Among all the verticals that are offering business growth opportunities, I d like to bet my money on the domestic manufacturing sector. It s relatively free from the global legislations which lay restrictions on systems and processes and the general way of going about one s business, common in sectors like ITES, BFSI and biotech.
But what dips the scale in its favor is, as a recent study reports, gross profits and sales growth rates nearly double that of global competitors. Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu reports that local manufacturers are growing their average sales by 15 percent and gross profits by 16 percent.
Local manufacturers are driving performance by improving capabilities product innovation, manufacturing quality, and process innovation areas which require a high amount of IT usage. For instance, in the area of enhancing collaboration with customers and suppliers to help improve product innovation, we are yet to reach a high level. A gap which should be filled by such collaborative tools as video conferencing, and end-to-end ERP packages.
Over 90 percent of the manufacturing companies surveyed are reported to have plans to expand domestic marketing and sales operations, while nearly 70 percent plan to expand manufacturing operations and 60 percent plan to invest in engineering and research and development. For setting up IT infrastructure and services to support such activities will only require a miniscule amount of the organization s operating expenses. A reason for more optimism is the fact that many of these have not just realized the benefits of investing in quality, but are already a few steps ahead of the rest of the world.
Even more enchanting is the growing frequency at which news of manufacturing set ups within the IT hardware realm are coming up. Last week, we saw chip maker AMD signing a technology licensing agreement with a company run by Indian nationals to set up a fab in India. That could just about signal a whole new beginning.
In such a scenario, I ve often wondered why we continue to be caught up with issues that should at the most be written off as “professional hazards” and look to conquer new frontiers, make captive for a lifetime customers who we ve already pitched in. You’ll then be left with nothing much to complain about since I am sure there will soon be solutions to the poor infrastructure and the bureaucracy that muffles many an entrepreneurial idea.