The road to recovery for MSMEs and other industry insights SMBStory covered this week
During a 10-day-long immersive India MSME Summit 2021, we unveiled business lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, and the way ahead for MSMEs to grow amid the changing business landscape.
At YourStory’s third annual India MSME Summit 2021, we delved deeper into the MSME ecosystem and derived insights from industry stakeholders, entrepreneurs, and officials.
From lessons of survival to recovery paths for the micro, small, and medium enterprises, the summit hosted a stirring lineup of speakers across fireside chats, workshops, panel discussions, masterclasses, and more.
These experts not only revealed the lessons learnt from the first and second waves of the COVID-19 pandemic but also spoke about what businesses need to do next.
Here’s a sneak-peak on what went for the small and medium business players this week at SMBStory.
Policies and schemes for MSMEs survival
In a panel discussion for schemes and policies for MSMEs survival, Mukesh Mohan Gupta, President of the Chamber of MSME; Ridhima Arora, Founder of Namhya Foods, an Ayurvedic snacks maker; Dr Vivek Bindra, Founder of Bada Business; and Hardika Shah, Founder and CEO of Kinara Capital came together to discuss why MSMEs need to look internally to find solutions, and why NBFCs should play a bigger role in the solutions needed today.
The major takeaways for SMBs from the ecosystem stakeholders include: MSMEs have to look inwards now and reduce redundancies, NBCFs should play a bigger role in the solution, Need better visibility on schemes available for MSMEs, Becoming tech-driven is of paramount importance
![[India MSME Summit 2021] Why CCR and CMR are crucial in accessing formal credit](https://images.yourstory.com/cs/21/0a385fc03e6011e999df3d1594bbde2c/Image6965-1624784729880.jpg?fm=png&auto=format&h=100&w=100&crop=entropy&fit=crop)
Managed services for accelerating growth profitably
Managed services entail outsourcing execution and maintenance of a range of processes and functions and it has been gaining popularity among SMBs and larger businesses working in India’s BFSI space.
The primary reason for their increased relevance is managed services help SMBs address IT and security issues while being cost-effective.
Against this backdrop, Rohit Midha, Director - Services, Lenovo India; Deepak Aggarwal, CEO, Moneybox; Sundeep Mohindru, CEO, M1xchange; and Satyajeet Limaye, Chief Strategy Officer, BANKIT, joined a panel discussion to churn out key insights into managed services’ rising popularity and how businesses can choose the right partner for the same.
The discussion focussed around keeping the focus on key business strategies, Choosing the right managed services provider, and how going forward, the managed services segment will grow in importance for businesses that often don’t have big budgets dedicated to building a specialised IT team to cater to their own complex technology needs.
Tech as an investment for SMBs
The pandemic has been challenging for most businesses, especially for the millions of micro, small and medium enterprises that were compelled to go digital.
While some did well to embrace technology to further their businesses, others are still in the process of identifying digital tools and IT solutions that are best suited for them.
At the India MSME Summit 2021, a panel of business owners and IT solution providers including Ashish Sikka, Director of SMB Channel, Lenovo India, Alok Paul Co-founder, Berrylush Apparel, Jaspreet Dhingra, Founder, BANC and Kirti Poonia, Head, Okhai discussed and deliberated on the changing digital landscape for SMBs and SMEs.
The panellists reckoned that as India gears up for the third wave, it would be pragmatic for businesses to become crisis-ready by building alternate tech stacks, identifying core functions, and reducing dependency on founders/owners.
![[India MSME Summit 2021] Lenovo India’s Ashish Sikka on crisis-proofing MSMEs in a pandemic-impacted market](https://images.yourstory.com/cs/2/f5a7f3304b1211e9b6645b8ae897d03e/Imageom3l-1624785097093.jpg?fm=png&auto=format&h=100&w=100&crop=entropy&fit=crop)
The next five years for online consumer brands
In a panel discussion, leaders from the direct-to-consumer (D2C) landscape like Manish Chowdhary, Co-founder, Wow Skin Science, Anju Srivastav, Co-founder, Wingreens Farms, Chinu Kala, Founder, Rubans, Bharat Kalia, Co-founder, Lifelong Online, and Saravanan Ramakrishnan, SMB Strategy and Business Development Lead at Amazon Internet Services Private Limited (AISPL) unanimously said that the next few years would be very exciting not just for online brands but for the customers as well.
The panellists believe that the worst for D2C businesses is over, and the future will bear good results.
Edited by Saheli Sen Gupta