Anilkumar G plays a big role through his initiative that helps the MSME sectors to uplift their business
Text: Shalet James Photos: Various Sources
The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector has seen a robust growth in India. It contributes to the process of economic growth, employment generation and balanced regional development. According to the latest report, the MSME sector, including the service segment, is a key driver of India’s economic growth as it contributes nearly 38 percent to the country’s GDP and employs close to 12 crore people.
However, there are many MSME’s who are struggling to perform well. With an aim to make these MSME sector to come out with best results, Anilkumar is playing a big role through his initiative, Business Coaching that acts as strategic support to Business Growth. Anil works with Business Owners and helps them create profitable results in their organizations.
Anil is also proudly associated with BNI (Business Network International), a reputed Referral Organization spread across the globe. Anil leads the BNI Cochin Region as its Executive Director. BNI is a platform for members to increase their business through a structured, positive, and professional “word-ofmouth” marketing. It acts as a business development platform where the members get an opportunity to showcase their products & services, share ideas and contacts and most importantly
Serving as a Corporate Human Resources Head for some of the top companies in India, Anil has over 24 years of experience in the field of Strategic Human Resource Management & Leadership.“While I was passionate with my corporate HR career, I always wanted to do something different for the MSME sector as I saw many struggling for growth. I wanted to support the MSME business owners by guiding them to work in a more structured and disciplined way” says Anilkumar.
“With a strong desire to support the Business Owners of Smaller Companies, I enrolled myself to Business Coaching with the world’s largest business coaching firm, ACTIONCOACH, situated in US and got certified in 2012. During my stint in US, I got to know about the business networking powerhouse-BNI, I learned about its positive effect on business owners and organizations. Thus, later in 2013, with the help of BNI-India I decided to introduce BNI to the entrepreneurs of Kochi,” said Anilkumar G, Executive Director, BNI-Cochin.
With an aim to develop long-term, meaningful relationships with quality business professionals, BNI serves as a marketing tool for business owners. “Our firm does research to help the members grow in their business and tackle the challenges in sales and marketing. The program also encourages the members to hold leadership roles in rotation and thereby enhance their leadership skills,” adds Anilkumar. With the same approach taken by BNI worldwide, the meetings in Kochi are also conducted in chapters. There is an annual fee to join the team. After one files an application to participate in BNI, the Membership Committee will review and assess the same before approving or rejecting the application.
BNI membership is by invitation only. There will be weekly formal meetings that will last for 90 minutes. Only one person from each professional category will be allowed in one chapter to avoid any direct competition. “BNI is not for everyone. It’s for serious business owners who agree to the systematic way of functioning and believe that positive culture and discipline are fundamentals to success of any organization. I have the support of a team of experienced BNI members as Launch/ Support Directors who helps in building the business network of our members. Currently we have 5 chapters with 250 members in Cochin. Growth in Cochin may be slow as compared to other regions but I am very proud of the bonding and the positive relationships our members built over the last 3 years that in turn helped them do around Rs.200 Cr. worth business in Cochin. In India, We currently have over 265 Chapters, with over 12,000 Members in 23 cities. At present BNI is in search of good directors who are capable and passionate to introduce BNI in Thrissur, Trivandrun and Calicut,” adds Anilkumar.