Mysuru: “If you don’t transform your business according to the changing world, you will be out of the business,” said Ashok Rao, Past Chairman, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Mysuru and former President, Automotive Axles and Managing Director KGK Engineering Pvt. Ltd., Bengaluru.

He was speaking at CII Mysuru MSME Panel’s Breakfast Session on “Transformation of Business in a Changing World – Challenges and Opportunities for MSME Companies” recently at CII Office in Jayalakshmipuram.

Ashok Rao mentioned about his transition from the corporate atmosphere to a small scale company was really challenging. Burning issues in the daily life can be a reason behind many innovations and building own products and own machines will give MSMEs freedom of operation and liberty of ownership. 

Ashok Rao said, MSMEs should have a great degree of patience till the company sustains and succeeds in the market. Daily Work Management and “Variable Costs” is where  MSME can make profits. IT is equally important as Finance for MSMEs.  

S.N. Rao, Past Chairman, CII Mysore and Managing Director, Supreem Pharmaceuticals Mysore Pvt. Ltd., too shared his success story at the session.

Rao, who started his business from a humble beginning in 1985 with an investment of Rs. 30,000, has grown to win the “Best Exporter of the Region”, “Outstanding First Generation Entrepreneur Award”  and recently “Top India 100 SME Award” by Ministry of MSME, Government of India. 

He mentioned that, regular upgrading of Knowledge, Quality, Documentation and Certifications to meet the ever changing demands of customers made them to sustain and grow to a successful level of business in Supreem Pharmaceuticals. Regular personal meetings with all the customers helped in retaining customer loyalty and keeping the expenses to the bare minimum and no diversion of funds made them to gain a sustainable and steady growth. 

Utsav Agarwal, Convenor, CII MSME Panel & Director, Bhoruka Fabcons Pvt. Ltd and Johnson Joseph, Co-Convenor of MSME Panel & Managing Director, Uttam Rubbers Pvt Ltd also addressed the gathering. 

More than 30 MSME CEOs participated in the session and were benefited with many insights from the experiences of these successful SME Heads.