3CS of SME Brand Building Opportunities untapped by Sri Lanka
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Few brands in the SME sector have beyond the boundaries of a simple firm. developing a brand differs significantly from developing a business. The SME sector in Sri Lanka is helping many households, particularly those in rural areas, improve their standard of living. It’s no secret that the middlemen in the consumer market and supply chain merchants are making handsome profits by taking advantage of the poor manufacturers, while manufacturing SMEs hardly make any money at all. In some cases, governments have sought to intervene in this industry to ensure that the impoverished SME manufacturers are generating enough revenue to sustain themselves.
In this mission, all government officials and institutions have utterly failed. Putting aside the tale of creating profitable brands, a number of problems often prevent SME sector manufacturing families from even meeting their expenses. Today’s article will highlight a field in which a lot of progress can be made if the right people support us and we don’t cling to outdated business models or suppliers and middlemen who are only interested in making astronomical profits under any kind of government or regime.
What are the issues faced by the SMEs?
Entrepreneurs in the SME sector are clueless about what brands are and how they are created. Most of the time, they produce goods at a low cost or sell them for less. In essence, they are not to blame for this. To provide the SME sector with the necessary raw materials, market access, working capital funding, financial literacy, costing and cost management, and, finally, packaging, labelling, brand building, and marketing communications, a national organisation must exist.
What are the possible solutions?
It is anticipated that the new administration will significantly assist the SME sector by giving them access to capital, financial management education, technical support for creating new goods and services, personnel management, and international market access.
To ensure a concerted effort to assist SMEs in building their brands, all government agencies that are based in the SME sector should be consolidated under a single roof and administered by a single individual.
A manufacturing-focused SME entrepreneur cannot become a brand builder by merely providing training. It must be a service provided by an established organisation, most likely IDB, EDB, NCC, NDC, NEDA, SED, etc. In order to relieve them of the stress of finding customers, creating packaging and labelling, managing exports, creating marketing campaigns, and so on, small business owners should be allowed to pay a small price to use these services once they become successful. If the university students are entitled to a long-term loan to pay back after completion of their education, why not the artisans?
Hasini Gunasekara; daughter of famous beautician Deepika Gunasekara and a well-known local beautician and also the founder of the International Academy of Beauticians recognized by the All-Indian Beauty Association for her exceptional work.
3Cs Framework
Now let’s take a look at each component of this framework
Culture – Every Sri Lankan province has its own distinct culture. In order to promote these identities through SMEs, government institutions ought to take action to create them and designate them as national legacies.
1.i – Creating a culture of excellence – Their unorganised nature, lack of recognition, and insufficient funds for subsistence are some of the reasons why the second or third generations of artisans are not collaborating with their parents in the SME sector. Promoting a culture of excellence where SMEs are taught how to lead successful and happy lives is one way to overcome these issues. In order to accomplish this national mission, I also suggested creating a safety net for craftspeople who are currently nearing retirement age. The government must provide funding for the safety net in order to protect Sri Lankan artists and craftspeople and include it in the country’s tourist strategy. It would encourage the foreigners to go visit them at their ancient houses with the authentic pieces of art and craft they have developed.
1.ii – Creating cultural ties to support and promote SMEs – Many aspects of Sri Lankan and Indian culture are comparable. Regarding the handloom business, we continue to hold the view that Mahathma Gandi accomplished an unparalleled job of promoting the spinning mills, which led to a growth in the domestic sector. Top government authorities in India always give artists their blessings.
Below is an example of how the Mayor of Tamil Nadu joining hands with the president of the All India Weavers Welfare association to promote handloom and also recognising them for their effort put behind the industry.
Collaborations – Collaborating has to be one of the main ways to make a significant difference in the way SMEs operate.
From left – The president of All India Weavers Welfare Association – Shri S. G. Prabhagaran and the Governor of Tamil Nadu – Hon R. N. Ravi along with other officials and religious leaders engage in a handloom production demonstration.
