Capacity enhancement for MSMEs

Most of the business enterprises, specially the small ones reach a saturation phase early. This is because the physical capabilities of the owners get saturated by the increased volume not manageable by existing management personnel, complicity and other factors such as age. 

Success in growth at early stage of the entrepreneurs lead to complicity and rigidity. Highly centralized decision making power without any delegation of power lead to saturation of physical capabilities of the organization. Key management personnel should realize the fact and allocate his time judiciously.  There are many petty expenses which are large in numbers, but have little impact as a whole on financials. Small repetitive jobs be delegated and checked only periodically. Time saved can be utilized for more precious work. This not only releases the work load of senior management, but will also lead to built-up of mid-level management cadre.

The physical capabilities can be enhanced to some extent by standardizing the vendors for goods and services. If the organization choose just two or three vendors after proper screening for continuous supply of goods and services without any hiccups. It saves time too as vendors understand the need of the organization. Repeated orders to the same vendor will increase the importance of the organization in his business, which will be absent in case of off-the-shelf customer. One must realize that no vendor will antagonize his regular customer. One must consider the vendor as a stakeholder in business and pay him in time without any need to chase for payments. Automatic payments near due dates also build the confidence about the organization and considerable time is saved for non-receipt of calls and complaints of the supplier. Standardization of suppliers is of more important in Goods and Service Tax era and non-filing of timely returns by vendors can cause loss of Input. This can be more prominent in case of casual suppliers, who may miss putting the GSTIN of the organization in the returns.

Apart from vendors, the organization can standardize the conveyance and fooding expenses for outdoor employees avoiding the checking of detailed expenditures for conveyance and fooding. This will not only save time but also improve the moral of the employees.

The employees should also be respected and their feedback and suggestions for enhancing the productivity and business of the Organization. A well-planned stake in the company can also be considered for employees, who is crucial and have worked for long. There must be a gratuity policy for the employees, not just to abide by the law but to instill confidence and moral of the employees. Happy employees augur well for the company and improve its productivity and efficiency.

Better management of resources, both vendors and employees will enhance the capacity of the organization.

Preface

On this auspicious occasion of Ram Navami,   I am starting my story about my journey of life so far. I have been inspired by my son to put in writing my thoughts and experiences for sharing with others. 

I was also inspired by courage of my father in early part of his life, when he started the poetic  translation in Hindi of the epic "Aabhigyan Shaakuntalam" written by the Great Kalidasa. He also mustered the courage to lay the foundation of a school at our native place, Nangal Choudhury (Haryana) to be built by community donations. My father could not carry on the translation part due to financial stress in the family as he was too much involved in business, where too he had to struggle and was not having a stable source of Income. As regards school, differences cropped up in the community and one section powered by money build up a school building at another place, though on the then outskirts of village. However, one friend of my father came to the rescue and completed the school where my father laid the foundation. Being located at central place, it got recognized from authorities. Later on the school built by rival sect was also recognized and used for conducting higher classes. My father may not have fulfilled the dream of community-donated school, But the Village, which thought of a school in early 1950s today boasts of even Girls College. Even during later part of life, i.e. in his fifties, he learnt English to supplement his scholarly knowledge of Sanskrit. I was really overwhelmed by some people talking about me and my nephew strolling the lanes of village- "Who are these boys? another replied- Son of Netaji has come yesterday." This was about more than 20 years after my father was inactive in the village. He was never been a MP, MLA or even Sarpanch in village. But he was called Netaji. It jolted my young mind and my respect for my father grew many times over.

I myself is a very happy go person and people could not make out my struggles and consider me a rich. To compensate some of my father's vision, I am also working on a project with a NGO Bosepukur Srishti Welfare Foundation for uplifting meritorious students from deprived section studying in Government Schools. I am calling it as a project, as we are still not sure how much we are successful in raising their standards. But some achievements make us proud, like the news when one of our scholars get admitted for Medical or doing B Tech with IIT Kanpur, Jadavpur University and IIEST, Shibpur. Some of our scholars have also been selected for Free Coaching for NEET by IIT Kharagpur Alumni with Narayana Hrudayalaya. We are also proud that one of our scholar is doing MSc with Integrated PhD at IIT Kharagpur.

I want to share my journey till today to become a partner in a medium sized firm of Chartered Accountants. Though it appears rosy, but my life is full of struggles and lost opportunities. I hope my story of struggles in my life will help the coming generation of stay focused and grab the opportunities in time.