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Round Table conference on SMEs
Building Trust among stakeholders is the key survival strategy during Turbulence
IMT Hyderabad – CII Telangana Study
Hyderabad,13th December 2021: The Institute of Management Technology (IMT) Hyderabad hosted a roundtable conference on “SMEs: Navigating through Turbulence” on 13th December 2021. The event was graced with the presence of Mr. Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary, Industries & Commerce, and Information Technology, Telangana, Dr. S. Glory Swarupa Director General, National Institute for MSME, Hyderabad, and Mr. Santanu Mukherjee MD (Retd.), State Bank of Hyderabad and Member, BoG, IMT Hyderabad.
Shri Jayesh Ranjan released industry report on the impact of the CoViD pandemic on Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in India, a joint study by Institute of Management Technology (IMT), Hyderabad, and Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), Telangana. Shri Jayesh Ranjan appreciated the efforts of IMT Hyderabad and CII Telangana for capturing perspectives from the SME leaders in navigating through CoViD pandemic. He echoed with the research findings that trust building, re-engineering the business model and providing CoViD appropriate eco system helped SMEs to survive the CoViD crisis. He also highlighted that the state of Telangana was the only state which ensured minimum disruption due to lock down for the manufacturing activities.
Highlights of the study were presented by the lead researcher, Prof. Debadutta Panda during the event. It was noted that the impact (of the pandemic) was threefold, one, revenue and profit shrinkage; two, increase in employee retention cost; and three, factory/business shutdown/slowdown. However, SMEs were able to navigate through the pandemic by adopting four strategies, i.e., one, trust-building (among the stakeholders including employees, suppliers, buyers, etc.); two, reengineering the business model (by converting fixed cost to variable cost model); three, developing a CoViD-appropriate ecosystem in the organization (including vaccination drives); and,
four, providing a support system (work from home) to boost the productivity of the organization. Additionally, the government's extension of the credit lines helped SMEs meet their working capital needs.
Prof. (Dr.) Tulika Sharma, Chairperson, Centre for Sustainability & CSR, commenced the event by greeting the guests, this was followed by a brief introduction of theme by Prof. (Dr.) Sriharsha Reddy, Director, IMT Hyderabad. Mr. Santanu Mukerji gave the opening remarks where they spoke about how banks aren’t supportive enough towards SMEs and how lack of capital is a significant restriction in the productivity of SMEs. Mr. KSR Chandra Murthy, MD, Kalva Engineers Pvt Ltd., talked about SMEs suffering losses in the first wave and how they prepared for the second wave of Covid. Dr. S.R Musanna, Director, IMT CDL, said about employees losing confidence in employers during the Covid Pandemic, further congratulating the research team on their endeavor. The discussion concluded with Mr. Jayesh Ranjan’s closing remarks and a vote of thanks by Prof. (Dr.) Tulika Sharma.
