Sri Lanka’s fastest growing firms to join US-based AllWorld Network

Mar 07, 2014 (LBO) - Sri Lanka firms and start-ups could gain wide visibility which will win them more business and financial backing after the island joined the AllWorld Network, a grouping of fast-growing companies, officials said.











"Those companies are not growing at 5 percent," Anne Habiby, co-founder of AllWorld Network told a forum in Colombo where the initiative was launched by President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

"They are growing at 50 percent a year, growing at 100 percent a year, growing at 5 to 10 times faster than the average private sector is growing.

"These are, if you will, economic outliers."

Visibility Economics

Habiby, had co-founded AllWorld Network with Harvard Business School Professor Micheal Porter and Deirdre Coyle, a communications specialist, based on a phenomenon they now call 'visibility economics.'

It was set up following an earlier program where they sought to find and rank fast growing companies in poor urban communities in the US Inner City 100.

They were surprised to find that following the ranking and the visibility they gained, the firm won more customers, and gained funding and new investors allowing them to expand further.

Following the experience the three ha