Published articles
Explore a selection of Dr Ranjan De Silva's published articles from over three decades. The articles are presented under four sections.
Purposeful self leadership ArticleS
My Journey to the Top
An article about Ranjan’s journey to where he is now, inspired by his presentation at the ‘Future Marketers Conference’ of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Sri Lanka Region.
“Little did I know that I was building a solid foundation for a greater opportunity that was coming my way. There is an old saying; the teacher will arrive when the student is ready.”
Download the full article.
Purposefulness and Mindfulness for Leadership Effectiveness
A paper written for and presented at the Middlesex University Research Students Summer Conference – June 2016, as a part of Ranjan's doctoral research work.
Download the full article
Setting Your Children Up For Success
"A brief glance at your child school curriculum will reveal how much emphasis is placed on academics. Little effort is made to focus on quintessential skills of self-confidence; communication and above all self-management, which are traits, if correctly fostered that are able to reap great benefits above the over-induced need to achieve academic excellence at a tender age...
All healthy children absorb information from their surroundings, from the moment they are born through to their adulthood. They will make far better progress if they are introduced to simple aids that assist them in learning such as visualization skills, memory techniques, and self-awareness tools..."
Download the full article
Purposeful Leadership: A New Series for a Changing World
Some returns are simply a matter of geography. Others represent something deeper, a transformation that changes not just where you have been, but whom you have become and what you now have to offer. Mine is the latter.
Many readers of the Daily FT will be familiar with me from my years working in and around Sri Lanka's corporate landscape. I began my career at John Keells Holdings, moving from Marketing Manager to Director of Keells Food Products and Keells Super, a formative decade that taught me what ambition felt like when it was the only compass you had. What followed was a career that took me across thirty countries as a leadership development consultant, then to Bangladesh as CEO of Rahimafrooz Superstores and Director of Strategy at Apollo Hospitals, and most recently to the United Kingdom, where I served as Director of Organisational Development at Unisnacks Europe.
I returned to Sri Lanka last year. However, I was not the same person who left.
During my time in the UK, I completed my Doctor of Philosophy at Hult Ashridge Executive Education, one of the world's most respected business schools. My thesis, titled Living Purposefully: An Inquiry into the Life of a Leadership Development Practitioner, was not merely an academic exercise. It was a rigorous, deeply personal investigation into a question I have spent the better part of twenty-five years exploring: what does it truly mean to live and lead with purpose?
Daily FT Newspaper - Sri Lanka 25-03-2026.
Mastery of Self - NLP Returns, Enriched for the sge of AI
For nearly three decades, Mastery of Self through NeuroLinguistic Programming (NLP) has quietly shaped some of Sri Lanka’s most purposeful leaders. Since its first delivery in 1996, many of the country’s current CEOs and CXOs point to this four-day playshop as the experience that gave them their foundational mental skills: the clarity, resilience, and inner discipline that no business school curriculum quite covers.
Now, after years of global delivery across Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Indonesia, Vietnam, the UAE, the UK, and the USA, Mastery of Self is returning to Colombo, and it returns significantly enriched.
Facilitated by Purposeful Leadership Ltd., Chief Catalyst Dr Ranjan De Silva brings a programme that has been deepened by insights from his doctoral research on Purposeful Living and Purposeful Leadership. Purposefulness, the capacity to act with intention, meaning, and direction, now holds a prominent place at the heart of the programme. This is not merely a rerun. It is an evolution.
The upcoming programme will be held on 15 and 16 May and 13 June 2026 at the Hilton Colombo residences (JAIC), Colombo 2. The participation fee is Rs. 62,000, with an early bird rate of Rs. 52,000 for fully paid registrations before 5 April 2026. Group discounts apply, and NLP Practitioner Certifications are awarded to qualifying participants.
Daily FT Newspaper - Sri Lanka 26-03-2026.
Purposeful Self-Leadership: Leading Yourself in a World Under Pressure
In the first article of this series, I argued that purposefulness is not a motivational concept, but a moral orientation, a daily practice of conducting our lives with decent human values for the flourishing of those around us. In this second article, I explore the first and most foundational branch of purposeful leadership: leading the self. I do so against the backdrop of the world as it actually is today, not as we might wish it to be.
Look around us, and it is impossible to ignore the intensity of the pressures shaping leadership decisions globally.
From protracted conflicts in the Middle East to geopolitical tensions elsewhere, leaders are constantly making choices under conditions of perceived opportunities and challenges, pressure, fear, threat, and competing narratives of responsibility. It is important to acknowledge this honestly. Those involved in conflict rarely experience themselves as acting without purpose or values. On the contrary, each side typically believes it is acting in the service of its people, protecting its citizens, and contributing, in its own way, to a better future. The tragedy, perhaps, is not the absence of purpose, but the narrowness with which purpose is sometimes defined.
Daily FT Newspaper - Sri Lanka 07-04-2026.
Mastery of Self (MS-NLP): From Busyness to Purposeful Impact
In an era where doing more is often mistaken for becoming more, many professionals find themselves constantly busy yet increasingly disconnected from meaningful progress. Activity is high, calendars are full, and productivity metrics look impressive. Yet the deeper question remains unanswered: am I becoming more valuable, or merely busier?
