SME and Globalization

Topic: Small and Medium Enterprises

The major characteristic’s that SME has to possess inorder to reach Global Stage as perceived by many Leading Business Consultants, Managers are:

1) Entrepreneurial drive
2) Shared purpose
3) Expansion plans
4) Allocation of Limited Resources

An Entrepreneur of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises has to have strong passion to take company at the Global Level. He also has to induce the spirit within himself to his fellow men too. He has to sustain the positive energy throughout the expansion plan and also after post-expansion situation. He should never let his spirits go down at any point of time even in the worst phase. Some of the past SME’s have turned out to be best Operating Multinational Companies at present mainly because of the Entrepreneurs vision to take the Enterprise to greater heights.

All the subsidiaries of an Organisation should work as one coherent bundle in order to achieve the company’s objective. They should share common purpose and work as a single unit to achive this purpose. The purpose or objective should be reviewed at regular intervals as the company’s status changes and it should be manipulated to meet the changing requirements. Tata Group stands as a wonderful example who have achieved great success in the corporate Sector by sharing common values and achieving it by working as single entity.

As perceived by many, Expansion plans are not dictated by the Company’s Administrative and Management unit but by the Competitive Business World. Entry of Business at Global Level largely depends on the necessity of the Manufactured prouduct or services delivered by the company. Inorder for SME to carry its operation at Global level, Entrepreneur has to basically identify the scope of product or services in the market and has to constantly keep in touch with market situation and find suitable time to take it to higher level. He has to get the best people involved in the pre-Expansion plans and Post-Expansion plans to ensure that expansion is taking place at the right pace and in a proper manner.

One of the major tasks that define the Entrepreneurs ability to handle the situation is the allocation of limited Resources to gain maximum benefit while achieving best efficieny possible. The key to taking sme to Global stage largely depends on this factor to large extent.

All of these factors should operate with great synergy between them where ever necessary and finally yield Profit for the organisation which happens to be the main motive for Entrepreneurs to take their Organisation to Global Level.

Source: Economic Times, November 25, 2008

Grameen Bank

Topic: GRAMEEN BANK

Muhammad Yunus is often referred to as “The world’s banker to the poor“. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize Winner for year 2006. He is the Founder and Director of Grameen Bank, is a founding and current board member of Grameen Foundation. His life’s work has been to prove that the poor are credit-worthy. His Grameen Bank system has provided financial assistance to as many as 7 million poor people and has continued its reputation in doing so. The major beneficiaries of the system were Women. This Banking system is mostly concentrated in Bangladesh one of the poor nations of the world.

The idea of Grameen Banking system was first visualized by Muhammad Yunus in year 1976 while he was a Professor of Economics at Chittagong University. “Micro-Finance” was the key-driving point for this Banking System. He was the key conceptualizer of the “Micro-Finance” system and perfect Implementer. Even the poorest of the poor can get loans from this banking system even in the absence of the collateral to gurantee the loan. The main thrust of this Banking Systme is to eradicate poverty and improve the Standards of Living.

The important characteristics of this Business Model are firstly the high recovery rate of up to about 99%, secondly provision of loans even in the absence of collaterals but under the guarantee of group thirdly the requirement of the borrowers to save a part of income to help them from getting under the clutches of poverty and Money Lenders and finally the scaling of bank to the rural level which is a big hurdle to a typical urban-oriented bank

The success of the Grameen Banking System can be assessed by the number of branches which it has grown which is about 1000 and the number of borrowers which comes to about 6.5 million borrowers. This micro-credit Business Model is being followed in as many as 100 countries including the developed and the developing Economies. Due to the success atttributed by Leading Economists in the world to the micro-credit system, the leading developed countries have also adopted this concept.

According to Muhammad Yunus firstly Social Entrepreneurship happens to be key for eradicating poverty and providing Economic Development where in both the Entrepreneur and the society are benefitted, secondly Capitalism should be projected in a manner where in economic, social, Political dimensions are embodied in it, creation of Social Stock Market happens to be important feature for increasing the network among the Social Entrepreneurs of the world.

Entrepreneurial Spirit on its way to reach pinnacle in IIM Campuses

Topic: Entrepreneurial Spirit on its way to reach pinnacle in IIM Campus

The following paragraph is about Siddarth Jaiswal who is a fresh IIM-A grad from PGP batch of 08. He has given up the big placement packages, high dignified positions to pursue Entrepreneurship as his career. He is second after Sarath Babu from the prestigious IIM’s who has choosen to  pursue his Entrepreneurial career in field relating to Human Consumption. He has decided to launch a series of ‘Joos’ bar which offers 50 varieties of natural beverages and drinks. He is one among the eleven students from his batch who has given up the big packages offered and has decided to pursue Entrepreneurship as his career. 

