In a guest lecture at the annual SLMA sessions

Ranel Wijesinha on Deficiency Syndromes in business

Chartered Accountant Ranel Wijesinha, who spoke at the Annual Sessions of the Sri Lanka Medical Association on Friday March 20, 2009 at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel, in a Guest Lecture on the topic “The Doctor as An Independent Board Director – Adding Value to Enterprise” drew a parallel between the deficiency syndromes, the medical profession has to address in people, with what he termed “The deficiency syndromes in business.”
Of course this had all been on a humorous note but blended very well with the characteristics required of a director since the bailout of the mammoth insurer American International Group or AIG and our very own, home grown, Golden Key, have all been in the news.
Wijesinha had said “The role of a director is no longer one of prestige and of perks and of privileges only. There is no free ride. To my mind there never was a free ride - if one had a conscience, self worth and self-respect. It is a role, which presents formidable challenge and responsibility.”
“One can no longer be a passive passenger on a journey of a corporate entity, for that might be a journey towards corporate collapse. One has to be vigilant, alert and attentive, not a watchdog, but perhaps a proactive participant at board deliberations”
“Whether a doctor, a lawyer, an engineer, or one without professional qualifications but with entrepreneurial experience, there will be a commonality in approach. That commonality is best described by a characteristic I have endeavored to practice over the years – I call it “Ongoing Due Diligence.” I was searching for a serious sounding name or phrase to describe it this morning, because of the seriousness I saw in the content of your medical technical sessions. I was also motivated to pen some special thoughts given the privilege I had of seeing and hearing Sir Roy Calne at your inauguration on the 18th.”
“Early this morning I keyed in Sir Roy Calne’s name to do an Internet search and the first entry that I clicked on was about the pioneer of heart transplant surgery, Christiaan Barnard, who died suddenly after suffering a suspected asthma attack during a holiday in Cyprus. We all know of Prof Barnard’s famous operation on 53- year-old dentist Louis Washkansky at Groote Schuur hospital in Cape Town on December 3, 1967. This changed the landscape of heart surgery. The Internet entry had this to say as well “Sir Roy Calne, Emeritus Professor of Surgery at Cambridge University, who performed the first liver transplant in Britain in 1968, said of his colleague: “We were trying to do new operations at the same time. He was a very charismatic man, always smiling, even when he was being attacked by lots of critics. I considered him very brave for doing what he did” End of quote. Sir Roy Caln who had been visiting several concurrent sessions, had coincidentally just walked into the room at that moment and Wijesinha went on to say “Yes Sir Roy Calne, an independent director has to be brave for he has sometimes to swim against the tide of general thinking. Discovery of new methods and techniques of heart and liver transplants made me feel that my profession or that of an engineer, lawyer, or an economist is not as exciting as medicine. Given the many technical terms and abbreviations I see in your technical papers, the cutting edge research, discovery and innovation, I thought I should complicate life for you doctors, just as much as you baffle us with your technical terms and diagnoses, so that you might even by chance, take me a little seriously”
“This motivated me to develop several phrases this morning, to share with you. I also developed abbreviations so that I can sound like a doctor. The morning is my best time and creative thoughts began flowing. Here are abbreviations I coined up for some of the situations boards of directors encounter. I thought of- BSDS; CSDS; PPS: and M&ERDS- these all refer to a deficiency syndrome. Perhaps like AIDS - Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. I also got another thought-of grouping them into a Type I Director category – just as you find in diabetes-like in Type I diabetes.
Now here is what they stand for BSDS - Business Sense Deficiency Syndrome; CSDS-Common Sense Deficiency Syndrome; PPS- Passive Passenger Syndrome; M&ERDS- Moral and Ethical Responsibility Deficiency Syndrome. Perhaps I should seek a copyright on these words!”

Writer Ranel Wijesinha (right) with Sir Roy Calne (centre) and Dr Ruvaiz Haniffa-Secretary SLMA

“Now you might ask me who Type II Director’s are – Here are my abbreviations for them: PROAPD-Proactive Participating Director; CSDDDD OR CS4D –Common Sense Driven Due Diligent Director. Let me pause in these abbreviations. I believe I have conveyed my message and with these few words I may have given you at least some encouragement that a doctor can well be a valuable addition to any Board simply because all doctors perform a diagnostic of the ills of a patient before prescribing any medicine or a course of treatment. Often in business, new projects get the nod and are accompanied by funds even before the potential for that business is adequately diagnosed. I trust you see my analogy” said Wijesinha who then went on to explain several real life case studies or his personal practical experiences, where being alert and objective and seeking and obtaining expert inputs and embarking on professional due diligence had paid off. In many instances, this meant rejecting several bad business decisions or projects-sometimes in the nick of time and resulting in many board members considering me “difficult.” That is a tag I have earned for having a conscience!” he said.