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SME – THE GREAT NEWS

Management ability: They usually have strong management abilities

Ecosystem Ready: They have a committed ecosystem

Network: Usually, they have access to bigwigs – industrialists, politicians,

celebrities etc.

Individual stamp: They give a promoter flexibility to develop the business as per

his nature

Self-sufficient: They have an SBU that is generating profit and are self-sufficient

Regulatory comfort: They are able to work their way through several regulatory

hurdles

SME - AND STILL MORE GREAT NEWS

The common man is coming centre stage in the field of business too. Here is a profile

of companies that became market leaders in the last 10 years. SMEs, with their

robust system, are well-placed to emerge as business leaders.

SectorMarket Leader Sector

Market Leader Sector

Market Leader

Media UTVConsumer Electronics Micromax Books Flipkart

Logistics AllCargo Conglomerate Adani Directory JustDial

Retail Future Group Finance Indiabulls Education ISB

Internet Google Food Dosa Plaza Exchange NSE

SME: SPECIFIC LIMITATIONS

Common man of the business world: An SME is a common man in the business

world & thus is short-changed regularly.

Time Management: The promoters don’t have much time in hand

Perception issues: They have network with people who matter but they already

have formed an image of the SME.

Growth fears: will I lose existing business if I aim high

Lack of basic exposure to big businesses: Often the SMEs are very capable of

doing everything themselves. However, they may not be aware of these

opportunities.

SME – GROWTH BOTTLENECKS

Generating awareness & exposure to opportunities: How do I go from being a

small retailer to a Future Group, Flipkart or even Adani Group?

Mobilizing a high-end network : They need to create a team that will help them get

the big jump in size

Mobilizing those working below : An emerging problem is not only finding the right

person, but also motivating them right

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY

Part A: Understanding the opportunity & working

towards this ambition

Part B: Today, SMEs or industrialists or start-ups

– everyone is facing deep economic

crisis/danger. We need to understand this.

SHOWCASE OF OPPORTUNITIES

Before 1990s

Finance was tough to obtain from outside circle

Bank loan was the method of getting finance

To be big, you needed big budgets

TV, paper advertising

Prime location shop

Access was limited – you wanted to put in a word with a minister/industrialist, you had to work through several gatekeepers

After 1990s

Finance is available from – banks, VCs, foreign investors

Finance can now be obtained by selling equity

You can destroy the maximum power with minimum means

Cheaply started websites have crossed become market leaders

Social media can used by small & big businesses equally

Access Unlimited – one-to-one contact, e-mails, easy access events have brought opportunities to the doorstep

THREATS TO SMES: MAINTENANCE & GROWTH

Marketing: Even though easy means are available to SMEs, these means are in fact

being used aggressively big companies. This is taking away existing turf/market share

from SMEs

Regulatory: A select few industrialists decide industry policies because of their access.

Small businesses are not participating in policies.

Start-ups: With youngsters being more comfortable with technology, ideas & developing

their own ecosystems, they too are capturing market space quickly.

Financing: While SMEs are not used to the methods of investing offered by VCs,

billionaires, it is going to start-ups & the select few who get easy patronage from them.

Manpower: With high job mobility of man power, the SMEs are competing hard to find

the basic raw material that makes businesses successful

Technology upgrade: Technology & hi-tech can help us take care of several issues but

that too is not being easily adapted.

THE LARGER PICTURE: WHY JUST THE SME THE WHOLE WORLD IS IN DANGER

• The whole world is in danger. The systems that have served us well are no more working for us.

• There are no model countries left. Also, there is no specific reason to believe that economy will take off sometime soon.

• Also, it is becoming increasingly clear that growth for a person/company is often at the cost of other people/companies growth.

• Everyone is looking for economic restructuring –industrialists, small businessmen, traders, contract workers, vendors, white collared employees, blue collared employees, unemployed & the unemployable people.

Is it possible to narrate everyone’s problems? Will the spotlight on real issues help for a solution to emerge? Enter, the business manifesto.

BUSINESS MANIFESTO

Our team, led by me, studied various problems of people from various strata of

society for a period of 6 months

Consultants, businessmen, investors, employees, labourers, industrialists,

economists, CEOs were widely included in discussion on economic problems &

economic development

We reproduced the findings in the form of a business manifesto – whose aim is to

highlight everyone’s problems & suggest a road-map for everyone.

