It is with great pride, and a deep sense of purpose, that NIBM announces a milestone for our nation’s business community: the launch of the NIBM Best Innovative Business Model Awards: the first award of its kind in Sri Lanka, dedicated exclusively to recognising and celebrating innovative business models and the leaders behind them.

Our Journey in Building an Innovation Ecosystem

This award is not a standalone initiative. It is the natural next step in a journey NIBM began several years ago; a journey to build a genuine innovation ecosystem for Sri Lanka.

As the nation’s leading business school, we recognised early on that innovation cannot be taught in classrooms alone. It must be nurtured, incubated, and connected to the real economy. That is why NIBM established the National Innovation Centre in Colombo — a hub where new learners meet expertise, and entrepreneurs, researchers in the industry

But innovation is not limited to the city. Talent lives in every corner of this island. That is why we extended our reach with the Kandy Innovation Centre, serving the Central Province, and the Southern Innovation Centre, empowering the entrepreneurial spirit of the South. And recognising that agriculture remains the backbone of our economy and one of its greatest opportunities for transformation, we established a dedicated Agri Innovation Centre, focused on bringing modern business models and technology to our agricultural sector.

From Ideas to Enterprises: Neo Ventures

Ideas alone, however, do not build an economy. Enterprises do.

That understanding led us to establish Neo Ventures: NIBM’s dedicated vehicle for building startups. Through Neo Ventures, we take promising ideas and turn them into viable, investable businesses. We provide mentorship, the structure, the networks, and the business discipline that young ventures need to survive and scale. Today, Neo Ventures stands as proof that a business school can do more than produce graduates: it can produce companies.

The Brain Economy: Why Sri Lanka Must Compete on Ideas

Let me place this initiative in a wider context. The world is moving aggressively from a resource-based economy to what economists now call the Brain Economy: an economy where a nation’s true wealth lies not in land, labour, or raw materials, but in the intellectual capital of its people: their ideas, their creativity, and their ability to convert knowledge into value.

For a small island nation like Sri Lanka, this shift is not a threat — it is our greatest opportunity. We may not command the natural resources of larger economies, but we possess something equally powerful: an educated population, a strong tradition of professional excellence, and a young generation hungry to innovate. The Brain Economy rewards these strengths.

This is why NIBM’s innovation centres and Neo Ventures were never just infrastructure projects. They are investments in Sri Lanka’s brainpower. It’s a deliberate efforts to capture, cultivate, and commercialise the intellectual capital of our nation before it seeks opportunity elsewhere.

The Best Innovative Business Model Awards is the next natural step in this Brain Economy strategy. By recognising those who convert ideas into thriving business models, we send an definite signal: in Sri Lanka, intellectual capital is valued, rewarded, and celebrated at the highest level.

Why This Award and Why Now

With the infrastructure in place, our innovation centres across the country and Neo Ventures building the next generation of startups; the time has come to shine a national spotlight on those who are already leading the way.

The Best Innovative Business Model Awards is a proud product of School of Business of NIBM symbolizing the remarkable milestones and sustained success of the school. This project is managed by set of professionals and a reputed panel of experts.  This award will recognize individuals and organizations that have introduced genuinely innovative business models in Sri Lanka — leaders who have not merely improved on what exists, but reimagined how value is created, delivered, and shared.

For too long, our most innovative business leaders have worked without the national recognition they deserve. This award changes that. It says to every entrepreneur, every visionary in this country: your innovation matters, and Sri Lanka is watching.

What Benchmarking Innovation Means for Industry

First, this award will create a national benchmark for innovation. For the first time, businesses will have a credible reference point — a standard against which to measure their own innovative capacity and ambition.

Second, benchmarking drives healthy competition. When excellence is visible and celebrated, others rise to meet it. We expect this award to raise the bar across every sector — from manufacturing to services, from agriculture to technology.

Third, it enables knowledge sharing and best-practice diffusion. The innovators we recognise will become case studies, mentors, and reference models for the wider business community, accelerating the spread of new thinking across industries.

Fourth, it reinforces investor and international confidence. A country that identifies, measures, and celebrates its innovators sends a powerful signal to global markets: Sri Lanka is a place where new ideas thrive and where innovative businesses are worth backing.

Fifth, in keeping with the Brain Economy perspective, benchmarking helps industries measure and manage their own intellectual capital — encouraging investment in research, design, and human talent as core business assets, not afterthoughts.

And finally, it builds a pipeline of inspiration for the next generation. Our students, our young entrepreneurs, and the startups within Neo Ventures need heroes. This award will give them names, faces, and stories to aspire to.

A Call to the Nation’s Innovators

To the business leaders of Sri Lanka: if you have built something new; a model, a method, a market,  we invite you to step forward. Let your work be seen. Let your story inspire others.

To industry associations, chambers, and the media: help us find these innovators. They are in our cities and our villages, in boardrooms and in workshops. This is a national search for national champions.

NIBM’s commitment is clear. We built facilities for innovation. We built the neoventures. And today, we build the recognition our innovators deserve.

Innovation is no longer optional for Sri Lanka — it is the path to our prosperity in this new Brain Economy. The Best Business Innovator Award is our pledge to walk that path together.