Dian the Professional

Dian Gomes is a Management Accountant with a passion for people. Dian has been Managing Director of Sara Lee Courtaulds/MAS Holdings joint venture Slimline since 1992. Today he is a Group Director of MAS Holdings and heads the MAS INTIMATES cluster of companies; & Linea and

Slimline(Pannala), Koggala), Clothing(Pallakele), M.A.S. Design

Unichela(Panadura

Slimtex(Kulliyapiyita), Services (Ratmalana)

Casualline(Mawathagama). MAS Holdings, established in 1987 is the largest apparel exporter in the South Eat Asian region specializing in Intimate Apparel, Sportswear and Leisurewear. Beginning with a single factory and a staff of just 60, MAS has invested over US$ 200 million in 39 facilities in the region growing to a regional giant amassing turnover volumes of $ 700 per annum in less than 20 years. With a year-on-year growth of 20%, MAS produces 250 million pieces of apparel per year, including 40 million bras and 130 million briefs. The MAS Group employs over 35,000 people & accounts for 20% of Sri Lankas apparel exports. Dian Gomes leads the MAS Intimates division, which is South Asia's largest producer of Intimate Apparel, with a turnover exceeding USD 300 million. MAS Intimates delivers in Design to Delivery solutions for globally renowned labels of Intimate Apparel. The Division employees over 14,000 and has a customer base that include Victorias Secret, Marks & Spencer, DBA, Nike, Gap and Jockey. In 2006, the division churned out over 110 million briefs, 7 million bras and 3 million pieces of sleepwear and is active in 26 geographical markets.

His Footsteps
Dian commenced his career at KPMG Ford Rhodes in UK. Later, he became Director Finance for the British design construction company Saracen Interiors International, and subsequently General Manager for US retailer May Department Stores International Inc. in Sri Lanka before he joined MAS in 1990.
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Dian has a sound academic background and well-rounded corporate experience; Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (UK); Executive education at Wharton Business School, the Ashridge Business School and Harvard Business School. What sets him apart is his versatility; Achievements 2004 CIMA and Financial Management Awards UK adjudged as Highly Commended Business Leader of the Year. 2004 CIMA / Janashakthi Pinnacle Awards 2003 adjudged as the Business Leader of the Year 2003 for large scale category Gold Award (joint with Dr. Hans Wijesuriya of Dialog). Co-author of book, Costumes of Sri Lanka, which won the State Literary Award for the best prose non-fiction in 2003 2007 Male Icon Offices Held 2001/2002 Division President Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, Sri Lanka

2002/2003 & 2001/2002 Vice President, Amateur Boxing Association of Sri Lanka 2003 to date President, Amateur Boxing Association of Sri Lanka.

Team Manager for the Commonwealth Boxing Championship, Malaysia in 2003 & SAF Games, Pakistan in 2004 Team Manager Commonwealth Games in Melbourne Australia in 2006 Chef de Mission for a contingent of 200 plus at the 15th Asian Games in Doha, Qatar, in December 2006. 2005 to date Vice President of the National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka.

2003 Member of the Steering Committee on Human Resources Development in the implementation of Regaining Sri Lanka, appointed by the Prime Minister. 2003 Board Member, Mireka Land Capital (formerly known as PDL Enterprises (Pvt) Limited) a subsidiary of Bank of Ceylon. 2002 Board Member, Mahaweli Authority of Sri Lanka 2002 Board Member, National Institute of Business Management of Sri Lanka 2002 Committee Member, Ceylon Chamber of Commerce
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2007 Chairman of the Textile Committee of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce. 2007 Director of the Sri Lanka Tourist Board Visiting lecturer at the University of Moratuwa Dians reputation of being a peoples person is grounded on his philosophy of work and life that began during his years at Slimline in Pannala. Beginning in 1993, he guided the company into a globally renowned center for excellence that won awards and plaudits for its governing philosophy and execution. Slimline also bloomed into a breeding ground of champions with a host of sporting talent competing at the highest global level. His charismatic leadership saw the company achieve many an impossible task, which is a testament to the relationship between the management and workers, something that is quite unusual for an apparel manufacturing facility. Dian is also known for his uncanny ability to pick talent. His corporate achievements has been ably supported by the teams he built, through a mixture of intuition and finely honed people skills, and the focus he put on developing them to become world class.

The Individual Within

Dian has got the basic foundation in finance which was developed in to general management through various programs, but the real success lays in how he motivates people and gets people to work. Because in his own words it all ultimately boils down to the leadership qualities and how you manage people. According to Robert L Katz, there are three types of skills which are important for successful management performance. They are Technical skills, Human Skills and Conceptual skills. Dian from the start of his career has built upon these three skills which are needed for each level of management and now as a top executive he demonstrates more of the human skills as well as conceptual skills, which categorize him as a competent top level manager. When you setup plants in the villages it gave me a different exposure dealing with people, working with a multinational background under SLC (UK). So amazing experiences at different levels and different parts of my career, but the ultimate learning out of this is how we manage people.

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All of these skills acquired through his career with various experiences have made him a highly capable individual making productive contributions through talent, knowledge, skills and good work habits.

