Even as the global economy recovered last year from an unprecedented economic crisis, India was one of the few countries that grew at a healthy pace. A significant proportion of all Indian businesses fall under the small and medium enterprise segment. Needless to say, the sustained growth in the Indian economy was in large measure due to the growth of these ’emerging’ enterprises. Unfortunately, these are also the businesses that faced the brunt of the economic crisis. In this ‘Catch 22’ type situation lies a great opportunity – that of metamorphosing into world class players and leaders in the global supply chains of tomorrow.
The challenges that Indian SMB enterprises face are manifold. They start with the lack of accurate and timely business information and go on to larger issues like funding, marketing, talent management and so on. Unless these challenges are identified and addressed well and in time, these emerging businesses will remain just that, and will never be able to realise their full potential and promise. While each one of these is well worth a full term course at a management school, CMR’s research reports and events on the subject attempt to identify the root causes, suggest a range of available solutions and help the entrepreneur community connect with solution providers to find answers to their problems with least wastage of time and valuable resources.
The key challenges we have identified for Small and Medium Business (SMB) enterprises are:
- Effective business strategy
- Smart operations and financial control
- Ramping up customer service and support
- Human resource management
- IT Awareness and Adoption
- Vertical- and Industry Cluster-specific technology solutions
- Optimising investment: ‘Capex’ versus ‘Opex’
- Marketing: Effective reach to and communication with customers and stakeholders
- Lack of customer access and sales
- Understanding and tracking RoI
- Value chain efficiency, through streamlined business processes and external integration
CMR research studies track how SMB enterprises are trying to appreciate the benefits of ICT solutions and implement those that afford most relevance, to help them achieve their business goals faster, at the least possible cost.
Both IT vendors and entrepreneurs / CIOs would benefit from CMR research by understanding how they can provide innovative, ‘quick RoI’ solutions that would help their customers reduce costs, develop more effective marketing and sales channels and adopt world class business practices.
So, here’s an invitation…do write in with your specific problems and business concerns if you are an entrepreneur / owner-manager or SMB CIO?
Vendor executives, please write back with new, innovative solutions or best practices that you can provide to the India SMB community.
You may alternately reach me at ajoshi@cmrindia.com.
