Lanka.

Western Concerts

I also equally enjoyed western music shows. Those days, we called these ‘Beat Shows’. In addition, my neighbourhood friends used to organize large scale road dances in Bambalapitiya Flats, which had a refreshingly diverse population. A few days ago, I tracked down a pioneer in western music shows in Sri Lanka, now living in USA – Kumar Navaratnam. Kumar used to organize popular beat shows in Colombo in late 1960s and early 1970s. When Kumar saw the iconic performances by Jimmy Hendrix, Carlos Santana, the Who etc. in a documentary film about Woodstock, Kumar was inspired to do something different in Colombo.

Previously having introduced rock and hard rock to Sri Lankan audiences, Kumar planned to organize something big. His ambition was to organize the first-ever Rock Festival from 6:00 pm to 6:00 am at the Havelock Park in Colombo, in the style of Woodstock. Once his friend, then turned rival, Gabo Peiris had the same idea. Eventually one week apart, there were two competing Rock Festivals organized by Gabo and Kumar held at the same venue. Most of my CHS batchmates went with me to both events. I wore a tie and dye tee shirt, a chain with a large peace sign and a pair of old torn jeans with the largest possible bell bottoms (36 inches!).

There were heavy rains during Gabo’s Rock Festival and that enhanced the ‘Woodstock’ type atmosphere and mood of the attendees. While the rock music continued nonstop, we danced in the rain and jumped into small puddles of mud, until dawn. When I asked Kumar last week if he has any photographs from his Rock Festival, he told me, “Machang, I was too drugged to remember or arrange any photos of that festival!” Kumar’s departure to USA at the height of his popularity in the 1970s created a void in the western music scene in Sri Lanka that lasted for some time. Those two festivals are yet to be matched by contemporary rock groups on the island. Kumar remains regarded as a pioneer of Sri Lankan Western music.

Meeting Mark Bostock

In 1973, as the Tournament Secretary, once again I led the organizing committee of the Nationalised Services Rugby Football Club’s annual tournament. I also played for the CHS seven-a-side team, which was one of the fourteen teams that competed for the prestigious trophy. CHS lost to the Bank of Ceylon, in the quarter finals. The chief guest for the tournament was an Englishman well-known in Sri Lanka as a sportsman and a business leader, Mr. Mark Bostock. He was the President of the Ceylon Rugby Football Union and the Chairman of the John Keells, the largest group of companies in Sri Lanka. We shook hands and spoke briefly. I felt that he was impressed with the organization of the tournament.

That brief introduction to Mr. Bostock led me to find employment with John Keells on two occasions during my mid-career in the hotel industry. At the age twenty-five I managed one of John Keells hotels, and befriended Mr. Bostock. He arranged for me to be trained in London with the largest British hotel company – Trust House Forte in the late 1970s. He was the attesting witness when I got married. In the mid-1980s, my family was invited to visit the Bostock family in their home in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England and stay overnight with them. We had a great time there. In later years his daughter Clare, who studied hospitality management in the UK, worked at Le Galadari Meridien Hotel, where I worked in mid-1980s.

In 1986, I arranged a small farewell to Mr. and Mrs. Mark Bostock, just before his retirement, in Habarana. At that time as the General Manager, I managed the two largest hotels built by John Keells, the Lodge and the Village, Habarana, as well as their farm and Keells food distribution in the North Central Province of Sri Lanka.

Dance Organizing

Towards the end of our second year at CHS, we were very busy organizing the second CHS Graduation Ball. With the experience gained in 1972, my batch had become more efficient at event planning and organizing. We raised more funds through souvenir advertisements and were able to secure the most prestigious and expensive venue in the country – the ballroom of the Hotel Ceylon Inter.Continential. The dance tickets were sold out quickly and the dance was an overall success in terms of attendance, profits as well as finding partners.