The Team Player

I could reach at any level, for example I have plain tea with the workers in the canteen and share the same rice with them and also I have had tea with Prince Charles when he opened the factory. Those I believe are the attributes of success Dian has a close relationship with all the levels in the organization, there by he clearly grasps in to the affiliation needs of his subordinates in motivating them. McClellands Acquired Needs Theory defines how the need for affiliation motivates people. Dian gives great value to the opportunities he gets to motivate people, even to simpler things like giving a lift to a worker whos on his way to work. He has built this relationship up to a point where hes treated as a father, a brother and even as a god. Lot of us takes long time to be decisive, one of the traits which I have is that Im decisive, whether right or wrong I make the call and then I move on. As he stated above he does not let this closeness interfere with his managerial decisions. Hes very decisive and empowers his team mates to be decisive as well. The career he started at MAS had a huge turn around when he was appointed the first Managing Director of Slimline (Pvt.) Ltd, which is now under the cluster of seven plants of MAS Intimates headed by him. MAS Intimates has grown to be a 300mn USD business entity with about 14,000 workers. The significance of his tenure heading MAS Intimates is how he has been able to blend various talents together not only to achieve the business growth but the passion built on for sports, specially boxing. All of the above attributes shows how Dian has contributed to the achievement of the group objectives; working effectively with others in a group setting.

The Competent Manager

During an interview, Dian highlighted that, his job at MAS is to play like the conductor of an orchestra bringing all of the talents together. And that could be his greatest success and
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that his people are much more competent in their backgrounds than him and that he tend to recruit people those who are better than him. MAS Intimates today has reached to 300mn USD Company with his great ability of organizing people and resources towards the effective and efficient pursuit to predetermined objectives. Most important thing to build a successful business is, understanding the vision, understanding what is the required technology and the required people, and motivating them with some KPIs and drive it hard. Here Dian emphasizes the importance of organizing people and resources toward the effective and efficient pursuit of predetermined objectives, which are attributes of a competent manager.

The Leader with great sportsmanship

Our leaders need to know, understand and empower their employees. They need to understand what makes people come together and use this to steer them ahead to achieve exceptional performance. You need to look deep into the mentality of your employees and identify what is most important to them. This will vary among different levels of employees. It is not possible to assume what drives people. This cannot be done, sitting back in plush city offices. My experience of over a decade working with the rural majority has taught me that.

MAS Intimates run a labor intensive operation with more than 12,000 people under their payroll. The significant fact is that they dont have a single trade union in any of their factories. Thus there have never been any strikes or anything of the like. The reason behind this is the open door policy and the participative style of management adopted by the management, well guided by Dian. Theyve gone to the extent of getting the girls from the sewing lines to participate in operational decision making through what is called the JCC (Joint Consultative Committee). Dian personally sit at this forum and together with the workers, collectively address issues that arise on a day to day basis. Dian also make it a point to address the staff at least once in three weeks. Hes a firm believer that in order to be effective in people management, it is important to walk the talk!

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Dian is well known as a visionary leader, In 1999 long years after he had left boxing and boxing administration he went for the SAAF games in Katmandu and then the chairman of the National Olympic Committee mentioned that he should take on Boxing, where within the period of 8 years he should be able to get a medal for Sri Lanka in Olympics. From the moment of his appointment as the Chairman of the amateur boxing federation, he has been carrying this vision forward gradually towards the success of this vision. He embarked on that journey recruiting 5 school boys; two years later Slimline beat army in national championships. And for last five years he has been the president of the amateur boxing association. And today after 40 years he has managed to take a boxer to the Olympic Games. His vigorous pursuit of goals is very much visible in his philosophy to life. I have one philosophy, its like boxing. When I boxed Ive taken a countdown, when you get a punch on the chin and those days we didnt have head guards, the blood doesnt go the brain so you hit the canvas. So you take eight breaths, basically a count is about ten to be counted out, but Ive never been counted out, Ive got up after six or seven counts. My philosophy to life is also like that, when you get a hard punch on your chin you go down you get up again and get used to the next fight. In my job Im always telling my people that we are not doing brain surgery here or we are not making rockets here, we are just making bras and panties. And this opportunity and technical competency is more than enough to run this business. It is very much eminent that he is an effective leader who catalyzes commitment to and vigorous pursuit of a clear and compelling vision; stimulates the group to high performance standards.

The Executive who loves humility

Dian in his professional career has been the president of CIMA in Sri Lanka and was well recognized by CIMA for his contributions. He has been recognized as a business leader locally as well as internationally by being awarded various awards. He has been profiled in the world renowned Wall Street Journal and has been appointed to the world body of Boxing. He claims that he has reached the pinnacle in terms of his career. According to Maslows theory I would say Im one notch away from self actualization. And my actualization will come if we win a gold medal in Olympics for Boxing.
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But he doesnt want to be remembered for any of the successes he had in his career. I want to be remembered by my people that I have been a difference in their life, that I have changed their life and helped them in their life. And the day that I die I want them to come to the cemetery and think that look this man was a great coach he gave a helping hand, he used his time, resources, money everything to make a better place for us. This brings out the humility within him and with the will power he has demonstrated all over his career he has built enduring greatness as a Level 5 leader.

Conclusion
Dian demonstrates a number of personal and professional qualities that classify as being from the Great Person, the Classical, the Leadership and the Management Schools of Entrepreneurship. His skills and behaviors of intuition, vigor, persistence, energy, innovation, motivation, directing, leading are all apparent when analyzing his day to day performance. Analysis of his success story provides valuable insights which can be used by anyone in developing their career as well as life.

References
Timeless Slimline, Slimline (Pvt.) Ltd., 2004. Modern Management, 10th Edition, Samuel C. Certo and S Travis Certo, Prentice Hall, 2006. Level 5 Leadership: The Triumph of Humility and Fierce Resolve, Jim Collins, Harvard Business Review, 2001.

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