Asia Pacific HRM Congress is one of the most prestigious HR summits in the world. It is a congress consisting of HR leaders from renowned Indian and International Organizations. The congress grants organizations and individuals on various categories and arenas. This year Watawala Plantations took part and won in both of the categories it participated in vis-à-vis “Lifetime Achievement Award” and “Award for Institutional Building”. Watawala Plantations is also proud to say that these awards marked a significant achievement not so much to the company as it is, but for the Sri Lanka’s plantation industry being the first ever such awards to be clinched by this people intense sector. The award ceremony took place in Bangalore on the 7th of September 2012.

Watawala Plantations is proud to announce that their CEO Dr. Dan Seevaratnam won the life time achievement award in the Individual award category. During his career spanning 40 years which began as a Trainee Superintendent in a sterling company, Dr. Seevaratnam has witnessed as well as pioneered numerous developments in Sri Lanka’s plantation industry. The company is gratified that he was found to be a deserving candidate since he is a people oriented person and his vision is always to empower people to perform to their potential.

In the Organization Category Watawala Plantations won the award for institution building. Here they highlighted the processes they adopted towards the concept of Institution building in the plantation sector. Even though the plantations have been in existence for nearly 150 years, it was only recently that this tacit knowledge found itself blending with the explicit knowledge in the process of institutional building. Whilst recognizing the current challenges being faced in driving a performance based culture in the plantation sector the company has initiated processes in having them overcome.