Entrepreneurs

1) W.K.H Wegapitiya, Chairman,Laugfs Holdings (Ltd).

Personal career:-

Childhood:-

Wegapitiya, the chairman of billions of rupees wroth company, was a child in a poor village family in Balangoda. His father was a poor farmer who had to care of nine childrens.

According to Mr Wegapitiya, there were many days which they spend with hunger. He experienced the difficulties that poor large families faced on 1970's. Mr Wegapitiya says those experiences have kept him where he is now. The difficulties that he faced, converted him to a person who can bear anything and live with many troubles and shortages.

Education:-

Even though the father of Mr wegapitiya was a poor farmer, he had understood the value of education. He always tried his best to give education to his child. According to Wegapitiya, education was the path which he used to come to his present state.

Mr Wegapitiya studied from the village school up-to O/L. Later Pinnawala central collage in Kegalle supported him to complete A/L's and enter to the university of Sri Jayawardenapura, for his first degree in Business administration.

As to Mr Wegapitiya, university life was the capital that he invested for his entrepreneur activities. It was the place that he was given the strength to go ahead on his career path. Actually his university life was a rural one. He suffered from lack of money. There were many days which he only drank a cup of water and went to sleep due to lack of money to buy foods. But the experiences and knowledge that he collected from university life, converted him to billionaire.

Many years after achievement of his special degree in business administration, he completed MBA at post graduate institute of management in year 2007.

Life style:-

As a person who came out from a village and from a farming family, he always love farming. He has a dream to grow fruits and vegetables and live in a farm as a farmer.

His favorite meal is rice and curry. Mr Wegapitiya gets at 5.00 a.m in every morning, goes to gym for one hour and drive to the office. Another interesting item of his life is traveling. He likes to travel to many countries and get experiences and acquire knowledge.

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Business career:-

After university life of Mr Wegapitiya, he entered to the ceylon shipping corporation as a trainee shipping agent for Rs. 20/= per day. It was his first step in his career life.

After some period of working in Ceylon shipping company, he moved to start his own freight forwarding company by end of 1987. In that time period, there was a good demand for that field. This step opened door for him to enter to world of entrepreneurs.

After collecting the experiences from freight forwarding field, Mr wegapitiya moved to a higher step which was not ever touch by a Sri Lankan entrepreneur. He entered to the LPG sector. In that time LPG sector was wholly monopolized by the giant multinational companies. How ever because of the entrepreneur skills, Wegapitiya entered to the market as Gas Auto Lanka. He got the chance to be the first person who owned petrol-to-auto-LPG conversion plant in Sri lanka in 1994. He came more quickly on the way of success. Still he never looked behind. Today he is the chairman of laugfs holdings Ltd.

Present laugfs Holdings Ltd commands a turnover of over 7 billion rupees. Laugfs today is a house hold name with a portfolio of 19 companies. They have been engaging with marketing activities in local and overseas markets. Laugfs gas (Pvt) Ltd is the flagship of laugfs group which is the second large LPG provider in Sri Lanka.

Additional to LPG providing, laugfs has entered to area such as petroleum, retailing, property development, leisure, restaurants, tires and in near future super markets etc. Mr Wegapitiya has already entered to Australian market. He is the Asian pioneer in Australia who converts petroleum driven vehicles to LPG.

In the near future he is seeking to expand his business through countries like New Zealand, US, Maldives, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh.

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Laugfs Holdings

Why Mr Wegapitiya considered as an entrepreneur?

There are many qualities that can be seen only from the lives of entrepreneurs. When we study the life of the Mr Wegapitiya we can clearly understand that he has improved number of entrepreneur qualities inside of his life.

Determination, courage and tolerance:-Mr Wegapitiya's childhood was not really a pleasant one. He used to suffer from poorness.

But he never went down because of poorness. He studied well even among many financial troubles. He even entered to university and completed his degree sometimes even without a proper meal. That was happen because of his determination, courage and tolerance.

Willing to learn:-Mr Wegapitiya completed his MBA in 2007 even after he has come to the millionaire level

in Sri Lanka. And also he has stated that he goes to many countries to study the business environment in those countries. These characteristics of his life shows how much he like to learn to improve himself.

