Hey, I'm Tharaka

“When a single lamp lights thousand more lamps, it creates a powerful collective light, and yet its individual brightness doesn’t diminish. Collaborate, share and empower.”

I first heard this quote when I was around 8 years, it’s found in Buddhist scriptures and made a profound impression on me. Of course, I added the last couple of words to highlight how I integrate the philosophy in the work I do.

We all have a unique value and a powerful value creation potential, and my sole purpose and true passion is to be part of your value creation journey – to collaborate, share and empower.

I’ve had a very interesting life journey so far, in terms of personal experiences and professional career - all these experiences have led me to the creation of Value Matters.

As a youth I was rebellious and a (bit of a) troublemaker, and over time I’ve become a more balanced human and try to lessen my burden on the earth and the people around me. However, I still question and challenge almost everything – all our unique, thought-provoking value creation activities will encourage you to rethink, recalibrate and refocus.

Sometimes, I feel as if I’ve lived multiple lives in my professional career due to the diverse industries and designations. My first professional job (while doing my secondary studies) was in media as a television announcer – that didn’t last long as I had to focus on my studies. Then curiosity and my desire to understand how corporates and businesses worked led me to working (after graduating from my first degree) as a management trainee in multiple industries; insurance, manufacturing and energy. Afterwards, I moved on to roles in Information Technology, first as a software engineer, then a business analyst, delivery lead and eventually as an account manager. While at my peak (performance) and been in the pinnacle of the tech industry, I made an unprecedented move and founded my first company (just after graduating from my MBA); a training and development consultancy.

This shift was the catalyst and a pivotal moment in my career that heralded my move to lecturing, training and development, and entrepreneurship – the next couple of years saw me lecturing MBAs, postgraduate qualifications, professional skills development and RTO programmes. Afterwards, I progressed into academic management and worked as a program lead and then as a training manager focusing both on strategy and operations.

I enjoy the adrenaline rush and risks associated with entrepreneurship and have founded three startups and co-founded another. The common, most prominent factor in all the above diverse roles, is my desire to create transformational value and make an impact. I achieved this by been value focused, curious, challenging the status quo and having a continuous improvement mindset.

Born in Sri Lanka, I was fortunate to grow up surrounded by ancient, time-tested eastern philosophies and wisdom. My curiosity and education opportunities also exposed me to contemporary, cutting-edge western philosophies and concepts. This blend of philosophies is further augmented by me living in 2 continents (Asia and Oceania) and working with teams around the world. I’m intrigued and practice philosophies and concepts that explore mindfulness, strategy, value creation and continuous improvement.

Our most valuable treasure and strategic asset is our mind and mindset. I’m neither a glass full nor a glass half person, I’d rather focus on the fact that there is a glass and then work towards maintaining/ achieving the water level I prefer. It’s very rarely you’d see me without a smile and Happiness is a key attribute of my personal brand (the others are Helpful, Honest, Humble and Hustle; the 5H).

Optimism and positive mindset are cornerstones of Value Matters’ approach and ethos. For our value creation activities (be it a retreat, coaching session or a training), we integrate a strengths-based approach that focuses on individual brilliance and potential.

In the last two decades I’ve made a conscious effort to successfully thrive in chaos and to see simplicity in complexity. This positive outlook, and optimistic, abundance mindset have been pivotal in me creating transformational value and been strategic.

I invite you to explore our value offering and truly experience the transformational value creation possibilities that Value Matters offer.

Let’s light more lamps together! – get in touch 🙏