There couldn’t have been a more opportune time to discuss the issues of finance and technology with respect to small and medium enterprises (SMEs). With the economic slowdown, now almost a thing of the past, the SMEs are all set to explore new opportunities in various sectors. They are gearing up to offer innovative products and services and to reach out to new customers. With this in view, DARE organized SME Knowledge Forum in association with ICICI Bank, TCS and Cisco. As part of the event, which was held in Vadodara, Mumbai and Jamshedpur, SMEs from engineering and pharmaceutical clusters brainstormed on various issues.
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| Bharat Sharma ICICI Bank |
Pravin Patel Federation of Small Scale Industries |
Venguswamy Ramaswamy TCS |
Raghuram Krishnan Cisco |
The event in Vadodara, held on January 8, 2009 saw the promoters of engineering units in the city discuss the availability of finance when it comes to exports, M&As and expansion. Pravin Patel, President, Federation of Small Scale Industries talked at length on how the enterprising business community in Vadodara was looking to avail growth finance that will help them manufacture more innovative products to take on the competition from other countries. Vadodara has over 1,400 engineering units.
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| Sanjay Jha ICICI Bank |
Satyajit Dutt TCS |
Sanjeev Saxena Actis Biologics |
T K Cherian TCS |
Bharat Sharma, zonal head – retail banking, ICICI Bank talked of the bank’s willingness to partner with SMEs in providing finance, from working capital loans to term loans. Similar thoughts were echoed by Sanjay Jha, Assistant General Manager, ICICI Bank. Many SMEs at the Vadodara event talked of using technology as an enabler to market their products better. Venguswamy Ramaswamy, Global Head – SMB, TCS focused on the use of technology to turn around orders fast. He talked on tailor-made IT solutions for SMEs. Cisco’s Raghu Krishnan and TCS’ Satyajit Dutta said that SMEs will have to stop seeing IT as a cost but focus on the benefits.
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| Pranab Dutta Progressive Engineering |
V K Mehta Eastern Tar |
Manoj Tiwari Cisco |
Ganesh R ICICI Bank |
In Mumbai, the SMEs in the pharmaceutical cluster are willing to do more of R&D work to develop new molecules themselves and also take up projects outsourced from abroad. Sanjeev Saxena, Co-founder and CEO of Actis Biologics talked of the big problems that the biotech industry can solve by developing cures and not diseases. He also stressed on the need for the pharmaceutical industry to focus on the benefits it can provide to mankind. Praveen Trivedi, Deputy General Manager, ICICI Bank talked of the consultancy that the bank can provide to pharmaceutical SMEs when it comes to acquiring smaller players. He also talked of breaking the language barrier to reach out to new customers. Patrick Mathias, Vice President – Sales, Cisco talked of how a range of networking solutions can make life easy for SMEs and at the same time save money. TCS’ T K Cherian focused on the big role that technology can play today to help reach the market faster and the edge that comes with it.
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The Jamshedpur event was all about smaller engineering units to understand that technology can play a key role in growing one’s business. The SMEs in Jamshedpur are mostly vendors for automotive manufacturers, particularly Tata Motors. Mohit Tiwari, Territory Manager, Cisco talked of how cloud computing is making it easy to take what you need and pay accordingly. He said the needs of various SMEs vary and thus one can get an assessment done as to what solutions one needs and within a certain budget. R Ganesh of ICICI talked of the qualities of a good borrower and how the credit rating of a borrower would impact his chances of getting a business loan. He also talked of the help that SMEs can get with regard to line of credit when it comes to opportunities in exports.
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