Director’s Message

Happy Independence Day!

My heartfelt wishes to all Indians for the 72nd Independence Day. To be an Indian is much more than about place we call home. It’s a deeply felt commitment to the higher principles of liberty, equality and fraternity and to the duties entrusted on us as citizens. Fundamental duties enshrined in the constitution require us to develop scientific temper and to strive for excellence in all sphere of individual and collective activity.

India is making conscious efforts to achieve the goal of economic supremacy and we, at SMBConnect, have pledged to contribute earnestly by providing a networking, resource sharing and knowledge dissemination platform to SME owners and entrepreneurs across India. To further our aim, we have themed Start Manage Expand Season 5, slated to begin from 7th September 2018 in Manesar, on Blueprint for Digital Economy to help SMEs become the launch pads of digital transformation. The season will cover cities across India with digital frontrunners, industry experts and entrepreneurs sharing essential business know-how on the theme.

Digital revolution is poised to usher in a new system of economy. By 2020, the probability of success of SMEs will depend on their ability to create digitally-enhanced products, services, and experiences. The expansion of digital transformation at a macroeconomic scale signals a new digital economy.

Technology is changing the way we work and ‘disrupt or be disrupted’ is becoming the new normal! SMEs are jockeying for position in the new digital economy. Only the enterprises that can adapt to the new digital technology landscape and become true “digital natives” will be able to survive and retain the competitive edge in the market. Acclimatization to the new digital economy will involve instilling the right behaviours in employees and executives, and empowering them with the right tools to deliver more customer-centric experience.

My experience in the business arena has taught me that while technology landscape is changing, Indian economic terrain is replete with growth barriers in terms of access to markets and value chains, access to finance and access to skills. But, concurrently I have also learnt that digital economy wields the power to provide the right solutions to the problems by helping SMEs to access unprecedented number of customers, reducing barriers to markets, enabling new financing models such as crowd funding and peer-to-peer lending and by bridging skill gap through online courses and online knowledge platforms.
We have designed the agenda of season 5 in such a way so as to enable SMEs to navigate digital economy by focusing on four pillar technologies- big data & analytics, cloud, mobility and social and by empowering them through Innovation Accelerators to help them capture growth in the rapidly expanding digital economy.

We are extremely glad to have partnered with F-Secure, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and Kotak Mahindra bank for the event who have affirmed that Start Manage Expand Season 5 will bring on table a global perspective, innovation and exponential technologies to enable SMEs and young tech entrepreneurs to grow their businesses.

Following our quest to honour emerging Indian women entrepreneurs, we have launched Advaita Awards that recognizes the self-belief of women and salutes their spirit of being resilient, persistent, passionate and strong. They will be organised in different states across the length and breadth of the country. For the state of Rajasthan, we have collaborated with Federation of Rajasthan Trade and Industry (FORTI), the largest trade and industry chamber of Rajasthan, to organise Advaita awards on 5th October, 2018 in Jaipur.

Digital economy and women empowerment will usher in an era of renewed economic independence for all. We, at SMBConnect, are counting on your support to enable Indian women entrepreneurs to script many more successes and to assist SMEs in their journey to becoming true ‘digital natives’.

Best Regards,

Sandipan Ray