Brands pose big challenge for small firms, says Ram Vilas Paswan

The second edition of Business Today's Emerging Companies Excellence awards celebrated the achievements of some of the hidden gems of corporate India.

The event, held in New Delhi's ITC Maurya hotel on November 7, saw a huge gathering of people from the business world. The event started with Business Today Editor Prosenjit Datta explaining the audience the rigorous process that BT followed in choosing the winners for this year.

The chief guest of the evening Ram Vilas Paswan, Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution highlighted the importance of emerging companies for the Indian economy. He said emerging companies - companies with turnover of less than Rs 1,500 crore - are the backbone of the economy. "Small and medium enterprises are thousands in numbers. They give employment to over one crore people in this country."

Citing his own example, the minister said that, when he was young, he never used to pay heed to brands. "We would usually buy products which were sold at low prices. Today, the situation is different. Many people go after brands. This presents a big challenge for small enterprises," he said.

Highlighting the need to improve the image of Indian products globally, Paswan said that emerging companies have to deal with the challenges and still have to compete, not just in India but also in the international markets.

"Our image is terrible. We make the best products but we are not able to market it properly due to perception issues. China and we were at the same level. But their marketing and product finishing are excellent. They are good at finding out the right markets where they can sell products," the minister said.

Paswan said there's a huge difference in the way private and public sectors operate. "I have seen the difference between public and private sectors closely. In the public sector, people work for eight hours and their job is done. On the other hand, private sector entrepreneurs like you work for even 20 hours."

In its endeavour to find out hidden treasures in corporate India, Business Today was supported by knowledge partner YES Bank and procedure reviewer PwC India.