Tolerance for ambiguity:- Most of graduates in Sri Lanka don't tolerate until they get the chance. They quickly fell

down if they were not given a good job. But Mr Wegapitiya, entered to the career path as a trainee shipping agent in Ceylon shipping corporation for a low salary. He tolerated that situation until he found the opertunity to start his own company.

Strong propensity to take calculated risk and invest in new technology:-After the high success in his own freight forwarding company, he stepped to a new field

which was not touched by any entrepreneur in Sri Lanka. He invested in LPG sector by accepting the calculated risk. And he was the pioneer in petro-to-auto LPG conversion in Sri lanka.

Responsiveness and adaptiveness in seeing new opportunities:-He is not running in LPG sector. He has started new companies in various sectors which has

a good demand in the present Sr I Lankan economical environment. As examples petroleum, retailing, property development, leisure, restaurants, lubricants, tires etc.

Addition to those qualities, Mr Wegapitiya says he is sensitive to the environment. He keeps his 5 senses open for any changes in environment and identify the unfilled needs and wants of the customer and fulfill them. He also says he is a dreamer. He is dreaming the positions and targets that he must achieve in future and works hard to achieve them.

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Major achievements:-

• Special degree in Business administration.

• Laugfs Holdings Ltd.

• Procurement of LPG tanker- “Laugfs wega” (Youngest Sri Lankan to own a ship)

• Gold award- Entrepreneur of the year (Extra large category)-2005

• Platinum award for national entrepreneur of the year 2006

• MBA- 2007 Advice:- “How ever if you want to be successful you need to always have an unending determination to keep going despite the tough challenges that the environment throws at you.”

Sri Lanka leaders (2011) Mr. W.K.H. WEGAPITIYA [Online]. Available from: http://www.srilankaleaders.com [Accessed: 26 July 2011]

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2) Bill Gates,Chairman And Chief Executive Officer,Microsoft Corporation.

Personal Career:-

Bill Gates the most richest man on earth and the chairman of the Microsoft corporation, was born on Oct. 28,1955. He was born to a entrepreneurship and high-spirited liveliness family. His father was William H. Gates 11 and he was the Seattle attorney. Bill Gates' mother was a school teacher in university of Washington regent and her name was Mairy Gates. Bill is the third child of Gates family.

Education:-

For the primary education. Bill Gates entered to the public elementary school and then attended to the private lakeside school. While he was studying there, he understood his interest and high ability in software. So he started to programming when he was in year 13. In 1973 Bill entered to the Harvard university for his higher education. While he was at Harvard, developed a version of the programming language BASIC for the first microcomputer- the MITS Altair.

Interests:-

Though Bill Gates is a very busy professional character, he interests to spent more time with his family. He was married on Jan. 1,1994, to Melinda Gates and now they have three children. Gates not only a computer programmer but also an avid reader. He enjoys by playing golf, tennis and guitar.

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Business career:-

In 1975 Bill Gates started his company Microsoft with one of his childhood friend, Paul Allen , who is the present chief executive officer in Microsoft. At the beginning they used to create softwares for the personal computer market.

Even in the teenage period, Bill and Allen ran a small company called Trat-O-Data and sold a computer to the city of Seattle which can count the city traffic.

Microsoft became famous for their DOS operating systems and business solutions even before their greatest inversion Microsoft windows. Bill Gates got the opportunity to provide their MS-DOS operating systems for IBM computers and get the licensing rights.

On November. 10, 1983 at the plazza hotel in New York city, Microsoft corporation formally introduced their new generation operating system called Microsoft windows to the computer users in the world. That was a mile stone of Microsoft corporation, because computer users were attracted to it due to its user friendliness and high technology.

After the first announcement of Microsoft windows, Bill Gates' corporation was able to produce number of versions in windows and many useful packaged softwares which are highly used in home and office IT environment. Microsoft is earning billions of dollars as its profits per day. In couple of years Bill Gates ranked as the richest person in the world.

