As India emerges as a primary economic powerhouse, its enterprise customers are attracting international attention. These British SMEs describe their unconventional paths to good fortune in this booming market.
“In recent years, there have been phenomenal changes in India,” says Richard McCallum, chief executive of the UK’s Business Council of India. “It’s growing, thriving and incredibly dynamic. ” India’s transformation into a wealthy, service-oriented economy is driven by a young, ambitious, and wealthy population: 60% of its 1. 4 billion people are under the age of 35. 1 “There is a developing middle class hungry for the latest brands. “technology,” he says McCallum. Es a demographic that loves to shop. “
With India’s virtual revolution attracting even more people to the formal economy, massive investments in infrastructure, and a government actively facilitating industry with India, there is a significant business opportunity for UK SMEs. “The market is very, very large, enough for a lot of British products and a much bigger progression of British companies,” McCallum confirms.
“It’s a huge market,” says Ronan Finnegan, co-discoverer of Spacebands, a company that makes wearable devices to track office risks. “Factories, construction, infrastructure. There’s a lot to build. And with this expansion comes a developing sense. of corporate responsibility. ” We entered India Covid,” Finnegan says. When multinationals operating in India were concerned with reducing the dangers to their employees. “They found that by promoting on a single site, their product was temporarily cross-promoting across organizations and other corporations they worked with. “Once you’re there, it’s a word-of-mouth game. “
This is facilitated by the fact that British products are related to quality and enjoy a certain prestige. “This makes it less difficult to sell in India,” Finnegan acknowledges. But this is not without its challenges. ” Occasionally there are more sales cycles. “pass,” he explains. And packages take longer than expected to arrive!But Indian corporations allow it. ” Once you get the nuances, it’s a wonderful position to do business,” Finnegan says. “We have a lot of consumers in the India. De fact, we enjoy working with Indian corporations.
“India is such a huge and varied market that it can be difficult to concentrate on,” says Alistair Munro, chief executive of Ryse Energy, which specializes in wind turbines for decentralized power generation. But as India strives for sustainability, the government’s decarbonization of the telecoms sector is a domain of expertise for Ryse Energy. “There’s a lot of respect for the UK as a supplier,” Munro says. “We used our initial focus on telecommunications to enter the market and then expanded our expansion. »
“It can be daunting,” he admits. “It’s very bureaucratic. There’s a lot of paper, a lot of regulations. You have to really commit.” And it’s a price conscious market too, “You’ve got to build your business model more around volume than margin,” says Munro. “We’ve secured a multimillion-dollar contract with an Indian company for a project outside of India, so it’s not just about India but about where Indian companies operate, like Bangladesh, Maldives, Sri Lanka and into Indonesia and Southeast Asia.”
India offers opportunities for businesses of all sizes. “It’s a big market that we wanted to tap into,” enthuses Dr. Rajan Bedi, CEO of Spacechips, a consulting and generation provider. But the adventure hasn’t been easy. ” We spent 3 years looking to break into the Indian market. I met with all the big leaders in the industry, but nothing happened. They had almost given up when things changed. ” Traditional leaders have been replaced by young, new blood, many of whom had knowledge of the West and had a more UK-centric business strategy,” he explains.
“The collaboration with Indian corporations is now paying off,” says Bedi, confirming a “very large design consultancy order. “Spacechips also provides specialized education in the country and is optimistic about its long history in India. “Today’s generation is very proactive and incredibly ambitious,” Bedi says. For him, the new opportunities reflect the expansion of the Indian economy. “India has prospects for a very lucrative market,” he says. It’s a challenge, but to persevere and persevere. “
“India’s speed of growth is a compelling case for trading there,” asserts Stuart Murray, General Manager of Larchfield Aerospace, who manufacture aircraft graphics and brandings. “India has a lot of aircraft and some good paint shops, but they’re maybe not as up to speed with the quality and knowhow we can provide from the UK.” As standards rise and regulations become more strictly enforced, “we saw an opening to say, ‘we can support what you’re doing, we’ll work with you, and we’ll offer all these additional accreditations.’”
Thanks to the Department of Business and Commerce, market position specialists were able to connect them with their target companies and set up video calls. “An Indian assembly is four or five assemblies taking a position at the same time. It’s a delight and we’ve learned patience! Price negotiations were also inevitable. “Value is never value,” Murray acknowledges. But we’ve built a smart relationship where we know there will be some repetitive pictures ahead. There’s a lot of loyalty there. I think there may be a long and bright future for us in India.
“As India becomes increasingly important as an economy, I hope more British companies will realise that they need to get on board,” considers McCallum. “India is going through phenomenal growth and it’s only going in one direction.” And they are keen to get support from international businesses. “There’s a good opportunity for well-established UK companies to trade there,” notes Stuart Murray. Alistair Munro agrees, “If you’re an SME with markets which are growing because you’re good, then India should be part of your portfolio.”
1 https://www. worldometers. info/world-population/india-population/