We considered current human, company behaviour to provide a road-map

SOME KEY INSIGHTS INCORPORATED

Economic development for country is not equal to economic development for all

Profitability leads to firing & reducing of salaries. Thus, employees are not willing to work

sincerely towards reviving company fortunes

All learning is for destructive purposes – We will use acquisition of power to dominate others.

This in-built fear stops us from empowering others. And others empowering us.

Financing options have opened up – but we all can see investments not getting closed. This is

because we know that promoters don’t drive the business alone anymore – white-collared &

blue-collared employees & freelancers are controlling business these days regularly and not

giving them enough motivation will make investors jittery intuitively

Thus, the manifesto has tried to address business/economic problems of a wide section of

society & tries to bring them together

Change is only brought about by use of force, thus, while the message of the manifesto is

noble, the overall execution method is not about appealing to goodness or generosity but is

calibrated to a ruthless, selfish system.

Business Manifesto

– Key Features

RE-VISIONING ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Re-Visioning Entrepreneurship: Through technology, a small saree-makerin Varanasi can service rich NRIs in Mauritius, Malaysia, Singapore andmore. The format of growth will be to provide advisory, mentoring and anopportunity to make a billion dollars for the saree-maker. The industrialist-investor can mint this opportunity by being an investor and later developa fully-integrated Indian fashion label for the markets acquired by thesaree-maker.However, such potential though identified is not being brought to fruitiondue to lack of opportunity understanding amongst the talented people,lack of initiative from society at large and trust deficit caused by increaseddisparity & marginalization in society.

WHAT IBF INTENDS TO COVER

Inclusiveness for the following is covered in the format

Entrepreneurs

Industrialists

Intermediaries

NGOs

Educated employees

Small Investors

Mentors

Unorganized help-seekers

Uneducated employees

Influencers

Service Providers

Vendors

Contract manpower

Micro-entrepreneurs

Icon Business Forum

Minority Community

INDIA BUSINESS PROBLEMS:

Industrial houses

Promoters: Growth has come to a stand still for promoters. Inadequate valuation of business.

Employees: Inadequate combination of – salary, security and growth opportunities.

Contract workers: Inadequate combination of income level and recognition and bonded-labour trap.

Vendors: Bigger and more resourceful the firm, poorer the terms and conditions. Too much work on credit basis.

Mid-size/Upcoming firms:

Promoter – issues on raising investment at good valuations & mentoring limited to middle-level growth

Employees - Work load issues, salary cuts if firm suffers, inadequate upside if firm super performs

Vendors – Liquidity crisis of firm makes credit-giving vendors very vulnerable

Contract labourers – inadequate recognition, certification of work apart from low level fees.

Shops/Very small firms

Businessman sidelined by increasing corporatization in all sphere of lives

Businessman not getting mentoring/opportunities to adapt new technologies

Workers/employees have little access to upside in business if business is succeeding

WHAT ARE THE BROAD PROBLEMS FACED BY THOSE

INVOLVED IN ENTREPRENEURIAL WORK?

Big investors/industrialists in India don’t get small size deals with right infrastructure and independent support. IBF will help them by aggregating these deals and providing these enterprises a strong network infrastructure

Entrepreneurs – Become investible and get a shareholding structure that gives them enough room to have management control of the company for a substantial period.

Employees – stock options for key employees is still to pick up. Sizeable increments are tough to get.

Educated/experienced unemployed: No guaranteed commitment to them in economic growth.

Blue-collared employees – they don’t get sufficient minimum salary and no pie in case of success

Micro-entrepreneurs – with too much emphasis on mega-scale enterprises, they don’t get investment easily

Contract employees – their terms are poor, payments delayed and inadequate recognition and job immobility

Small investors – they should be accommodated in deals that are relatively safer

Vendors – delayed payments cycles have made it difficult for small vendors to sustain themselves

Minority Community – They are being left out of ownerships everywhere

CURRENT STAGE & ROAD-MAP

Current Scenario:•Industrialists work towards expanding global footprints by acquisitions.Industry leaders in India not able to become global stars with Indian set-ups (manufacturing units, vendors etc.).Indian entreprises continue to work out of ghettoized set-ups with no real efforts towards global/wider/corporate benchmarking.

