Yesterday Google PR was on a overdrive, with their CEO Sundar Pichai launching the Digital Unlocked program for Indian SMEs. So after a long period, SMEs are back in focus for national debate. The Digital Unlocked program is set to provide training and tools for SMEs to leverage the power of digital for their growth.
I have been watching the SME space in India since many years, which without doubt, has a huge potential to drive the Indian GDP growth story. But somehow, the SMEs have never evolved into a collective growth story for India.
So while we have many clusters like Ludhiana in North India (for machinery) & Tirupur in South India (for garments) which have produced a sector dependent growth story, the collective wisdom for SMEs across this large country to modernize and scale up does not exist.
The government programs have been able to push individuals to upgrade their skills via National Skill Development programs, but it has been a wishlist mission for the government agencies & large corporations including Microsoft, IBM, Reliance, Tata Group & Google to upgrade the SMEs in order to scale up their contribution to the organized sector.
The access to global markets via digital presence can play the game changer for the SMEs to scale up.
According to me, it is a 3 part approach, of Awareness > Access > Action, for SMEs to access global marketplaces targeting new customer acquisition. Once they access global prospects, their awareness about quality systems, the huge market potential & higher profitability creates a need inside them to get into the action of upgrading their business, management practices & attitudes.
The positive environment change through India’s Digital (#Cashless) push, post demonetization, is now favoring SMEs to embrace digital channels, & has the following factors acting as catalysts:
- The Accessibility to global marketplaces has improved with the proliferation of wireless 3G/4G networks in the country.
- Platforms like Alibaba, Amazon etc have made it easy for small business to sell their products in new markets & to new customers.
- The availability of Cloud computing infrastructure, and subscription based SaaS software, has also lowered the capex requirements in IT.
- The awareness about easy to setup digital presence and the availability of tools for SMEs to market their business online, is the space in which Google can play a important role.
Mentors, Consultants & Digital Marketers have been attempting to change the SME’s mindsets to invest in digital presence for a long time, but a ‘national initiative’ for their transformation is yet to happen.
Here’s wishing Sundar Pichai & Google India, a lot of persistence so that each SME in India develops its digital presence, accesses global markets and above all believes in a win-win attitude to accelerate their (& the country’s) growth momentum in the next few quarters.
You may also want to read my earlier post about SMEs: Digital Marketing for SME & Laws of Motion!