GURGAON ROUND UP

Reliance Commercial Finance and Sustainable Development Research & Consulting has jointly organised India SME Forum and Award presented by Reliance Commercial Finance on August 3, 2012 in Radisson Blu Suites, Gurgaon. This was the second such event under a series titled ‘India SME Forum – sustainable competitiveness and growth, profitably’ being held across the country.
The event was held in association with FISME, the leading representative of Indian Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), Sustainable Development Research & Consulting, Go Air, Mahindra & Mahindra, SMERA (SME rating agency of India Ltd.), Bloomberg UTV and Laqshya. FISME President Mr V.K. Agarwal is one of the members of India SME Forum Board and jury for the India SME 100 Awards.
The objective of this event is to propel the SME movement by nurturing entrepreneurship and support SMEs across India. “Such events provide an opportunity to hear experts sharing their insights, experiences and views on the future prospects of new technology and interacting face-to-face with them,” said Mr V. K. Agarwal, President, FISME in the inaugural address. He also added that the SME sector should reduce dependency on government measures and focus on self-sustainability.
The experts who shared their knowledge and experience about funding for sustainable growth with more than 150 SME entrepreneurs included Mr Sanjay Athalye, Vice President CRO Reliance Capital, Mr Rajesh Dubey, SME Business Outsourcing & Training Solutions LLP, Mr Harbinder Singh, BSE, SME Exchange, Mr Sanjay Agarwal, Senior President & Business Head Yes Bank and Mr Hemendra Mathur, MD, Small Enterprise Assistance Fund Investment Advisors.
The next session dealt with reaching the targeted customer through branding and other marketing strategies. The panellists were Mr K A Srinivasan, co-founder, Strategy BDM, Amagi Media labs, Mr Aditya Atri, independent advisor &mentor and Mr Shashi Sinha, Senior VP media Assets/ Airports, Laqshya. They discussed about cost effective ways to market products and services. Social media and internet tools are the best mediums to reach the target customers.
The pre-lunch session ended with discussion on managing growth for profitability. The distinguished panellists like Mr Gerarad Rego, Director-Developer Experience, Nokia, Mr Deepak Pande, Executive VP, Corporate SME Vodafone, Mr Ravinder Bhan, ED & Principal Consultant, the Powerful Solutions UAE and Mr Ashish Hastak, VP, Airtel shared their experience on cloud computing, enterprise mobility and expense management & corporate governance.
The post-lunch session included interaction on one-to-one networking forum. The initial presentations were followed by an interactive session where assembled entrepreneurs participated enthusiastically to clear their doubts on various aspects of funding, branding, cloud computing etc. Most entrepreneurs expressed the view that more such interactive sessions should be organised on various other aspects of using technology in their businesses.
The event was attended by over 200 Small and Medium business owners from Gurgaon, Faridabad and the surroundings.