Scraping Coconuts at

Lever Brothers

Five of my batchmates and I were able to arrange well-sought after summer internships at one of the best-known multinational corporations operating in Sri Lanka. It was at Lever Brothers, fondly known to many generations of Sri Lankans as ‘The Sunlight Company’, since 1938. At this Anglo-Dutch corporation, Lever Brothers (now Uni-Lever), we were exposed to new employee orientations, training and development as well as, employee benefits. These standards were far superior to what the hotel industry was providing those days.

My main task was scraping coconuts and peeling sweet potatoes for meals of their 1,000 employees. As four meals a day (breakfast, lunch, dinner and mid-night meal) all included curries, they needed a large quantity of grated coconut and coconut milk. Having done the same function throughout the summer of 1973, I became an expert at coconut scraping using the motorized scraper at the Lever Brothers staff kitchen. That machine was my friend, whom I called, ‘NUTS’. We also had to do shift work. Morning and afternoon shifts were good. However, we disliked doing the night shift and delivering midnight snacks to different factories.

Although we worked as trainee staff cooks; we were given some extra benefits. We had our meals at the junior executive meal room. We were also given some excellent supervisory technique training with handouts developed in Europe. I also learnt for the first-time sales concepts, public relations and union relations. At one of our training sessions, the Personnel Manager, asked us, “What is the best for management – negotiating with one union or several unions?”. I quickly raised my hand and answered, “Several!” when the manager asked my rationale for the answer, I said, “Because with several unions, the management can divide and rule”. He disagreed and explained how the management could have better and mutually beneficial industrial relations by dealing with one union. We learnt a lot at Lever Brothers, in addition to scraping coconuts.

Meeting Stanley Jayawardena

During this seventh part-time job, I was fortunate to get an opportunity to briefly meet Mr. Stanley Jayawardena, who later became Unilever Sri Lanka’s first Sri Lankan Chairman. He told interesting and inspiring stories about his remarkable career. He had joined Lever Brothers as a Sales Manager in 1955 with little knowledge in sales. However, over the decades that he worked at Unilever, he became a highly respected Marketing Guru.

He played a dominant role in shaping the destiny of Unilever Sri Lanka. Nine years after this brief meeting, I learnt Marketing from this expert. In 1982 and 1983 I did an Executive Diploma in Business Administration at the University of Colombo and Mr. Stanley Jayawardena taught its Marketing course. He arranged the ex-Marketing people from Unilever Sri Lanka, such as Upali Mahanama, Sri Sangabo Corea to give us guest lectures. That inspired me to study Marketing further with the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) in UK and eventually become a graduate of the CIM.

Mastering the Concept of Marketing

The seeds of Marketing knowledge and practical tips in Marketing shared by Mr. Stanley Jayawardena, made a significant impact in my career. Most things I did in my mid-career in hospitality management – food festivals, stage productions, food and beverage operations, banqueting sales, were influenced by the basic principles of Marketing. Identifying the market segments and the customer needs and then satisfying those needs while making profits, is a simple, yet a powerful concept.

Having seen the benefit of Marketing knowledge in most things I did, I further studied and practiced Marketing. In the year 1990, I embarked in an MPhil/PhD in Hospitality Marketing at the University of Surrey, UK. Over the next 17 years as a full-time and part-time Visiting Professor/Senior Lecturer/Professor, I taught Marketing in 13 post-secondary educational institutions in eight countries (Schiller International University in UK, International Hotel School in Sri Lanka, Ceylon Hotel School, International Hotel Management Institute in Switzerland, Pegasus Hotel School in Guyana, University of Guyana, The University of the West Indies in Jamaica, Private Hotel School of Aruba, Mona School of Business in Jamaica, Ryerson University in Canada, Canadian School of Management, Ravens University in USA and Niagara College in Canada).

Thirty years after my first meeting with my Marketing Guru, I worked for the Canadian School of Management as their Senior Vice President in Market Development. Thank you for the insight and the inspiration, Mr. Stanley Jayawardena!