Strategies for resilient entrepreneurs

■Dilmah Genesis and LSE South Asia Centre convene global experts in Colombo to examine how advice, policy, and trust can strengthen entrepreneurial resilience in Sri Lanka's post-crisis recovery

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SRI Lanka's recent economic stabilisation has offered a sense of relief but it has also raised an uncomfortable question: is stability the destination or merely the threshold? This tension framed a high-level workshop and Roundtable jointly convened by Dilmah, Genesis Dilmah Centre for a Sustainable Future and LSE South Asia Centre (London School of Economics and Political Science) in Colombo. It brought together academics, researchers, policy-advisers, practitioners, state and non-state actors to discuss what resilient entrepreneurship truly requires in a post-crisis economy.

Opening the discussion, Dilhan C. Fernando (Chairman and CEO of Dilmah, also an LSE alumnus), set out both a conviction and a challenge. Sri Lanka, he observed, possesses extraordinary entrepreneurial capability, proven repeatedly in resilience through decades of disruption and crises. Yet, this inherent strength has often been constrained by inadequate policy frameworks and fragmented support systems. What has changed, he noted, is the nature of value itself. Global consumers now define value through ethics, provenance, culture, sustainability, and trust areas where Sri Lanka holds a natural advantage. At the same time, innovation, artificial intelligence, and shifting global markets have fundamentally altered the competitive landscape. The opportunity, therefore, is real, but so is the risk of being left behind without deliberate policy adjustment and institutional alignment.