Source: Times of India, August 12, 2008

IIM Alumni’s Entrepreneurial Success

Topic: IIM And Entrepreneurship

“Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish” a book written by IIM-A Alumni Rashmi Bansal, was released during the Entrepreneurship meet at IIM-A organised by its “Centre for Innovation Incubation Entrepreneurship”(CIIA). This book depicts the stories of 25 alumni from IIM’s who achieved great success.

According to Ms. Bansal all of these Entrepreneurs had one important quality in them that is they believe in words “Dare to Dream, Dream to Dare”. They believe in power of dreams.

One success story is about R.Subramaniam from IIT-M and graduated from IIM-A in 1989. He went on to build the countrys largest grocery chain- Subhiksha, which has over 1030 stores nationwide by quitting the job from Citigroup.

Another success story is about Narendra Murkumbi an IIM-A graduate in 1994, who started a venture-manufacturing and refining sugar, which gained him the status of billionaire. This venture “Shree Renuka Sugars” now has a turnover of Rs. 1000 crore. Others featured are Deep Kalra, who graduated in 1992 and is chief initiator of “makemytrip.com”. Sanjeev Bikchandani is another featured Alumni, whose naukri.com is a listed company now. Anand Halve another featured Alumni set up his own consulting firm Chlorophyll.

Source: The Hindu, Business, June 30, 2008

Role of Science Parks in Entrepreneurship

Topic: Role of Science Parks

According to The International Association of Science Parks(ISAP) there are nearly 365 in number spread across nearly 70 countries involving 11000 companies providing employment to nearly 68000 people.
There are four types of Science Parks namely:
1)      Alliance-Driven Science Park
2)      University Driven Science Park
3)      Company Driven Science Park
4)      Cluster Driven Science Park

Science Parks acts as Centre for encouragement of the innovative ideas to bring the product into reality. Science parks acts as spring board for development of Entrepreneurship through constant mentoring and monitoring of the Innovative Ideas. Example  is the Science park in the Kerala which has been constantly involved in bringing the ideas of young Entrepreneurs in the forefront.

 

Science park acts as a stimulator for regional and national economic growth. With the establishments of Science Parks countries such as China, Finland have been able to achieve greater national Economic Growth. Science parks in addition to invoking innovation, R&D also play the role of  Economic development. China through establishment of regional and National level Science Parks to the tunes of 100 have able to increase the countrys economy by 4-5%. Latin American countries being aware of the happenings of Bussiness World have also pledged to take up initiative in setting up Science Parks. Science Parks have a major role to play in the economies of  Developing countries such as China, India.
   

Science Parks lays great emphasis on new innovative technology, practical skill development and also to a greater extent on environmentally oriented workspace. Science park has an important function of increasing the networking among Entrepreneurs at various levels such as state, national and International. The network consists of Science park, business community, legal and Management group and various other consultants.

 

Science Parks have also been involved in the development of regional education sector and community.Science parks influence has gone vast beyond imagination. They have been key influencers in the formulation of Universities Curriculum. They have also helped Universities formulate curriculum in field such as Entrepreneurship that help to develop future business. They have also influenced  in setting up the research agendas for Universities.

 

 

Role of Incubators in developing Entrepreneurship spirit

Role or Functions of Incubators

Incubators play an important role in encouraging Entrepreneurial Innovation. Incubators catalyze the funding of the project that has the capability to sustain in this era of high risk of investment. In view of the greater role played by the incubators in spreading Entrepreneurship spirit, it has been established in major developed cities world-wide  to act as a saviour to Entrepreneurs, and is being thought of to be established in the developing cities, in both the developed Economy and also the developing Economy.

 

In many of the Foreign countries Incubators are set up close to Universities of  National and International Importance. This has helped both Incubators and Universities to exchange innovative ideas which helps in greater degree of development of the outcome(product). Incubators play the role of providing space to bring innovative idea to production stage and acts as platform to develop “wet labs” for carrying their work. Incubators helps in raising funds by bringing in Venture Capitalist, Angel Investors in contact with Entrepreneurs. They also bring in Legal advisors, leading technologists in the area concerned and other service providers who play leading role in maintaining the uniqueness, integrity of ideas through Intellectual Property Rights. University Technology Transfer acts as platform to demonstrate Entrepreneurs, the cutting edge Technology that has developed over the years and can be utilized by them. Universities also acts as a platform to showcase the Entrepreneurial innovative product  and helps them in Marketing of their Product. Incubators  has also gained momentum in providing a complete package necessary to start a Enterprise.  

 

Incubators also facilitates Entrepreneurship by providing basic business and marketing skills. Incubators also bring specialists to deliver talks regarding business ethics, patenting and Management Skills. Incubators basically acts as a medium of transfer of technological research from University to Commercialization of ideas. Incubators help bring the Researchers from Universities into the domain of Entrepreneurship by reducing the risks involved in start-ups  by making them available the physical necessities such as space, wet laboratories and also provide them moral support. Incubators indirectly play the role of commercializing cutting edge technology products.

 

Several Incubators has identified the need to imbibe the spirit of Entrepreneurship among the Youth and created centres specially aimed to involve the youth.