Mastery of Self (MS) through Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) addresses this modern dilemma by helping individuals shift from reactive busyness to intentional, purpose-driven impact. Rather than adding more tools to an already crowded mental landscape, the programme challenges participants to refine their inner operating system: how they think, focus, feel, and decide.
Built on three decades of practice and strengthened by insights from Dr Ranjan De Silva’s doctoral research on Purposeful Living and Purposeful Leadership, Mastery of Self enables participants to cultivate clarity amidst complexity. It helps individuals align identity, intention, and action, so effort translates into outcomes that truly matter.
When Technology Moves Faster Than Mindset.
While artificial intelligence continues to advance at an extraordinary speed, human mindset evolution remains uneven...
Anchoring Growth in Uncertain Times
Uncertainty is no longer episodic; it has become a permanent feature of professional and personal life...
From Inner Clarity to Lasting Value
The outcome of Mastery of Self is not temporary motivation but lasting transformation...
The next Mastery of Self – NLP, 4-day workshop, designed and facilitated by Dr Ranjan De Silva, will be held on 15, 16, May and 12, 13 June.
For more details, please visit www.ranjandesilva.com/mastery-of-self
Daily FT Newspaper - Sri Lanka 22-04-2026.
Purposeful people leadership ArticleS
What is Your Team’s Burning Platform?
An article written by Ranjan and published in Responsible Business Issue #12 (2019) by Global Business Counselling.
"The concept of ‘The Burning Platform’ was first introduced by Daryl Conner who used the metaphor of an Oil Rig worker who had to leap into the water to save himself when the platform of the rig was burning. In this situation if the worker did not jump there was certain death as he would have burnt to death on the platform and jumping fifteen stories into the heated water with debris was possible death if he was not rescued within 20 minutes..."
Talent Scouts Anonymous
An article written by Ranjan for the LMD Magazine (http://lmd.lk) in 2010, giving out some important tips CEOs use to create excellent leaders in their companies.
“They (CEOs) align their people behind a common and powerful state – call it mission, vision, aspiration or any other fancy word you can pick up from a book on management or at an MBA class. Everyone should be engaged passionately to deliver this ideal state…”
Many thanks to LMD Magazine (http://lmd.lk)
Right jobs, right people, social networks!
An article by Ranjan De Silva and Thanzyl M. Thajudeen published on the Financial Times of Sri Lanka, about how Social Networking plays an important part in getting the right job.
“Employees dream of the right job for them; employers dream of the right people to join them, the search has gone on forever, have we got the answer with networking?
Do we really know what’s cooking on the internet in just one day? It’s quite startling and it is prudent for both employers to be aware of the social media revolution and its impact on us. It is increasingly becoming socialised with innovative social media networks sprouting up over the whole internet, taking it to a whole new level of human-connectivity…”
Purposeful organisational leadership ArticleS
What is Your Team’s Burning Platform?
An article written by Ranjan and published in Responsible Business Issue #12 (2019) by Global Business Counselling.
"The concept of ‘The Burning Platform’ was first introduced by Daryl Conner who used the metaphor of an Oil Rig worker who had to leap into the water to save himself when the platform of the rig was burning. In this situation if the worker did not jump there was certain death as he would have burnt to death on the platform and jumping fifteen stories into the heated water with debris was possible death if he was not rescued within 20 minutes..."
You can help create a positive work culture
"In most organizations people wait for the leader to come up with a programme to change the culture of the organization. This is an outside-in approach where the responsibility is passed to others and everyone else uses a ‘wait and see’ approach. However, the more effective organizational changes have happened based on an inside-out approach, where individuals created an impact based on their own behaviours.”
Download the full article
unleashing the Tiger – The Agora Success Story
An article by Ranjan reflecting on his time and achievements as the CEO of Agora.
“These are the formula that helped ‘Unleash the Tiger within us’ and this is the formula that will continue to ‘Unleash the Tiger within us’ with patience, tenacity, willingness to learn from mistakes and resilience to bounce back up when we fall.
Achieving our dreams will take time, there will be challenges on the way, there will be disappointments to face, but we need to be patient and keep at it…”
Download full article.
Building on Our Strength
An article on LMD magazine about Ranjan’s views on the post-war advancements taking place in Sri Lanka.
Click here for full article.
General Business articles
The Marketing Mix-Up
One of the first things we learn when we start studying marketing is the ‘Marketing Mix’. This series of articles are about the ‘Marketing Mix – Up’ and how to ‘Fix Up the Mix Up’
Download the full series of articles:
People in a Mix - People: The Highly Underated 'P' in marketing
An article by Ranjan De Silva published on LMD Magazine.
“Ranjan De Silva emphasises the importance of the highly under-rated ‘P’ that is an essential element of the marketing mantra.”
Click here for full article
Asian Retail - Changing Lifestyles
An interesting and knowledgable account of the Asia Retail Congress 2012.
“The key take-away was the next generation leader should have both the adaptive [behavioural] and Technical Skills and leaders should create environments that will drive potential leaders to use the learning opportunities available to develop themselves into future leaders…”
Download the full article.
Learnings for Bangladesh from the World’s Modern Food Retail Scene
An article by Ranjan De Silva published in the 10 year anniversary celebration souvenir of the Bangladesh Supermarket Owners Association.
Click here for full article.