A combination of excitement for mobile marketing communications and a background in marketing encouraged to Jayomi Lokuliyana to leave her job and kick-start her own venture. This was back in 2003. Today we’ve all come to know it as zMessenger. Tony Weeresinghe on the other hand always wanted to be an Engineer. As a management trainee at a Sony Service Centre, Tony developed a liking to computers. Later on, this passion paved way for successful stints at Citibank, then later on at Oracle. Today we know him as the man behind Millennium IT, eChanneling, and now, Ustocktrade.
At the latest edition of Talk The Walks, Tony Weeresinghe, Founder/CEO of Ustocktrade and Jayomi Lokuliyana, Founder/CEO of zMessenger took the spotlight. The discussion revolved around “Disruptive Innovation”. Here’s a glimpse.
Innovating without killing the business
In a business context, innovation is vital for the long-term sustainability of an organization. At times, this might require a change in direction as to how a company would operate. Technology can only go so far.
Yes, technology is disruptive. But technology alone will not disrupt an industry. This is something we at ReadMe hear often being echoed by leaders in the tech industry. Tony too shares this view. Take the example of the blockchain. As a technology, yes it’s disruptive. But as a business? We’re not there yet, says Tony, and he’s probably right. But come up with a disruptive business model with technology to match it, then you can be a serious challenge.
At times disruption comes at a price. How does one cannibalize a company’s cash cow and bring in something new? Jayomi believes that this sort of disruption should ideally happen in an adjacent platform or something outside your company, with a small team. Why? A small space is where one would have room for new thinking, which sometimes isn’t the case in a larger setting. As she puts it, it’s the whole attitude of new thinking that fosters innovation. Of course, it’s difficult in the case of a large organization, particularly because of the bureaucracies involved.
Failures along the way
When MillenniumIT was born, the company did well enough from the get-go. It was profitable within the 1st year. But in 2001 came its first ever loss, which came to around Rs. 600 million. This was in a time when Tony was building the campus at MillenniumIT.
While working on a project at MillenniumIT, 2 individuals from the staff challenged the way Tony did things. Even though at the time Tony was confident of how things proceeded he decided that its best if the two learn on their own. As a result, the project cost the company $200,000 due to delays.
The takeaway here is that sometimes when there are young people in your team, one should look to confidently guide them. According to Tony, this failure helped him when they were building the software for the London Stock Exchange.
Tony and Jayomi at Talk The Walks
But then again when it comes to failures he points the finger at himself. “If there is a failure, I always try to look at myself first”, says Tony. Why? Because if you’re the head and you’re the one leading the team, the responsibility at the end of the day falls on you.
When Tony started Ustocktrade, within 6 months the platform managed to become the 6th most traded platform in the US. Of course Ustocktrade did come across a few roadblocks along the way. Fast forward to 2018, Ustocktrade has come a long way since it was first announced. With regards to the success of the platform, Tony says the first millionaire(USD) was a student from Missouri who came on board with just $500.
Commenting on Ustocktrade, Tony said, “I wanted to eliminate all the institutions and protect the small guy.”
In fact, there are apparently at least 100 users who are close to hitting the million mark. Sri Lanka, on the other hand, is a bit complicated. Tony claims that this is partly because of the regulations and the amount of insider trading manipulation that’s been happening in the stock market.
Striking a balance and igniting entrepreneurship at a young age
Building a successful company is no walk in the park. Those who have walked this path before will tell you how challenging an entrepreneur’s journey is. But some might have it a little bit more challenging than others. Jayomi, for example, built zMessenger at a time when she was raising her child. So how does one strive to maintain balance especially when you’re trying to build something? After all, we all have different roles that we play on a daily basis. Funny enough, sometimes we find interconnectivity between these different roles. Sometimes a certain skill set for one role may actually enable you to handle another role better. This was one of the sentiments Jayomi shared, one that quite a few of us could find relatable at some point in our lives.
Image Credits: Startup Sri Lanka
At the end of the day it comes down to the question, how badly do you want it? Maybe it’s our culture. Maybe it’s our upbringing. But as Jayomi puts it, we’ve been taught complacency from a young age. We’ve been taught to be happy with what you have rather than anything. There’s nothing wrong with that by any means. But when it comes to business, it’s an attitude that might not get you too far.
“If you stay focused on where you want to go, you will somehow find a way” – Jayomi Lokuliyana
Jayomi drew the example of her own 10-year-old son who made his own comic series, wanting to sell them at school. To their disappointment, the school advised against it, stating that the school shouldn’t make kids “money-minded” and that it shouldn’t be a marketplace for his comic books. It doesn’t make sense trying to encourage students towards entrepreneurship when schools themselves discourage that entrepreneurial spirit at a much younger age.
Maybe that’s what we really need, to foster that entrepreneurial spirit at an early age, hoping it will grow stronger with time. Back in June in an interview with ReadMe, Dhanika Perera also shared similar thoughts on the matter.
On that note, ends the 9th edition of Talk The Walks and the final one for the year 2018. Until next time!
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