Beyond the billion-dollar myth: Why Sri Lanka's business narrative needs reimagining

WHEN analysts point out that Sri Lanka has only a handful of listed companies valued over a billion dollars compared to Singapore's 77 or Vietnam's 44, the instinctive response is often: “We need more billion-dollar companies.”

- By Thanzyl Thajudeen

But this misses a more fundamental question that communications professionals should be asking: Is corporate gigantism really the goal?

Perhaps the more revealing statistic isn’t how few billion-dollar companies we have, but how many mid-sized businesses are stuck, unable to access capital, expand sustainably, or tell their stories effectively.

Perhaps the problem isn’t that we lack corporate giants, but that we've failed to build an ecosystem where diverse businesses across multiple scales can thrive, innovate, and create meaningful value.

This is where the narrative needs to shift, and where PR and communications professionals have a critical strategic role to play.

When the Asian Development Bank projects Sri Lanka’s growth slowing from 3.9pct in 2025 to 3.3pct in 2026 and with US tariffs threatening $634 million in exports and 16,000 jobs, mostly female apparel workers, the communication failure isn’t about celebrating big companies. It’s about the silence around adaptation, resilience, and alternative pathways.

Where are the stories of medium-sized exporters who've successfully pivoted to nontraditional markets? Where are the narratives about companies choosing sustainable growth over extractive expansion? Where are the case studies of businesses that prioritised worker welfare and innovation over quarterly revenue targets, and succeeded because of it, not despite it?

The fixation on billion-dollar valuations obscures a more important conversation: How do we build an economy where businesses of all sizes, from artisan cooperatives to tech startups to family enterprises, can access the resources, markets, and credibility they need to create value?