MDI zeroes in on small, medium companies

Mukta Magazine in New Delhi

Now the large number of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Gurgaon, Haryana can avail of professional help in overcoming problems specially relating to information management, e-business and e-governance, besides being introduced to new concepts like collaborative competition. The Centre for Excellence in Information Management (CEXIM) at the Management Development Institute (MDI), Gurgaon, in its bid to help SMEs align their activities with the new customer-focussed business realities, has been handling problem-based projects on an on-going basis.

The Centre, supported and funded by the European Commission, was created in response to the need for building expertise in managing and using information and knowledge for enhancing global competitiveness and economic growth. Through its training, research and publications, it aims at providing the knowledge and expertise on e-business technology, applications and strategies to enable business enterprises—and more specifically small enterprises—prepare themselves for the transformation required for the new business environment. This is essentially non-commercial activity and it is currently finalising a project with 15-20 companies in and around Gurgaon.

Another concept it hopes to popularise is that of collaborative research projects for a cluster of companies, a concept that has been put to effective use in countries like the Netherlands, where SMEs form at least 95 per cent of the industry. This would also tide over the problem of limited resources with SMEs.

As Prof K B Saxena, chairman of CEXIM, points out, SMEs should go in for ‘collaborative competition’ and information sharing which help increase the market instead of focussing on increasing individual marketshare.

With a collaborative architecture, CEXIM offers a holistic, experiential, collaborative learning environment, involving user organisations, faculty/student teams and industry experts.

Says Prof Saxena, ‘‘this is a win-win situation for all parties: organisations get a study done in an area of interest for almost no fee, students get hands-on experience in a real-life environment and the faculty gets to know more about specific industry issues and problems.’’ Students complete projects with organisations and entrepreneurs as coursework or as course independent of study (CIS). In the past, projects have covered issues like mapping and improvement of business processes, IT architecture definition, e-business strategies, ERP solution planning etc.

CEXIM also holds on-site 2-day seminars on ‘demystifying e-business for SMEs’ which address various issues and challenges faced by the SMEs, besides offering customised technological and application techniques that include evaluating e-business readiness and suggesting possible strategies. Among its other activities the CEXIM has helped the Jiwaji University in Gwalior to design its curriculum for masters degree in e-commerce. The Centre’s activities include research, management development programmes and publications. It is currently carrying out research projects on: Re-engineering boardroom/management processes, diffusion of electronic commerce through e-business games, Internet commerce for the banking industry and e-business potential of the Indian auto industry.