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Some of popular Microsoft product categories:-

Entertainment

• DirectX • Microsoft Mediaroom • MSN • MSN Games • MSNBC • PC gaming • Windows Media Center • Xbox home • Xbox LIVE • Zune

Home and educational software

• AutoCollage • HealthVault • Money • MSN Direct • MSN Internet access • Office Home & Student • Songsmith • Streets & Trips • Windows Home Server • Works • WorldWide Telescope

Developer tools

• . NET Framework • ASP.NET • MSDN Subscriptions • RoboticsDeveloper

Studio • Visual Basic • Visual C • Visual C# • Visual Studio • XNA • Developer Centers

Office

• All Office products • Home & Student • Office for Business • Office Servers • Office Trials • Office Web Apps • Product Information

Windows

• All Windows products • Windows 7 • WindowsInternet

Explorer • Windows Phone • Windows Compatibility

Center • Windows Help & How-

to • Windows Service Packs • Windows Vista • Windows XP

Windows Live

• Windows Live Home • Windows Live

Essentials • Windows Live Hotmail • Windows Live Mail • Windows Live

Messenger • Windows Live Mobile • Windows Live Movie

Maker

Microsoft (2011) Site map [Online]. Available from: http://"http://www.microsoft.com/en/us/sitemap.aspx#Products" [Accessed: 26 July 2011]

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Why we consider Bill Gates as an entrepreneur ?

Had a clear vision and mission:-As the founder of Microsoft corporation, Bill Gates has a clear vision and mission to lead

his corporation on the way which brings the full success. As to the Microsoft people, there mission is continuously to advance and improve software

technology, and to make it easier, more cost effective and more enjoyable for people to use computers.

All the goods and services that they have been producing to their customer based on that highly successful vision and mission.

Responsiveness and adaptiveness in seeing new opportunities:-Bill Gates is very skilled and interested in understanding the unfilled needs and wants of the

customers. He understands the opportunities that help him to be closed to his customers through investigating the trends of the software users. Usually he devotes much of time to meet customers and contact Microsoft employees around the world through e-mails.

After identifying the opportunity, he quickly response and adapt to the market. Most of his new softwares and their upgrades were results of Microsoft corporation's quick response and adaptiveness to the computer market.

Willingness to learn and invest in new technologies:-Bill Gates has been continuously learning within his field since he was 13 years old. He has

already understood that there is no way to survive in a highly dynamic field like computing, without learning which are adding to the field second by second. According to the Bill Gates, there is no alternative way to understand new trends in computer software market without knowing its new knowledge. In year 2000 Gates resigned as the CEO of Microsoft to spend more on software architecture and less with running the company.

As a result of learning new technologies, Bill Gates understands the profit and the risk that he has to face by investing on a particular technology. After a deep analysis he decides to invest in the particular technology, if it has only a low risk.

Seeking for feedbacks:-Every successful entrepreneur is seeking feedbacks from his customers to develop his

product to make it more suite for the market. It is the function that ensure the sustainable growth of a entrepreneur.

Bill Gates also very interested in getting feedbacks from his customers. There are many techniques that he uses to force customers to send their feedbacks. Customers are also allowed to comment on any Microsoft product on Microsoft sites or e-mail to the corporation.

By using those customer feedbacks, Microsoft software designers are identifying the new components that should be added to the system and unnecessary components that should be removed from the system. Most of Microsoft softwares and their upgraded versions are base on those customer feedbacks.

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Ability to predict the future:-Bill Gates strongly trusted that computer will be a main equipment in every home and office

activity in the future world, even before start the Microsoft corporation. All the efforts that he got to develop Microsoft was based on his that prediction. In the present, we know he is completely correct. Bill Gates predicted that situation from what he saw in his early life time. Since 1968 to 1973, he saw a quick increase in the computer software industry and the development in personal computer field. Due to that experience, Bill Gates understood that there will be a huge trend for softwares in near future.

Above qualities of Bill Gates' life, show him as a successful entrepreneur who lived in present business world.

Honors and awards

2-03-2005 Bill Gates knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his contribution to the British economy. His titel will be 'Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire'. Thoug he is not allowed to call himself 'Sir' because of his USA citizenship but may suffix his name with KBE.

