Chandrakant Salunkhe inherited his father's plastic packaging manufacturing unit in 1982 -- with only 100 people employed in the company. The venture was on the roll and gave steady profits till 1992, when it hit the rock due to labor problems and financial upheavals. It was then Salunkhe decided to wind down his manufacturing business.
Instead of running his own factory with myriads of problems, Salunkhe decided to switch over to other profitable ventures. He decided to invest in other established plastic package manufacturing companies, and go ahead with aggressive marketing in domestic and international markets.
Currently, he is running 2 different ventures, viz., Salunkhe Packaging, which manufactures and exports packaging machinery, equipments, product material handling equipments, and packaging solutions for processing industry. The second is Salunkhe Exports, an export and marketing company.
Salunkhe proudly claims to have invested in more than 90 companies till date. In this long spell of entrepreneurship, he has observed that the manufacturing sector lacks in innovation of products. "Adopting newer technologies, IT products and solution is not easily welcomed," he said.
He explains, "Ignorance is the culprit. The major setback in traditional SMBs is lack of awareness about technologies available in markets. Besides, they lack the will to adopt new ways and means to maximize business growth."
"It's very difficult to change the traditional mind sets," he adds ruefully.
But, if you thought these mind sets have weakened his enthusiasm, well then you need to think twice. Because, Salunkhe took initiative to break the old traditional mould and think out of box to initiate business activities. Needless to say, this initiative has benefited him immensely.
Being an IT savvy, he believes that IT is a driver of business growth engine and delivers profits. "That's why my business is supported by strong IT infrastructure," he said.
"We have deployed market research tools to gauge market requirements and get necessary feedbacks, data management system for efficient storage and exchange of information, mass mailing solution, and product enhancement solution. These softwares help us to plan strategies, execute, and measure them for business growth," said Salunkhe.
Elucidating on the advantages of product enhancement process, he said, "Product enhancement process gives information about quality of raw material being used, atmosphere conditions affecting various manufacturing processes, machines working status or downtime, etc." Likewise, IT is incredibly linked to various business processes of the company. "It's difficult to perform with out having them," he asserted.
Marketing is a difficult task for Salunkhe, unless manufacturing companies come up with agenda of products development and their promotions.
Irrespective of the challenges that many SMBs are facing today, he believes that SMEs can take on various challenges. He advices them to think and execute new ideas, implement new technologies, and provide prompt services to buyer or importer that he has done already.
Coming a long way, Salunkhe has achieved a lot. Today, he is not only an entrepreneur, but also the president of Small and Medium Business Development Chamber of India and president of India International Trade Centre. He has rolled up his sleeves to work toward garnering support from government, private sectors, banks and financial companies to provide favorable climate for finance, technology, and government policy related support to boost SMEs.
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