Creative Organisation – Spa Ceylon, Sri Lanka

In 2009, the brothers Shalin Balasuriya and Shiwantha Dias founded Spa Ceylon (The
founder, 2011), a Luxury Ayurveda cosmetic company, bringing a new and elegant era to
Ayurveda beauty-enhancing industry.
The way how Spa Ceylon has used their innovative idea of bringing luxury and science
of Ayurveda together as a strategic advantage to their business, can be explained through
the 4Ps approach of innovation strategy (Tidd and Bessant, 2013) which focuses on four
essential components: Product, Process, Position, and Paradigm innovations.
Product innovation: This is where the direction of change in the product or service that
the organization offer happens.The two brothers initially worked for their family company,
"Janet Sri Lanka," which produced low-cost shampoos, body lotions, and other basic
cosmetic items. But their innovative idea, The Spa Ceylon offers a range of luxury, quality
cosmetics with the science of Ayurveda embedded in it which are relatively high in price
than local cosmetic competitors.
Process Innovation: This is the change in the way how the offer is created and delivered.
The cosmetics that they created previously were composed of chemical compounds that
are synthetically created while their innovative idea was to manufacture their cosmetics
with exact Ayurveda methods together with modern luxury which gives the users a royal
and a natural feeling at the same time.
Position Innovation: This is the change in the market or the context in which offer is
introduced. Spa Ceylon targeted the new market of people who seeks for luxury products
and willing to pay a high price for the products which have no harm in using with natural
ingredients. In order to give clients a sense of royalty and luxury, they have also designed
their own stores with distinctive interiors, scented lighting, and vintage background music
which make them unique from competitors. They maintained the status of the product by
selling products only at high-end shopping malls by establishing their own outlets.
Paradigm Innovation: This is alteration to the underlying mental models that guide the
organization's actions. The Spa Ceylon has transformed people's perceptions of utilizing
Ayurvedic products, which were formerly associated with difficult application,
disagreeable odors to a modern luxury trend with royal fragrances. It has become a trend
in Sri Lanka to have a bottle of a Spa Ceylon product with everyone and the users were
proud to promote it in their social media platforms as well.
Furthermore, the way of handling risks and uncertainties during the creative process of
Spa Ceylon can be explained with The Effectuation Theory by Saras Sarasvathy (2001).
This theory places a strong emphasis on the role of causation and the capacity of the
entrepreneur to generate opportunities within their current circumstances and limitations.
The innovation of Spa Ceylon is an instance where the company modernized a cultural
and traditional aspect of the country where the ancient science of Ayurveda blended with
modern luxury.
In conclusion, the creativity and innovation of the Spa Ceylon company can be
acknowledged by the academic theory of Effectuation and the 4P approaches innovation
strategy framework and The Spa Ceylon holds a prominent position in beauty and
cosmetics industry in Sri Lanka owing to its innovative approach of fusing modern luxury
with traditional customs.

References
Sarasvathy, S.D. (2001) Causation and Effectuation: Toward a Theoretical Shift from
Economic Inevitability to Entrepreneurial Contingency. Academy of Management
Review 2001.

Spa Ceylon UK. (n.d.). Spa Ceylon: The Largest Luxury Ayurveda Brand, now in UK.
[online] Available at: https://spaceylon.co.uk/ [Accessed 12 Apr. 2024].

The founder (2011). The Story Of Spa Ceylon - How it all began!!! | The Founder. [online]
The Founder.lk. Available at: https://thefounder.lk/the-story-of-spa-ceylon/ [Accessed 1
Apr. 2024].

Tidd, J. and Bessant, J. (2013). Managing innovation: integrating technological, market

and organizational change. 5th ed. Chichester, West Sussex, United Kingdom: John
Wiley & Sons.