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3. Dame Anita Roddick Chairman Body Shop corporation

Personal career:-

Childhood:-Dame Anita Roddick the founder of the Body Shop corporation was born on 23rd October

1942 at Littlehampton, England. Her father was Henry and mother was Glida. They were in an Italian immigrant community. Anita was the second child among four children in his family. Her family had a cafe and Anita had to work hard for it. As to her past memories she even hadn't any leisure time in her childhood. She also stated that they had not known what is leisure even when she was a small girl. She used couple of word “child labor” to describe the state that she was in her child hood.

Education:-For her primary education she attended to the school at St Amy's convent. Then she entered

to the Maude Allen secondary collage to get secondary modern education. After leaving her secondary school, she trained as a teacher at bath college of higher education. In 1962 Roddick had given a scholarship to study in kibbutz in Israel.

Life style:-Anita Roddick was very interested for charity works. She was a well known women

business character who worked to save the natural environment. She was a member of Demos and she donated millions of dollars for campaigning work on environmental issues. She also worked for poor and orphan children whole around the world. The organization of Children On The Edge (COTE) founded by Anitta in 1990.

According to Anitta Roddick political leaders like Castro and Che Guvera were her vision.

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Business career:-

In 1970 Anitta was married to Gordon Roddick. The new couple opened a restaurant, followed by a hotel. There were eight rooms in their restaurant. Anitta and her husband overworked to develop their family business and take it to a profitable stage. In this period the Gordon needed a change for his life. So he decided to went off to ride a horse from Buenos Aires to New York City with Anitta's approval. Anita was left to support herself and her two children.

How ever Anitta thought to start a new business to earn money for herself and for the two children that she had. That was the beginning of the Body Shop Corporation. She founded her first shop in Brighton in 1976. She produced quality skin care products in refillable containers. In the beginning they had only 15 products.

After 6 months from the established day of the first branch she established the second branch. Her husband also returned and joined to the business. By the year 1991 there were 700 branches around the world and number of products were increased up to over 300.

Most of times Anitta's corporation used to use recycled things for their productions. That was not only because they were environment friendly but also in previous times they didn't have enough resources for the production.

By 2004 there were 1980 stores and serving over 77 million customers throughout the world. .It was voted the second most trusted brand in the United Kingdom, and 28th top brand in the world. How ever she sold her Body Shop Corporation to L'Oreal on 17 March 2006.

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Why Anitta was called as an Entrepreneur ?

Tolerance in front of troubles:-When we deeply analyze the life time of the Anitta Roddick, we are able to understand that

she tolerated many troubles that she faced within his life time with smiley face. She didn't confused at any conflict situation.

In 2004 doctors identified that Anitta was affected by hepatitis C. It was affected to Anitta, as a result of blood transfusion that happened 20 years ago at the birth of her younger daughter. She was in front of the death. But she never got upset about the situation that she faced. How ever she died in 10th of September 2007. After her death her husband stated that Anita really laughed when she had lots of troubles.

Practice business ethically and contribute to the society:-Anitta Roddick maintained her business operations highly ethically without harming to

society or environment. She didn't use animals to test their productions and worked hard to save the environment from the activities of the human. She also contributed to the society by helping poor orphan children.

Start small aim high:-Most of successful entrepreneurs start as a small and simple thing but they aim high. Anitta

Roddick started her business with only 15 productions and one branch. But year by year she succeeded in increasing the number of productions and branches. By year 2004 there were 1980 branches, over 300 products and 77 million customers.