Road-map suggested:•Take enterprises out of these ghettos (compared to their potential, they are ghettos e.g. Kalbadevi should be a Bandra-Kurla Complex type)Mobilize them by creating a road-map for everybody’s growthEncourage them to compete within a larger landscapeA well-connected, widely benchmarked business set-up will be harnessed by incumbent Indian industry leaders to become global stars.

MISSION FOR 2015

Mission100 Entrepreneurs Empowered:

Closing 100 angel financing deals of more between 5-20 crores each.

• These are deals where the business is scalable in the immediate future and

evolving into industrial houses.

• Overall, if we make a mission of closing 100 such deals, than the impact on the

industry will be huge and other people/institutions can replicate the formula on

the own. The target under this is to do deals where the first investment size is 5-

20 crores.

• The above formula seems executable for some of the entrepreneurs groomed by

me. However, modifications will be made as views are being obtained widely. The

above formula would get adapted for various sectors & stage of investment.

MISSION FOR 2015

Mission10000 Local Icons:

• A great number of businessmen can transform their business with a capital of Rs. 10 lakhs.

• These are firms that are a cut above backed by a substantial domain experience and likelihood that the business will definitely deliver value to investors. Thus, there should be a mission to invest between Rs. 5 lakhs – 5 crores. To be delivered through various possible forums:

• A large number of women, backward community entrepreneurs can get a kickstartthrough this.

• Mid-size investors can keenly develop an interest in this area and specialize as per personal tastes

• This can delivered after arriving at a fixed to-do list on part of entrepreneurs –grooming & ecosystem development that he is strongly advised to undertake to fulfill investor interests.

MISSION FOR 2015

Mission 1 lakh Entrepreneurs Encouraged:

To incentivize entrepreneurs across the rung to realize their potential, there

should be grant of Rs. 25,000- 2 lakhs given to 1 lakh entrepreneurs to develop

websites/proto-type & start pursuing business in a modern way.

These will be given across several geographies and after giving them a day-long

briefing on what could how they can scale-up their business if they succeed.

The intent and purpose is to create a wave of investment help for entrepreneurs

The quantum of grant-investment is low as the success ratio is likely to be 1/100

MISSION FOR 2015

Mission 1 crore Energized:

Several forums have been put up to help people working in the sphere of entrepreneurs to build communities. The same forum should be available to a wider set of people – entry barriers need to be demolished to actively pursue inclusiveness.

Thus, there should be a ‘Vyapar Sabha” in every town some day. This Sabha will manage & organize entrepreneurs and will be their window to the world of bigger opportunities. We reckon that this can be done through:

Get some of the existing forums to partner

In every town & city, a basic unit gets developed – businessmen, advisors, diaspora that wants to give back, local sponsors

Sabhas should enjoy good inter-linkages so that resources can be shared.

Some of the luminaries in the city may want to visit villages & towns to go back to society if it is structured like this.

Also, there should be atleast 10-20 invitees who are paid to attend – as our understanding is that even free entry forums are not able to touch the lowest rungs.

MISSION MEDIA PRESENCE

Media use to be an agent of change, of lending a voice to upcoming work and people. Over the years, it has now completely been swept by unsustainably high level of commercialized space.

However, the potential power of the common man has also increased. Advertising and being well-known through internet & new media has made him potentially more powerful than ever before.

It is strongly encouraged that the participants & well-wishers of our mission, do the following to the extent possible:

Get as many small businesses & self-employed people on facebook & twitter

Develop content, blogs & articles on these upcoming businesses

Use internet, whatsapp & other tools to disseminate this content

Usage of ebay & other websites to sell products in same platform as big business to be encouraged

Urge Vyapar Sabhas to develop local & regional media & channels that can cater to their business interests.

EMPLOYMENT MISSION

Stigma or being jobless & underpaid has to go completely now. There is also a disbelief element amongst candidates when employers show great hunger for their talent. Employers who are crying for employees are forced to wear a mask of exclusivity. Providing jobs is as much employers need as an employee’s need.

Thus, there should be missions that can actively tackle unemployment through following means:

Employers/Interviews will do cold-calling on homes with job profiles in their hands. They will either interview those in the house who want to work. Alternatively, they will offer a small referral fee if someone in this house hold refers you to a candidate who finds a job.

This mission can be launched nation-wide and independently.

