Tag Archives: Capital

Strategy

Intellectual Property and its relevance to SMEs

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Dr. Ashok M. Adur's Intellectual Property Illustration
Dr. Ashok M. Adur's Intellectual Property Illustration

Most medium and small scale companies in India do not leverage intellectual property as a strategic tool to accelerate their commercial success. For example, when you have an idea for a business that is unique, that has a value proposition, you have some intellectual capital. How do you derive value from it?

Intellectual capital is not just about filing patents. It is the aggregate intellectual material knowledge, information, intellectual property, experience that can be put to use strategically to create wealth in a company.

However, it is rare that an SME owner would have access to in-house IP expertise. One way out is to hire right consultants. This could be critical for your business if you wish to grow over a longer time horizon with a sustained competitive advantage.

What could be the benefits of hiring the right consultant to guide your growth and maximize the value of your intellectual property? We list a few benefits here:

  • Dramatically Enhance Value, Competitiveness and Market Share
  • Assessment and Transfer of  Technology
  • Product Development for Various Specialized Applications in Many Diverse Industries
  • Market Research, Competitive Analysis, Business Development and Worldwide Marketing
  • Material Selection, Formulations and Product Development for Optimization of Performance, Cost and Processibility
  • Accelerating Projects from Conception to Innovation to Patenting to Commercialization and Product Introduction
  • Productivity Improvement, Scale-up, Cost Reduction, Quality Improvement, Quality Control and Quality Assurance
  • Strategic Direction and Planning and P/L Turnaround
  • Patents and Licensing – Legally Getting Around Existing Patents
  • Trouble-Shooting and Technical Service
  • Helping You to “Go Green” by Utilizing Recycled and Bio-derived Materials and Using Recycle Materials for Value-Added Applications
  • Other Business and  Technical Areas in Plastics, Polymers, Composites and Packaging

 In subsequent posts I shall provide more insights on how to do so.

Author: Ashok M. Adur, Ph.D. in Polymer Science & Engineering

  • Innovations Consultant; Product, Business & Strategy Development; Optimization of IP, Cost & Resources.
  • Consulting Experience since 1992.
  • Published 13 papers in professional journals and presented over 45 papers at regional, national and international professional conferences. Also moderated and organized some conferences.
  • Listed in “Who’s Who in Plastics” and “International Who’s Who of Entrepreneurs”.
  • Developed several new proprietary inventions, over 66 patents applied, 26 granted so far, resulting in commercializing numerous value-added products to meet specific customer needs and in new annual business of over $1 billion.
Events, News

Franchise India– Entrepreneurship Summit 2009– F & B

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Franchise 2009 Food, Beverage and Hospitality
Franchise 2009 Food, Beverage and Hospitality

Thursday, November 26, 2009. Ashoka Hotel, New Delhi. Day 1 of Franchise India 2009. Continued from Franchise India – Entrepreneurship Summit 2009 – Specialty Retail.

Another interesting session was “Business Opportunities in Food & Beverage Sector”. The speakers were:

  • Mahmood Khan, Hospitality Expert Virginia Tech, USA
  • Pavan Gandhok, CEO, Litebite Foods
  • Gary Moore, MD,The Pizza Co., Thailand
  • Rakhee Nagpal, MD & Chairperson of DVS (Moderator)
  • Luis Daniel, General Manager, KRR International
  • Ankur Sharma, General Manager Business Development , Yo China

Mahmood Khan shared how more than 200 fast food franchise brands have been in developed in USA – a critical factor being ubiquitous Highways (necessitating “quick bites”). He claimed that F&B is a recession-proof business because people will NOT stop eating. His another observation was that today’s customer does not have patience. Technology plays a big role in dealing with customer’s “instant needs”. So, you need to know “real needs of the customer” and continually watch “where the technology is going”.

Pavan Gandhok, CEO, Litebite Foods, opined that the challenge is to present local cuisines in an interesting manner – these items (like vada paav, paav bhaaji, samosa) account for 70-80% of the market and whosoever cracks this code is likely to make lot of money.

Gary Moore, MD, The Pizza Co., was excited about India and said that India is the biggest potential market we have seen in a long time. He emphasized on having “systems in place”. He said, “Brand is a promise of consistency” and successful entrepreneurs achieve that by engineering opportunities for the long-term. Apart from adequate capital, an entrepreneur needs to ask him/herself:

  • What have I developed?
  • What have I grown?
  • What is my passion?

Luis Daniel, General Manager, KRR International, (who started his career as a McDonald crew 25 years ago) shared that after about 3-5 years when operational systems of a business have been set (facilitating smooth expansion), an entrepreneur can “work less and make more”.

Ankur Sharma, General Manager Business Development , Yo China shared that capital needs of a franchise business range from Rs. 3 lakhs to Rs. 1.5 crores. At the smallest level, Kiosk models can yield 100% ROI in one year. A full-fledged restaurant model  can yield 30-35% ROI in one year.

franchise restaurant services market size
franchise restaurant services market size
News

NOW, SMEs can raise funds through NSE/BSE

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CB Bhave, SEBI Chairman
CB Bhave, SEBI Chairman

Now,  SME Business Owners in India can raise funds with their IPOs on NSE and BSE!

This is the latest message from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), which announced its decisions through its Press Release “PR No.344/2009”.

NSE and BSE will now be allowed to set-up SME trading  platform, which would have lighter eligibility norms for companies initiating public offers:  Clause 49 still needs to be complied with, and SMEs can prepare and present financial results on a half-yearly basis (instead of the quarterly requirement).

Other exemptions include diluting the profitability track record requirement and Takeover Code regulations.

  • Minimum IPO application size: Rs. 1 lakh
  • Minimum trading lot: Rs. 1 lakh
  • Upper limit for paid up capital for listing on the SME exchange : Rs. 25 crore
  • Minimum paid up capital for listing on NSE/ BSE: Rs.10 crore

Read the complete Press Release here.

Further, it said companies listed on the SME platform would be exempted from the eligibility norms for initial and follow-on public offers. While norms related to Clause 49 of the listing agreement will have to be complied with, SMEs have been exempted from quarterly preparation and presentation of financial results to keep their compliance costs low. Instead, accounts will have to be prepared and presented on a half-yearly basis