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Selected awards

• 1993 - Mexican Environmental Achiever Award • 1993 - National Audubon Society Medal, USA • 1994 - Botwinick Prize in Business Ethics, USA • 1994 - University of Michigan's Annual Business Leadership Award, USA • 1995 - Women's Business Development Center's First Annual Woman Power Award, USA • 1996 - Women's Center's Leadership Award, USA • 1996 - The Gleitsman Foundation's Award of Achievement, USA • 1997 - United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Honouree, Eyes on the

Environment • 1999 - British Environment & Media Award • 1999 - Chief Wiper-Away of Ogoni Tears, Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People,

Nigeria • 2001 - International Peace Prayer Day Organisation's Woman of Peace • 2003 - Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) • 2004 - Honorary Doctorate of Public Service, The Sage Colleges • 2005 - Shell liveWIRE survey of inspirational role models, third place after • 1) Richard Branson 2) Friends/family 3) Anita Roddick 4) James Dyson • 2006 - Spirit of the Rainforest Award, Rainforest Action

Wiki. (2011). Anita Roddick. [Online].Available from - "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anita_Roddick"[Accessed: 18 July 2011]

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4. Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson ChairmanVirgin Group

Personal career:-

Early life:-Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson who is the chairman of the Virgin group is known as

a successful entrepreneurial businessman in England. He was the 5th richest person in UK and 254th

richest one from the whole world according to Forbes magazine. He was born on 18th July in 1950 in London to a honorable family. His father was Edward James Branson and his mother was Eve Branson. His grand father was a judge of the High Court of Justice and a privy councillor. He has two sisters and one brother. He is the eldest one in his family.

Education:-Branson showed poor academic performance as a student. That may due to dyslexia that he

has. He was educated at Scaitcliffe School up to year 13 and then attended to the Stowe School until the age of sixteen. Even though he is poor in education, he was a good sportsman. Especially he was a good swimmer.

Interests:-Richard Branson has some what different interests in his life. Those interests may effect to

his entrepreneurial behavior that uses to make his business success. Branson love to make world records. He attempted to make many world records and some of them were successful and some of them were unsuccessful. In January 1991 he crossed the pacific from Japan to Arctic Canada in a balloon. He was successful in making that world record. But he failed his first attempt in crossing Atlantic ocean by a boat.

He also like to engage with television shows, films and prints. He usually playing himself on several television shows like Friends, Baywatch, Birds of a Feather. He also participate with BBC, CNN programs and reality shows. He showed him in the film Around the World in 80 Days (2004).

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Business career:-

Richard Bransons business career is a some what long. He engaged with various fields and started businesses. Most of his businesses are completely different from each other.

Branson started his business career in 1970 when he was in age 16 by creating a magazine called “Student at age 16”. It was his first successful business career. Again in 1972 he invested on a audio record mail-order business and it became a chain of record stores under the name of Virgin Megastores. As a result of rapid growing of the Virgin brand he was able to set up Virgin Atlantic Airways and expanded the Virgin Records music label in year 1980. He sold virgin record label to another company to maintain his airline company in 1992. Later he formed V2 Records to reenter to the music businesses. He started Virgin Mobile in 1999.

He passed to acquire many airline companies in world like Euro Belgian Airlines, under to his Virgin trade name. He started a national airline based in Nigeria, called Virgin Nigeria. Another airline as Virgin America. Virgin also connected with SN Brussels Airline and established Brussels Airline.

Branson also entered to the refreshment industry, under Virgin cola brand and also Virgin Vodka. But that has not been a very successful enterprise under virgin trademark.

Virgin also has been getting an attempt to enter to the space tourism as Virgin Galactic with the partnership of Microsoft company. He has started this deal since 25th of September 2004 with the expectation of higher profit rates in the near future.

Virgin fuels also his new venture which produce cheaper and more environmental friendly fuel for automobiles and in the near future for aircraft. As to the Branson, this decision was a result of a breakfast discussion which happened with Al Gore. Branson see Virgin fuel as a effective response to the global warming.

In 2007 Virgin Media Company has been started by Virgin with a huge publicity. Branson also created Virgin Comics and Virgin Animation as entrainment companies which focused on introducing new characters and stories to the global audience.

Branson also launched the Virgin Health Bank on 1 February 2007, offering parents-to-be the opportunity to store their baby's umbilical cord blood stem cells in private and public stem cell banks.

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Why we consider Richard Branson as an a entrepreneur?

Branson has many entrepreneurial attitudes which are very rare to see among other normal people in the business world. Some of business events of his life show the real ability of an entrepreneur.

