By Savithri Rodrigo
Colombo (Commonwealth Union)_Co-founder and Chairperson of clothing brand La Vivente and Dilchand (Pvt) Limited Dr Dilesha Perera became the first Sri Lankan to be recognized among Asia’s Top Outstanding Woman Marketeer for 2022 awarded by the Asia Marketing Federation. She was among four women from the region under the Youth Women Netizen annual award presented by this premier governing body for marketing in the Asian region. The others were Chatsuda Thananitayaud from Thailand, Quek Siew Bee from Singapore and Mario Rosario Palabrica from the Philippines.
A banker turned entrepreneur and a champion to empower micro women entrepreneurs with financial assistance, technical know-how, guaranteed market access and management knowledge, Perera has developed over twenty micro entrepreneurs and 200 employment opportunities among economically disadvantaged communities. The YWN Award recognizes marketing excellence that reflects admirable qualities of versatility, innovativeness and ingenuity achieving the highest performance for outstanding and trailblazing efforts in marketing of products and services,
With membership and applications coming in from this highly competitive region including from Hong Kong, China, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, Perera’s accomplishment recognizes outstanding and innovative marketing strategies tactics, values and their translation into market share, sales and net income. Among the multiple awards won by La Vivente at the AMF awards was also gold for the Best Local Brand in the SME category.
Perera’s shift from banking to entrepreneurship was a calculated one. Amassing seventeen years of banking experience including at Standard Chartered Bank and HSBC, she realized that her childhood dream of becoming an entrepreneur needed experience and more so, capital, which she didn’t have. “I figured the best way to become a disciplined entrepreneur would be with banking experience because managing finance and networking is crucial to any business.”
Working initially with stock lots from factories, getting samples and supplying to retail chains, she amassed a good understanding of the market, customer needs and an understanding of opportunities. She then got together a collective of microentrepreneurs into her supply chain. Sri Lanka’s Easter Sunday bombings in April 2019 and the subsequent economic crisis in the country saw the birth of La Vivente translated from Italian to, ‘The Living’ and the chapter that revolutionized Sri Lanka’s online fashion industry. She now has three physical outlets in addition to a thriving online site and exports to Australia and New Zealand.
Using her PhD in Business Administration and an MBA specializing in Finance from the University of Kelaniya, as well as her membership in the Chartered Institute of Marketing and Institute of Bankers of Sri Lanka to add value to her entrepreneurship journey, Perera says being an entrepreneur is hard for women. “It’s about multiple responsibilities and multiple roles and a support system is crucial. That’s why I wanted to have a social entrepreneurship model where our brand name La Vivente or The Living is aligned with what we believe in. Our scope is to improve the livelihood of the underprivileged while fulfilling a need of the middle and upper middle-income groups.”
