6 Ways Acelot Helps MSMEs in India Tackle the 3 Key Challenges

Highlights:

• Access to finances, skilled labour, and proper infrastructure are the key challenges faced by MSMEs in India
• These challenges hampers the MSME’s ability to compete, change, and connect in the global market
• Acelot helps MSMEs with a credible brand, experience, industry connections, skilling, consultancy services, and a zero investment business opportunity

MSMEs in India form a key sector in both manufacturing and services industries with a considerable contribution to the GDP. Nitin Gadkari, the Union Minister for MSME, recently projected a 50% contribution to the GDP by MSMEs in the coming years. Yet there are a lot of challenges an MSME has to face to turn profitable. The jump from the present GDP contribution of 29% to the expected 50% is quite high for this adolescent industry.

To get a glimpse of how effective government policies and the MSME sector really are, we have to juxtapose India’s performance with the rest of the world.

Performance Comparison: MSMEs in India vs Around the World 

The World Trade Organization (WTO) and the International Trade Centre (ITC) assesses the SMEs across 50 nations on their capacity to Compete, Change, and Connect. These three can be defined as:

• Compete: the capacity to compete looks into the efficiency and operations part of an organization
• Change: the capacity to change signifies how easily can an organization innovate and evolve with systematic investments in financial and human capital
• Connect: the capacity to connect looks into the communicational efficiency and customer outreach part of the organizations functionality

Thus, each pillar of the assessment signifies a core functionality of a business.

In the group of countries including Russia, Indonesia, Brazil, China, Turkey, Vietnam, Thailand, South Africa, Mexico, Malaysia, and Kenya, India is rated below average under the Compete and Connect capabilities but has shown good potential in the capability to Change.

Source: ITC World Bank,, WTO, UNCTAD, D&B calculation

The Government of India has been working relentlessly over the past decade to tackle the issues hindering the growth of MSMEs and have achieved good results too. The regulations are now much lenient and it is easier to purchase land for establishing a plant. 

But, the 5 most important issues are yet to be tackled:

• Easy access to sustainable finance
• Power supply
• Availability of skilled labour
• Availability of infrastructure
• Technology-related issues 

With schemes like Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana or The Saubhagya Scheme under implementation and the Make In India campaign, the issues related to power supply and technology are being tackled slowly.

But the real challenges lie in ensuring the availability of:

• Finances: any organization’s basic ability to perform and produce results is curtailed by the unavailability of timely and adequate finances. The organization, due to lack of finances, will falter on all three grounds, i.e., Compete, Change, and Connect
• Skilled Labour: without skilled human resource it becomes difficult for an organization to Compete due to lack of efficiency in operations
• Infrastructure: an organization’s overall performance mainly in Compete and Change section depends on the availability of adequate infrastructure

Difference in Definitions:

The problem lies in the difference of definition of SMEs in India and the world over. Internationally, the revenue and the number of employees are used to define SMEs, while India identifies SMEs on the basis of assets, i.e., the investment done in machinery and plant and equipment.

The disparity in definition results in MSMEs being unable to draw all the benefits of national and international government policies and schemes.

Then there is also the issue of weak MSMEs resulting in credit risks, compliance issues, and ambiguity in business continuity.

The above factors make way for a B2B service sector that deals in bridging the gap created by the differences in definitions and the lack of resources. In addition to being a beneficial business opportunity for organizations with a solid groundwork, this service sector is a necessity for the overall growth of the nation’s industry and economy. 

It has become imperative that businesses and startups come up with prospective solutions and help the government in the efforts of providing a sustainable infrastructure for MSMEs to grow. 

With years of experience and the resources at hand, established companies can help MSMEs with a potential for success in minimizing the risks and maximizing the profits.

Role Played by Acelot:

Acelot with its offering of Consulting, Coaching, and Contract Services is uniquely positioned to help in financial, human resource related, and infrastructural challenges faced by the MSMEs. 

With a team of seasoned business transformation consultants at the core, Acelot works on a 2-pronged model to tackle the problem.

Their solution is based on the two types of entrepreneurs one usually comes across:

• Entrepreneurs who have developed a product or service but are unable to reach out to the target customers and sell it.
• Entrepreneurs who are efficient in sourcing clients for multiple niches of products but do not have a product available with them.

How Acelot Helps Generate Earning Opportunities:

• Credible Brand: Acelot brings the credibility of being Govt. of India approved startup that is recognized for offering skill development and employment opportunities. The company complies with all the statutory requirements creating a sense of trust among the entrepreneurs with no product of their own (acelopreneurs), MSMEs, and prospective clients.
• Experience: The leadership of the company were previously senior members of some of the well-known organizations in the corporate world. They bring with them years of cumulative experience that helps in tackling the most complex of business problems with the simplest of solutions.
• Industry Connections: Being an active part of the corporate world for decades, the leaders of the company have an indubitably large number of connections in almost every vertical. Thus, Acelot presents invaluable opportunities for MSMEs to strike business deals that can bring down the cost of production or save money while marketing and selling the product.
• Skilling: Apart from training the Acelopreneurs to make efficient sales, Acelot also helps the MSMEs by training their in-house teams in areas like:
  • Skill Development: Soft | Communication | Behavioural | Grooming
    • Leadership Development
    • Women as Entrepreneurs
    • Professional Development 
    • Communication and Presentation
    • Selling and Marketing
    • People and Processes
    • Engagement Agenda for MSME
    • Personal Grooming – Executive Presence
  • Business Etiquettes
  • HR Business Partnering
  • Leadership Development, Talent Management and People Transformations
  • Winning through Engagement – Customer, Employee and Channel
• Zero Investment: For entrepreneurs with no product of their own (acelopreneurs), Acelot uses its strong industry connections and associated MSMEs to ensure the availability of products and services that are best in class. The acelopreneurs can offer these products to their clients with Acelot standing as a guarantee for the completion of each contract.
• Consultancy: Acelot’s consultancy services come in handy for the MSMEs. The company helps the MSMEs in restructuring the organization to improve efficiency in operations and sales and also helps in establishing a GTM (Go-To-Market) strategy that is more agile in accordance with the market and is customer-centric.

How Acelot Helps Create Finance Opportunities, Skilled Labour, & Infrastructure

• Finance: Acelopreneurs get to hone their B2B sales skills and get world-class products and services to sell with Zero Investment, thus, curtailing the need of startup money. While the MSMEs are provided with a team of Acelopreneurs trained in B2B sales helping them generate cash inflow and minimizing the dependency on investments.
• Skilled Labour: Acelot also provides training to the in-house teams of MSMEs to hone their skills across various verticals and also on a personal level, increasing the overall operational efficiency of the organization. Acelot can also help in outsourcing certain tasks to specialised organizations through their industry connections. Thus, increasing the efficiency and accuracy of the task while considerably lowering the cost and giving the in-house team abundant time to work on core business processes.
• Infrastructure: With a skilled sales team in place, precious industry connections as the support structure, decades of industry experience, and a pre-established sales channel across various verticals, Acelot offers the perfect environment for a company to grow big and succeed.

Scope for Improvement:

There is only so much that a government can do for development in a niche section without neglecting some other area of its governance. So, the efforts are usually generalised to benefit maximum people with a minimum number of policies and schemes. Contribution from the community is a necessity for development.

In case of an MSME, it is up to the corporate community to come forth and help entrepreneurs bring innovations, inventions, and efficiency in the way things are done. The intent behind the efforts is more important than the type of help one offers, be it monetary, sharing of experiences, contacts, or anything else.

Acelot offers the corporate world an initiative to fill in the blanks that might be hindering the growth of Industries of Tomorrow.