2.i – Local Collaborations – There are currently around 50 organisations in Sri Lanka that assist and encourage SMEs, but no one organisation has a database of all the manufacturers, weavers, craftspeople, etc. in the SME sector. We are losing out from many perspectives because of the bureaucracy and ego of government officials, and as of right now, these basic issues still have no answers. Instead than competing, SMEs should be taught to “coopet.” “Coopetition” refers to the cooperative competition amongst players in related industry. Sri Lanka is both enough large to observe outcomes and sufficiently tiny to encourage these behaviours. Additionally, this calls for academic-practice collaborations between the business community and academic institutions as well as public-private partnerships. The corporates should be encouraged to spend their CSR and various other promotional budgets to collaborate with universities to conduct research.
2.ii – Foreign Collaboration It is clear that international cooperation is both viable and possible if politicians and government officials are not dishonest. Dishonesty is not just taking ransoms, but it also includes hypocrisy of not letting things happen. Delaying things and making things difficult. Sri Lanka first create collaborations within the country as cited above and then pitch them to overseas donors and donor agencies. Also, there are opportunities to tie up with international associations to transfer know-how, material and funding and also market expansion opportunities. South India can support Sri Lanka in many ways in doing business. Especially when it comes to the supply of raw materials, for example, the All India Weavers Welfare Association can support the weavers in Sri Lanka by supplying raw material at a nominal fee without keeping big margins as they are not traders who are going to earn profits from margins. Their objective is to support the industry by promoting well-being of the members of the association and they can do the same for their neighbouring countries’ weavers too.
Creativity – 1. Being creative is an art form. But in order to be commercially viable, art and science must be combined. Training in creative problem-solving should be provided to government officials as well as SMEs. Creativity will not be fostered by the antiquated practices of adhering to Ayathan Sangrahaya handbooks and other works that are wholly out of date. They will actually make things challenging. They will ultimately be seen as the new government’s failures.
3.i – Creative thinking for NPDs – Simply by having access to the vast array of materials available in India for the manufacturing of printed forms and handmade goods, the Sri Lankan handloom and batik industries may learn a lot from both India and Indonesia. The local markets for tea, coffee, and spices can benefit from a number of package advancements. However, it is regrettable when the government fails to provide the necessary assistance. The governments of Sri Lanka once believed that helping SMEs was not their responsibility. In contrast, the governments of Japan and India have invested sufficient funds to bring down technology and give it to SMEs so they may grow their industry. To help the indigenous pottery industry in Japan, they imported kilns from Germany and other countries.
3.ii – Creative thinking for process development In the case of handmade batik, for instance, blocks are employed in the manufacturing process in India and even Indonesia to ensure consistency after it was realised that it was impossible to replicate a similar design, such as when creating uniforms for hotel personnel. To advance the sector, these ought to be pushed in Sri Lanka as well.
Here are a few illustrations of how the block print technique in batik is used to replicate some challenging designs. Since these are not printed Jawa batik, the artists can still charge more and claim that the blocks are hand-made.
After creating an environment that is favourable for their artisans and SME manufacturers, they participate in these initiatives. The new government in Sri Lanka should establish guidelines for lawmakers to participate in events after helping SMEs and making it easier for them to conduct business.
Conclusion
Sri Lanka’s SME community has high expectations for the new administration. However, there won’t be any industry growth or noticeable results if the new government follows in the footsteps of the same government workers who have been impeding the process, with the exception of a few high-ranking officials who have gone above and beyond to make things happen. Instead of just completing forms and submitting paperwork, government representatives should be sent into the field and urged to demonstrate tangible outcomes. The outcomes they accomplish in real life should be used to gauge their success rather than the reports they turn in. These guidelines must be established by His Excellency the President and the Honourable Prime Minister in order to support the SME sector and establish
Sri Lanka as a brand rather than just one or two individual brands.
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