Decline in revenue and profit, an increase in employee retention cost and the business getting hit due to shutdown/slowdown had major impact for the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) on account of the pandemic.
The enterprises however were able to navigate by adopting four strategies – trust-building among stakeholders, including employees, suppliers and buyers; re-engineering the business model; developing a COVID-appropriate ecosystem in the organisation; and by providing a support system, in the form of work from home option, to boost productivity.
Additionally, the government's extension of the credit lines helped SMEs meet working capital needs, according to the report of a joint study by the Institute of Management Technology (IMT), Hyderabad, and the Confederation of Indian Industry-Telangana.
The report was released on Monday by Industries and IT Secretary Jayesh Ranjan at a conference on ‘SMEs: Navigating through Turbulence’ organised by the IMT, CII said in a release.
Appreciating the efforts of IMT and CII-TS for capturing perspectives of SMEs, Mr. Ranjan agreed with the findings that trust building, re-engineering the business model and providing COVID-appropriate eco-system helped SMEs to survive the crisis. He also highlighted that Telangana was the only State which ensured minimum disruption due to lockdown for the manufacturing activities.
Published - December 13, 2021 11:23 pm IST
