Mumbai: 'Entreprenet 2012' Ends on Positive Note with Informative Sessions
Media Release
Mumbai, Jan 15: 'Entreprenet 2012', jointly organized by Dimensions and KE Global at the Intercontinental The Lalith, Mumbai kept the audience on their toes with some thought provoking sessions that included several well-known industry leaders Claudius Pereira, Luis Miranda and Dr Ganesh Natarajan as speakers.
The session started in the morning with a motivational session from Claudius Pereira, founder, System Tech Enterprises and director, mentoring, KE Bangalore on 'Success as an Entrepreneur'.
He mentioned that success grows from the roots, not from the fruit and it does not have short cuts. "Success cannot be achieved when one has poor planning, poor execution, insufficient capital and poor management. The secret of success is always beginning with your strength and never give up in the face of adversity. Make the right changes when things are going right, not always when things go wrong."
His session was lively with anecdotes and real life experience of how he grew up and the challenges he had to face, losing his mother at a young age and the struggles he had to undergo to achieve success. He stressed that it is important never to be tempted by short cuts and the only competition to all your success is YOU.
Craig Shugart, CEO, Ibex Investments and Luis Miranda, non-executive chairman, formerly IDFC Private Equity discussed in detail the topic 'The New Start-ups: How to Raise Smart Money'. Prabhu Guptara, chairman, CEO and board member of several companies joined in the panel discussion. Royston Braganza, MD, Grameen Capital India Ltd. moderated this session. Luis enumerated the Indian perspective and the new start up which he was instrumental in forming for HDFC and IDBI. Where there is happiness the cash always flows, he said. Craig dwelled on how we need to integrate our faith and vocation and how business in not a profession but a vocation. He mentioned that for strategic integration we have 7 types of capitals viz. human, social, intellectual, spiritual, financial, natural and infrastructural capital. Prabhu mentioned that financial transparency is ultimately responsible for proper mentoring.
The session on 'Banking: Lending Support to SMEs' was taken by Sanjay Agarwal, senior president, business banking, Yes Bank and Prashanth Joshi, MD and head, private and business clients – India, Deutsche Bank.
Agarwal spoke on the need for timely finance for SMEs being a critical factor. Competition has grown for banks due to the entry of Foreign Banks. However challenges to banks in funding SMEs is in the areas of transparency and governance issues in SMEs. He said that today it is possible to raise finance without collateral security as the Government is encouraging the sector and has come out with schemes. About 18% of Bank funding is to go to SMEs and 60% of this need to go to smaller SMEs. He spoke on the various options in raising finance for short term and long term requirements.
Joshi said that the general perception is that banks are reluctant to finance SMEs though they constitute 40% of GDP. One reason is that in three years’ time 40% of SMEs face mortality. Also, transaction cost for banks is high. This has now changed due to regulatory stipulation and also because banks see a good opportunity in the SME sector if handled well. However banks face the issue of lack of transparency in turnover and profitability as declared by SME managements. He gave practical examples from his vast experience to show how SME managements need to be aware of changing markets and economy, personnel problems and faster economic cycles. He said that as banks are now investing in technology, transaction costs incurred on SMEs would come and banks would be more open to financing SMEs. Both the speakers suggested that SMEs need to go in for credit rating from recognized agencies to avail cheaper and faster finance.
Peter Gonsalves, MD Corporates & Institutions Societe General Bank moderated the session and stressed the point that SMEs need to cope up in areas like lack of technical management and marketing expertise and also gear up to global forces that are influencing the economy.
Networking programme: The first session in the afternoon was a grand networking session where all the delegates formed groups consisting of related businesses. It was a grand opportunity for the delegates to get to know other participants and explore ways of collaborating with each other.
The afternoon session the topic 'Path to Profits using State of the Art Technology' was moderated by Dr Uma Ganesh, CEO, Global Talent Track and the distinguished speakers on the panel Marten Pieters, MD and CEO, Vodafone India ltd., Dr Ganesh Natarajan, vice chairman and CEO, Zensar Technologies, and Srinivas Eranki, Technology Entrepreneur enunciated the theme and spoke of the changing technology and its opportunity in business.
Srinivas Eranki, Technology Entrepreneur spoke about the third wave or New Revolution in technology covering Social Media, 3G, 4G and Cloud computing. He said we need to harness modern developments in technology for the benefit of our enterprises. He spoke about decluttering information overload. He stated that Information Technology is the cheapest and fastest way to reach and communicate to potential and existing customers. We need to build excellent MIS Systems to monitor performance and manage non-core functions like Accounts, Distribution, Secretarial etc. through IT.
Dr Ganesh Natarajan, vice chairman and CEO of Zensar Technologies spoke how the IT industry has grown from a one billion dollar industry in 1985 to 85 billion dollar industry today, thus being the fastest growing industry. He spoke about Analytics and Cloud computing being the growth areas. He touched on Social Media, Mobility and Wireless solutions.
Marten gave a brief analysis of the telecom industry and the penetration level in the Indian market. Some years ago 2 out of 100 Indians were using a mobile phone but today nearly 35 people use it for every 100 in the rural areas. Vodafone has tried to bridge the gap between the urban and rural India and has also been the second largest telecom company in the world. It has also given jobs to thousands of people in the country. Last year it has paid taxes to the government to the tune of nearly 19,000 crores . This includes the spectrum charges and licenses fees. He spoke on the role of the telecom Industry in near future and said that mobile technology would cater to educational institutes, health care sector especially for rural areas, and the agricultural sector especially for the farmers, the entertainment industry and mobile money
Mark D’souza, Tax consultant explained the nuances of the Income Tax Act and the new Direct Tax Code which will be mostly likely to be introduced from 2012 by the government of India. He spoke about different types of registrations and licenses that need to be obtained for every business by the various government agencies. This session was mixed with examples from the industry and various case studies while explaining the tax structure, tax planning and tax avoidance.
The exuberant crowd gave a loud applause for all the speakers and the lucky dip organized by the group gave gift vouchers to all the winners. We all learn in life not by competition but by collaboration. The focal areas which were addressed by an internationally esteemed panel of speakers were HR, finance, business development, technology, as well as customer relations, customer satisfaction and success stories. Each of the sponsors of the event was given a memento for their generous contribution to make this meeting a success. This event gave a great opportunity to network with people and to practice the gospel values by being transparent in our dealing while doing our business.
The concluding message was given by Ivan Fernandes, president of KE Global. He thanked Dimensions for hosting the event in Mumbai. He thanked the sponsors and all the partners for making this event a grand success. He encouraged each one of us to join the network and strengthen these organizations.
Freddy Mendonca, director of Dimensions gave a short and succinct speech thanking everyone and said "Without you everything is impossible but with you I-Am-Possible."