SME CEOs Knowledge Series reaches Nashik

NASHIK, INDIA:  Bank, in association with CyberMedia, Asia's largest specialty media house, conducted the innovative nationwide SME CEOs Knowledge Series program in Nashik.

They were addressing the Auto & Ancillary cluster and the event got an overwhelming response with over 150 SMEs attending the sessions.

The event started with the Finance Clinic where entrepreneurs were offered customized expert advice on how to raise capital for business depending on the stage of business and the optimal level of capital mix their business needs, through a discussion on a wide array of topics like—Debt Financing, Private Equity, IPO, M&A, Forex Advice and other risk management products.

This was followed by a one-on-one mentoring session with the experts from marketing and branding from IIM Kolkata, Taxation from Deloitte, HR, Finance from ICICI Bank and ERP from SAP, where each entrepreneur was given enough time to interact with the mentors.

The program concluded with a panel discussion, where the panel in addition to the experts also included a successful entrepreneur like Rajendra Bagwe, CMD, Reliable Group of Industries and Kiran Rakhe, GM SCM—Head of Procurement and Logistics, Nashik Plant, Mahindra & Mahindra to share their experiences and knowledge with the aspiring SMEs.

Speaking on the occasion, Vijay Chandok, Head—SME Business, Senior GM, ICICI Bank said, “Nashik has generous availability of talent and is rapidly emerging as an important economic zone in Maharashtra. ICICI Bank is committed to development of SMEs across the country. SME CEO Knowledge Series is yet another initiative towards ICICI Bank's desire to create a supporting ecosystem for SMEs in general. In this evolving economic scenario, the SME CEO Knowledge series will provide expertise to issues of finance, strategic marketing, taxation etc. thereby helping the SMEs to handle their current concerns and improve their businesses towards a more secure future.”

Commenting on the occasion, Pradeep Gupta, CMD, Cyber Media Group said, “Auto component and ancillary sector is one of the major sunrise sectors of Indian economy. Moreover, the automotive components industry is perceived as a lucrative sector with tremendous potential for foreign direct investments. Nashik already has attracted ample foreign investment and has the potential for more. The SME CEO Knowledge Series in Nashik is an effort to share global knowledge and expertise with SME entrepreneurs of Auto component industry of Nashik to enable them to grow to their full potential.”

The Knowledge Series will spread over 26 cities across India. It is an effort towards promoting an entrepreneurial culture in the country and is a sincere effort to provide a platform wherein problems faced by the SMEs will be analyzed, discussed and workable solutions will be offered.

ICICI Bank has initiated several programs like the SME Dialogue, Emerging India Awards and SME Toolkit to help SMEs interact and transact among themselves as also with large corporations, thereby providing a complete ecosystem to the SMEs to scale up to the next level of growth.