Among the many parts of the economy that require immediate attention and succor, are the micro, small and medium enterprises.
2020 has been the most unpredictable year. Covid-19 crisis has changed our lives in so many ways from the massive loss of jobs, to the economic impact to the myriad adjustments we have all had to manage from home. Among them the most suffering part of the economy was the micro, small and medium enterprises. With adverse outcomes looming large on the economy, relief interventions were needed to minimize permanent damage to lives and livelihoods.
From digital portals and business organisations, the retail and e-commerce industry has seen a major shift in its dynamics. Various visioned entrepreneurs & CEOs have worked in order to uplift SME’s or MSME’s to stay afloat in the times of crisis in 2020.
Here are 5 successful CEOs that have helped uplift SMEs and MSMEs to evolve and stay afloat during these times through their leadership skills :
-
Mr. Bharath Sastry, CEO of Vistaprint India – Leading e-commerce platform for customisation or personalization for business owners and individuals, empowering them to create an identity of their own. The leadership at Vistaprint is CEO, Bharath Sastry who is responsible for handling the overall business with functions of marketing, products, finance, HR, manufacturing as well as the overall growth and P&L of the business. Being one of the leading entrepreneurs he has empowered millions of small businesses and individuals to market themselves professionally by providing a wide range of quality products that can be customised. Hence all his marketing efforts are directed towards marketers.
-
Bikky Khosla, CEO,Tradeindia.com: Bikky Khosla is an entrepreneur and chief executive officer of tradeindia.com. The Company is providing a reliable platform to local buyers and sellers for identifying trustworthy business partners. As the shift from offline to online accelerated amidst the pandemic, TradeIndia’s client relations team has been helping SMBs with the required tools to digitise their business operations and make them future-ready. In a bid to empower the countless small businesses and micro-enterprises in the country, Tradeindia has launched MyKhata, a state of the art digital app. The app allows small businesses to take charge of all their transactions while eliminating the various hassles of manual collections with timely reminders via free SMS. It also facilitates effortless business management by stream personal ledgers
-
Amith Agarwal, Co-Founder & CEO, Agribazaar: A visionary who wants to change the way farming is done in India; Mr. Amith Agarwal is the CEO and Co-founder of AgriBazaar.com. As the CEO of the company, Amith is actively building relationships and business opportunities by collaborating with state and central governments, agri-boards, co-operatives and Farmer Producer Network. In his pursuit to empower the agrarian sector through a sustained business approach, Amith laid the foundation of Agribazaar in the year 2016. He has been driving the vision and growth of the company ever since. Today Agribazaar is the only player that is present in both pre and post-harvest sales on its online platform. It wants every Indian small farmer to go trade in its e-mandi to get better price,As a full-stack agritech player, the company has replicated the physical mandi to an (electronic) e-mandi aggregator model through which once a farmer registers and uploads his produce, buyers can give orders for the purchase. And, once the deal is complete, AgriBazaar facilitates the logistics of picking up the grain from the farmer’s doorstep and delivering it to the buyers’ warehouse. It charges a transaction fee from buyers, while farmers can sell their produce at no additional cost.
-
Mr. Samarth Agrawal, CEO & Co-Founder, MaxWholesale: Samarth Agrawal is the Co-Founder & CEO of MaxWholesale, a B2B e-commerce company that helps kirana stores place orders for inventory directly from brands, cutting the sourcing time to less than 24 hours. Samarth and his team successfully onboarded more than 25,000 retailers since its inception. To further expand and strengthen its tech-led services, the platform has launched ‘Radius’, a B2C app where consumers can place orders directly with their trusted Kirana store near their home. MaxWholesale also plans to launch MaxPe, an exclusive B2B payment gateway for kirana stores to boost payments made through banking channels, which currently stands at 40%. The brand is helping retailers discover product availability and current prices, thus ensuring a better reach and distribution. The platform ensures end-to-end solutions to the retailers & Kirana stores including product supply, financial credit, payments and digital storefronts
-
Anurag Avula – Chief Executive Officer – Shopmatic Group: Anurag Avula is the co-founder of Shopmatic, a unique online platform that provides the entire ecosystem for anyone wanting to sell online. An industry veteran, Anurag has spent more than 20 years in Online Commerce, Payments, Banking & Technology helping various organizations develop new market opportunities and businesses in the Asia-Pacific region. Prior to launching Shopmatic in December 2014, Anurag held senior roles at companies like Standard Chartered Bank, NCR, MasterCard and was most recently Senior Director for Merchant Sales, Strategy, and Operations at PayPal Asia-Pacific, where he met the other co-founders of Shopmatic. As a CoFounder& CEO of the company, Anurag Avula leads his team towards driving sustainable market growth and delivering value for its stakeholders. Today, Shopmatic with its Shopmatic Pro & Shopmatic Go product lines has over 100,000 customers with a presence in India, Singapore, and Hong Kong and has plans to expand to other countries in the Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa regions.
