How to run productive business meetings

by Yukthi K. Gunasekera

Over 2.3 billion Rupees is lost every year in Sri Lanka’s private sector due to unproductive meetings. This is a conservative estimate* – my guess is that the correct figure is probably ten times this number.

Take for example what happened at a top apparel manufacturer in Sri Lanka. Every Saturday, 30 of their top people, including senior merchandisers, had a meeting that lasted most of the day. There was no agenda, no plan, no preparation – just loose talk throughout the day. Nothing got done. It was a NATO: No Action Talking Only. Then, a new recruit joined the meeting. He was appalled at the meeting. He presented a plan to his CEO to cut down the meeting to 2 hours. Since the meeting had gotten so short, the group shifted the meeting to Friday afternoons. Finally, things got done – and the 30 managers got Saturdays off.

If this happened only in one company, I would not waste your time talking about it. The truth is that this happens in many local companies – and across the world.

CEOs call for weekly meetings that drag on for hours, wasting their people’s time and demoralizing them – not to mention burning up shareholder wealth in the process.

Hotels have morning meetings daily where Heads of Department are kept for long hours needlessly. The Executive Chef does not need to know the security arrangements for a top VIP who is visiting the hotel that day – unless the VIP is visiting the hotel kitchen.

During annual planning meetings at multi-business-unit companies, business unit leaders are kept for endless hours outside the meeting room. Some of these meetings do not even happen on the scheduled day.