COLOMBO, March 2020: Sanjaya Mohottala, a Managing Director and Partner at global consultancy, Boston Consulting Group (BCG) has taken up his post as the new Director General of the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka (BOI).
A MBA graduate of UCLA’s Anderson School of Management – with Entrepreneurship and Strategy the focus areas – Mohottala spent three months as a summer consultant with BCG during 2006, before joining the management consulting giant in a full-time capacity the following year on the way to serving over 12 years with the internationally renowned consultancy. Earlier, he had spent close to three years as a brand manager for Unilever, having originally graduated with a BSc from Moratuwa University.
During his career with BCG, Mohottala steadily ascended the ranks, first as a project manager and then as a principal just four years after joining. At the start of 2015, he was made partner and managing director, assuming responsibility for the firm’s shipping, transportation, and logistics sector business across the Asia Pacific in addition to his leadership role in the corporate development/ private equity practices.
Mohottala, a Fulbright Scholar. has gained extensive experience in strategy, advance analytics, operational improvement, sales and marketing, and organisation design, having worked on “large-scale transformations and been instrumental in developing advanced analytical tools for several global container shipping companies.” Go-to-market in developing countries is also a listed area of expertise.
In his address to senior staff, Mohottala shared his vision for BOI, and how Sri Lanka’s position can be enhanced as an attractive investment destination. He also spoke of the need to grow the ICT and knowledge sector of the economy with a key element being to develop a modern workforce capable of meeting the requirements of the global investor. Further, the new Director General stressed the importance of working with major State Owned Enterprise (SOEs) with a view of ensuring technology transfers and upskilling of our workforce happens.
He also shared some of his views on the way the BOI could operate more effectively by making the organisation a One Stop Shop for investors, and stressed the focus would be to embrace digital technology and also strengthen work processes to ensure that the investor gets the best possible service from BOI.
As might be expected from his time at BCG, the use of digital transformation as a tool to improve service and attract business is familiar territory for Mohottala. “To be frank, I see no real option but to embrace digital fully,” he stated in respect to shipping companies last year. “Unless you have certain investments in digital, in fact, you can’t even begin to improve your services in a cost-effective way.”
As for the need to grow the local knowledge economy, this sentiment also reflects Mohottala’s experiences at BCG, where he spent his time based out of Singapore. At BCG, Mohotttala was responsible for corporate development, principal investors and private equity practices and led the transport and logistics practice across Asia Pacific.