Tolerance for failure and abili ty to bounce back:-As we mentioned above, Richard Branson was not a high skilled student. He finished his

education at his age 16 and started his venture life. Even he was poor in academic performance, he developed himself as a successful businessman who is a owner of over 400 companies.

In 1971 he was arrested for selling records in virgin stores by the UK customs. He settled out-of-court and he had to repay unpaid tax and a fine to the customs. Even after that situation he didn't failed but he returned to his business ethically.

In number of times he had to sell his some companies to save some businesses of him. How ever in most of times he quickly bounced back and formed a new company which is similar to sold company. Some times he failed to get expected profit from some of his investments. But he never fell down and trying to convert it in to a profitable investment.

Strong propensity to take calculated risk:-Richard Branson has started his ventures in various fields which are not connected with

each other. Some of those fields are identified as risky to invest capital. But Branson invested his money in most of those risky fields. As examples Virgin railway and Virgin Airlines. He was highly succeeded in Virgin Airlines though he faced some troubles.

Invest in new technologies:-Branson invested his money in various new technologies which are adding to the world

period to period. Virgin mobiles, Virgin Animation, Virgin media are some ventures which started based on new technologies period to period. The most new venture that he is investing based on new technology is the Virgin Galactic which is a space tourism service.

Have profitable partnerships with other parties:-Richard Branson is an entrepreneurial businessman who is not hesitating to develop

relationships with outside party when he need to develop his business activities. There are many incidents in Virgin history that they build up relationships and handle many business troubles successfully. Relationship with Brussels Airlines for establish Brussels airlines and relationship with Microsoft for establish Virgin Galactic are clear examples to emphasize this characteristic.

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Honours and awards

• He was knighted by HRH The Prince of Wales on 30 March 2000 at an investiture in Buckingham Palace.

• In the New Years Honours list dated 30 December 1999, HM The Queen signified her intention to confer the honour of Knight Bachelor on him for his "services to entrepreneurship".

• In 1993, Branson was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Technology from Loughborough University.

• In 2000, Branson received the 'Tony Jannus Award' for his accomplishments in commercial air transportation.

• In 2009, Branson was voted the UK's "Celebrity Dream Boss" in an opinion poll by Cancer Research UK.

• On 24 January 2011 Branson has been awarded the German Media Prize.

Wiki. (2011). Richard branson. [Online].Available from - "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Branson"[Accessed: 26 July 2011]

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5) Otara Del Gunewardene, Chief Executive Officr,ODEL.

Personal career:-

Childhood:-Otara Del Gunawardena the founder of the brand ODEL is a very popular woman

entrepreneur in Sri Lankan business. She was born on August 3,1964 at Colombo. Her parents are Norman Gunewardene who is a well known corporate leader in Sri Lanka and Delysia Gunewardene. She has two brothers and they also renowned professionals in country's corporate sector.

Education:-Otara attended to CMS ladies collage, Colombo 7 for her primary and secondary studies. At

the school time she understood that she is really skillful in sports. She showed her skills in athletics and swimming, and high jump and hurdles on an international scale.

She entered to the university of Bowling Green to read her degree in Biological science.

Interests:-She was highly interested in modeling. She is always aware of new fashions that is being

created in the world. New fashioned cloths, jeweleries, woman bags and lots of other lady wares are very interested things in her life. She also interested to keep her body shape as well as possible. She is doing particular exercises to keep her body shape beautifully. And also she is seeking for a free time to spend time with her lovely two children Kiran and Rakhil.

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Business career:-

After the higher education, Otara came to the career life as a professional modeler. Her tall body shape and her charming cat-walking style made her a popular modeler among the high profile brands.

But around the year 1989, she started to sell garment products by using boot of her car. Most of times she sold them to her close friends and relations. The business showed marks which say it is going to successful.

So she rented a small place in Lester James Peries Mawatha, Colombo 4. It was the first branch of the ODEL showroom. Then within few years ODEL rapidly grew and many ODEL branches have been established. Today ODEL is Sri Lanka's premier fashion and lifestyle store. Today it offers high street cloth fashion to men, women and children. Addition to that homeware, jewellery and accessories, luggage, perfumes and cosmetics, book and music, confectionery and food are available for customers.