Visit to household is advantageous to employers also as this will also give them a realistic picture of the prospective candidate and serves as a strong security check.

VYAPAR SABHA’ CONCEPT

EVERY CITY, TOWN, VILLAGE EMPOWERED

We propose the idea of Vyapar Sabha for every village, town and city in

India. These are going to be units with an all-inclusive DNA. While Icon

Business Forum will attempt to be a template for these Sabhas, these

should be organized independently by people – local sponsors, local

businessmen, employees, blue-collared workers, educational

institutions etc.

Every town has a semi-empowered ecosystem: It has chartered

accountants, doctors, professors, students who access knowledge of

high worth. Every town has a local heroes who reside in cities but who

are willing to give back to their towns. Also, there are investors who are

looking at these towns to deliver them growth.

VYAPAR SABHA - CONTOURS

Compulsory free & all-inclusive entry format

Adequate measures to ensure participation from all communities

Those who are working on fringes – daily wage folks, should attend in adequate numbers. They should be sponsored an equivalent of a day’s wage to attend these sabhas.

Event costs should be met by local sponsors who should find the package attractive enough to actively participate.

Icon Business Forum will function more as a ideological partner. While some initial help will be provided to extent possible, any substantial support mechanism will thwart empowerment.

Icon Business Forum will attempt to list investors & mentors as per region so that the Vyapar Sabhas can just tune in to forum site & get leads. This can be undertaken by other companies & websites.

Websites/WhatsApp/Facebook will become likely medium of sharing resources across & within localities.

MOTIVATION IDEAS

….Thus, we feel that following can be given on immediate basis suggestions:

Provide non-monetary incentivize to win employee motivation & goodwill:

Give all permanent employees a listing in their website

List all contract/temp staff in the website if they have served for more than 3

months

Analyze the time commitment given to the firm & reduce by 10%.

To blue-collared employees, provide training that helps them enter mainstream.

Monetary incentives:

Allow for clauses to let employees pursue additional income, non-compete work

that demands no more than 20 hours a month

MOTIVATION IDEAS

The following can be undertaken linked to company’s future growth:

Company should give away wealth equivalent to 1% of its equity across all

employees who were part of the company in that year, should the company get

more than 7% growth in revenues.

Amongst the new hires, 20% should be amongst the unemployed category.

To avoid jobless growth, firms with more than 5% growth in revenues should limit

working hours of employees to maximum 40 hours a week. Any additional work

put in at a particular month should be set-off against day-offs in the next month.

MISSION MEDIA PRESENCE

• Media use to be an agent of change, of lending a voice to upcoming work and people. Over the years, it has now completely been swept by unsustainably high level of commercialized space.

• However, the potential power of the common man has also increased. Advertising and being well-known through internet & new media has made him potentially more powerful than ever before.

It is strongly encouraged that the participants & well-wishers of our mission, do the following to the extent possible:

Get as many small businesses & self-employed people on facebook & twitter

Develop content, blogs & articles on these upcoming businesses

Use internet, whatsapp & other tools to disseminate this content

Usage of ebay & other websites to sell products in same platform as big business to be encouraged

Urge Vyapar Sabhas to develop local & regional media & channels that can cater to their business interests.

EMPLOYMENT MISSION

Stigma or being jobless & underpaid has to go completely now. There is also a disbelief

element amongst candidates when employers show great hunger for their talent.

Employers who are crying for employees are forced to wear a mask of exclusivity.

Providing jobs is as much employers need as an employee’s need.

Thus, there should be missions that can actively tackle unemployment through

following means:

Employers/Interviews will do cold-calling on homes with job profiles in their hands.

They will either interview those in the house who want to work. Alternatively, they will

offer a small referral fee if someone in this house hold refers you to a candidate who

finds a job.

This mission can be launched nation-wide and independently.

Visit to household is advantageous to employers also as this will also give them a

realistic picture of the prospective candidate and serves as a strong security check.

THANK YOU

Tarun Agarwal

Icon Busines Forum

+91-9920113907

Twitter: @ibfentrepreneur

Facebook: IconBusinessForumOfficial

Linkedin: Icon Business Forum

E-mail: iconbusinessforum@gmail.com

Blog: www.businessmanifestobytarunagarwal.wordpress.com

IBF – EVENTS PICS