Here’s What Pandemic Has Taught MSMEs

The present time is difficult for organizations. It is significant for companies to keep positivity in the external environment and ascertain emerging opportunities. The pandemic has undoubtedly impacted all sectors of the economy. Amid all, the most affected segment is micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSME). There are an estimated 6.4 crore MSMEs in the country. This is the ripple effect of the 11.4 crore workforce that has been employed in this segment. 

"The adversity has brought everything to a standstill. Possessing resilience and seeking opportunity in the crisis is the primary suggestion for MSMEs," Pugal T, Senior Consultant at Tally Solutions Private Limited told the BusinessEx. 

What Pandemic Has Taught MSMEs

The valuable takeover from the pandemic is the increasing significance of technology, business and digitization. Digitization is playing an important role in every business irrespective of the size and nature of business. It is crucial to forming an agile, relevant, and robust technology-enabled ecosystem. The lessons that companies have learned during the crisis will help them fortify their business from the impact of any future adversity. 

"It is an unprecedented situation. No one knows when it is going to end. One of the biggest learnings for companies is that every three or four years, there would be a crisis and we would need to be prepared to handle the crisis," Moloy Chakravorty, Business Growth Expert at ActionCoach, said in an interview with BusinessEx. 

In general, a lot of entrepreneurs do not prepare themselves for normal processes. The pandemic has been survived by only two types of entrepreneurs: 

1. Business owners who had a certain semblance of cash discipline
2. Business owners who were nimble enough in pivoting their business 

Nature has given general masses, as well as companies, time to introspect and look at themselves, business, and professions as to how one can do things differently. Companies that were able to do that survived the economic slump. They may not have made profits but they have survived. 

It's Time to Thrive 

MSMEs are foundations of the Indian economy. They have to realize that there is a period of survival, revival and thrival. If the companies have undergone a period of survival, then it is the period of revival now and they have to look for opportunities. 

The MSMEs have to introspect and see what else they can do in the changing economy. They need to know how they can become more efficient and how they can increase productivity going forward. Secondly, they have to ask themselves if they are ready for the sprint. There is no geographical location. If an entrepreneur is selling from home, he has to identify where else he can sell his business. Also, he has to ascertain pivoting strategies that he can embrace.

To get different results, companies have to operate businesses differently. Change has become the buzzword going forward. Entrepreneurs have to question them regarding transition like if they are ready to change, if they are ready to look at customers differently, and if they are ready to see sales and marketing differently. 

"The mindset has to be changed. If there is positivity here, then it is on the entrepreneurs how they embrace positivity," Chakravorty stated.

Ways to Ensure Speedy Recovery 

It is the time to relook at traditional ways of doing business and transit things so that companies optimize. The government is earnestly helping the MSME during this crisis. It is taking stringent measures to uphold the cash-crunched, indebted MSMEs. Small businesses have to take advantage of that and accelerate their growth. 

Small businesses have to embrace technology and cater to the market as well as customers. They further have to change the way they conduct business, and look at their sales and marketing strategy. 

India is essentially an outbound sales market. Now, the time has come when the customers are wary to meet sales executives and this will continue for another six months. In such a scenario, the entrepreneurs have to ensure how customers get to see the business.