Otara has started another entrepreneurial ventures under different brands to fulfill the customers' need of the new fashions that are parallel to the global international state. One of them is “Otone”, which is created to provide luxurious facilities to the Sri Lankan people for the development of their fitness. Backstage is a jewellery center which is created according to a special idea of the Otara. Studio Otara is a company that consult on the design of luxurious houses locally and globally. Otara the exclusive jewellery to be launched in the near future will reflect the magical touch of the Otara.

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Reasons to consider Otara as an entrepreneurial character.

Understanding personal skills:-After her graduation, she understood that modeling is a very suitable field for her to go

ahead. She might come to that decision because she had a special body shape and charming cat-walking style which are most important qualifications for a modeler.

When she decided to come to the business field, she has chosen the most suitable business type for her according to her skills. Every business that she has started, based on fashion and lifestyle which can consider as a main part of her sole.

By understanding the personal skills, she passes to add value to her productions with her personal skills in fashion.

Responsiveness and adaptiveness in seeing new opportunities:- In Sri Lankan market there was a huge demand for professional modelers, in advertising

and garment industry. She responded to that demand in the right time. Not only as a modeler but also when she came to the textile industry, she has adapted to fulfill the shortage of modern fashion styles in the Sri Lankan textile market.

High energy level:-Otara is concerning very much about her health. She has a schedule of activities that she is

doing to maintain her body shape and fitness. She is dieting, exercising and getting medical checkups to keep her body strong to work. Especially as a woman who is in a modeling field, body condition is a critical thing for her.

Start simple aim high:-She started her textile business simply by using her car boot. Step by step she has increased

the building facilities and other things to increase her business activities. She is getting complex according to the need of the business but not according to her own idea. That theory is a effective thing in avoiding unnecessary wastage of valuable resources.

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Awards

• 2000 - Jaycees’ Most Outstanding Young Person in Sri Lanka

• 2001 - Federation of Chambers and Commerce and Industry of Sri Lanka (FCCISL) Entrepreneur of the Year 2001 Award

• 2002 - Zonta Woman of Achievement Award

• 2008 - South Asian Association for Regional Corporation’s (SAARC) Woman of Achievement

• 2008 - Retail Leadership Award, Asia Retail Congress, India

• 2009 - Habitat for Humanity, Goodwill Ambassador

• 2009 - Colombo Jewelry Stores, Dior Brand Ambassador

• 2010 – Stevie Awards for Women in Business, Best Entrepreneur of the Year in the Non-Services Businesses – up to 2, 500 Employees

• 2010 – The SIAS Partnership Summit’s Achievers and Leaders Award for Excellence in Brand Building.

Wiki. (2011). Otara Gunawardene [Online].Available from -"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otara_Gunewardene"[Accessed: 26 July 2011]

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Reference

Sri Lanka leaders (2011) Mr. W.K.H. WEGAPITIYA [Online]. Available from: http://www.srilankaleaders.com [Accessed: 26 July 2011]

Wiki. (2011). Anita Roddick. [Online].Available from - "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anita_Roddick"[Accessed: 18 July 2011]

Wiki. (2011). Richard branson. [Online].Available from - "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Branson"[Accessed: 26 July 2011]

Wiki. (2011). Otara Gunawardene [Online].Available from -"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otara_Gunewardene"[Accessed: 26 July 2011]

Bing (2011) Bill Gates:Chairman of Microsoft [Online]. Available from:"http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/sitemap.mspx" [Accessed: 26 July 2011]

Otara. (2011). Otara Gunawardene [Online].Available from -"http://otara.lk"[Accessed: 26 July 2011]

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List of group members

Dilrukshi H.M.N UWU/IIT/10/0008

Nistar T. UWU/IIT/10/0030

Rathnayake R.M.T.R UWU/IIT/10/0034

Swarna K. UWU/IIT/10/0042

Seneviratne S.M.U.C UWU/IIT/10/0038

Senpakavaratharsenathirajah V. UWU/IIT/10/0039

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