What Indian SMEs Need
Incubation Platform: This directly points to the fact that India lacks business incubation setup. The industry majors need to provide mentorship to SMEs of their domain, on how they could be better aligned with their objectives of a low cost structure, broadbasing their services and products, and a more reliable environment for operation. The enterprises, SMEs, government and the society are an integral part of the same ecosystem, that can collectively grow and not in isolation.

Support from Government
In the most recent UPS Asia Business Monitor report, 81 per cent SME respondents feel that government needs to play a larger role in sustainability practices. Let us look at the model deployed by Japan, way back in 1953. Japan Finance Corporation for Small Business (JFS) was created to enable a basic law which would represent a shift in policies to enable development and growth of diverse and independent SME businesses. JFS soon became an integral part of policy drafting and implementation process, and established a deep understanding of the SME market. It built a pool of businesses and understood its pulse. Today, it has more than 100,000 businesses and it leverages this information to groom newer businesses. The essence behind formation of JFS was not just funds, but critical advisory, that would keep the businesses alive in long term. There is a strong need for such a platform to be provided in India.

Need for Communication
India is awakening to the need of communication and its importance to businesses. Till recent past, PR was considered a luxury and spelt in the same breath as advertising. However, the communication modes and climate is changing. As a result, businesses are making use of various channels of communication to reach out to their audiences such as clients, masses at large, industry bodies, etc. On the globalized platform, global tools like PR need to be used to gather the outreach and use it towards expanding not only clients but further expansion, forming associations and tie-ups.

Valuation & Consolidation
Indian economy has progressed towards building knowledge enterprises to remain competitive in the global arena. Innovation and application knowledge are going to be the key to growth. However, in the SME segment, it remains vastly fragmented across mushrooming businesses. Joint ventures and some kind of consolidation will help pull strengths of companies and businesses together, and fasten the growth and maturity path.