How You Do Anything Is How You Do Everything: The Angelo De Silva Blueprint
- Sandbox
- Aug 20
- 4 min read
On this World Entrepreneurs’ Day, We honour one of Sri Lanka's most pioneering figures — Angelo T. De Silva. A visionary who reshaped industries from children’s television to corporate consulting, De Silva embodies what true-blue entrepreneurship means: building beyond oneself, creating brands that endure, and lifting others as he climbs.
In a nation where entrepreneurship is often conflated with self-employment, Angelo’s journey offers a rare and uncompromising blueprint. His philosophy — “how you do anything is how you do everything” — is not just a mantra. It is the connective tissue across every chapter of his career: from national television, to grassroots education, to corporate boardrooms, to national policy.
Changing a Generation Through Television
Angelo’s entrepreneurial story begins not in a boardroom but in a television studio. In his early career he was scripting and voicing characters for “English Class for Me”, a programme that introduced engaging English learning to millions of children across the country.
He soon co-founded Technics Intermedia, Sri Lanka’s first private company dedicated to children’s educational content. The firm went on to produce over 150 episodes of original programming, including two of the country’s most iconic educational series: “Jimi & Friends” and “Amal & Kamal.”
Jimi & Friends became a household name, attracting over 1 million viewers per month — a record that still stands in local educational television.
Amal & Kamal mobilised 500+ volunteer teachers, delivering trilingual value-based education to underserved communities, making it Sri Lanka’s largest privately-led grassroots educational movement.
The shows were not just entertainment; they were engines of change. Children learned English, gained confidence, and internalised positive values. Angelo’s television work won national recognition, including a National Television Award runner-up for Most Outstanding Children’s Program in 2012.
Through creativity, perseverance, and scale, he redefined what was possible in Sri Lankan media.
Sandbox: From Producer to Performance Pioneer
Angelo’s producer instincts — craft experiences, deliver impact, and measure scale — became the foundation of his next act: Sandbox Consultancy Services Pvt Ltd.
Founded in 2014, Sandbox has become Sri Lanka’s leading performance consulting firm, catering to 80% of the nation’s top exporters and over 30% of Sri Lanka's top Listed companies. Its clients include conglomerates, Fortune 500 brands, and global players across 26+ industries.
Sandbox specialises in Performance Consulting, experiential learning, leadership and culture development, and people analytics. Among its most distinctive contributions are its proprietary frameworks and tools, such as:
CSP© – Culture–Structure–People alignment model
PLDP© – People Leaders Development Program, deployed by top-performing companies
OAR© Assessments – data-driven leadership evaluation technology
Since inception, Sandbox has unlocked over USD 50 Million in documented transformative results, making it a market leader by evidence, not just claim. In 2024, Sandbox earned a Global Recognition Award™, featured in Business Insider — cementing its place as Sri Lanka’s homegrown challenger to the world’s Big Five consulting firms.
Sandbox, like Angelo’s earlier media work, is proof that larger-than-life experiences can be engineered to deliver tangible outcomes.
Research, Thought Leadership, and SLESN
Entrepreneurs don’t just build companies; they shape ecosystems. Angelo has consistently pioneered thought leadership in Sri Lanka’s business space.
During the pandemic, when uncertainty clouded decision-making, he authored the report “Micro Enterprises and the Sri Lankan Economy – Post-COVID Insight.” Described as “the only survey of its kind” at launch, the study gave policymakers and MSMEs actionable, data-driven insights.
He also co-founded the Sri Lanka Entrepreneur & SME Network (SLESN) to create a collective voice for entrepreneurs. Launched in 2020, SLESN is a nonprofit advocating for “Sri Lankan-first” policies, post-COVID entrepreneurship resilience, and regulatory reforms. Today it stands as the country’s first organised policy and advocacy front for SMEs and entrepreneurs.
Educator, Author, and Method-Maker
Angelo’s impact also extends into academia and curriculum design. He has authored two study texts for SLIM — Business English & Personality Development and Project Management. His publications, lectures, and consulting have influenced universities, professional bodies, and national training institutions including the Sri Lanka Air Force, Defense Services Command and Staff College, and the Universities of Moratuwa, Kelaniya, and Peradeniya.
His unique blend of creative, academic, and corporate expertise allows him to develop proprietary frameworks now in active use across corporates, ensuring his influence is institutionalised, not just inspirational.
A Legacy of “How You Do Anything”
The phrase Angelo often repeats — “how you do anything is how you do everything” — is not mere philosophy. It is the pattern behind his career:
In television, he treated children’s programming with world-class rigor, producing shows that became household names.
In consulting, he engineered Sandbox with frameworks as robust as those of global giants.
In crisis, he didn’t just survive COVID-19 but published national data to lead others.
In community, he built SLESN so entrepreneurs could thrive together.
Every act has been infused with the same DNA: originality, evidence, and a refusal to compromise.
The One Others Follow
From St. Joseph’s College Colombo to Sri Lanka Law College, to his MSc in Organisational and Business Psychology (London Metropolitan University), Angelo’s trajectory has always been marked by learning, creation, and leadership.
But what makes him unmatchable in Sri Lanka’s entrepreneurial landscape is not his résumé. It is the fact that he has always gone first — proving that a Sri Lankan entrepreneur can build products, frameworks, and institutions that stand on par with the best in the world.
On World Entrepreneurs’ Day 2025, Angelo T. De Silva is celebrated not simply as an entrepreneur, but as the definition of one: a man who built brands bigger than himself, shaped communities, created employment, and left a path for others to follow.
