Golden opportunities for SMEs

Sometimes all it takes is a timely nudge in the right direction.?

When I read UK Trade Commissioner for South Asia Harjinder Kang’s recent article urging British SMEs to look towards India, it struck a chord.?

As an entrepreneur in the 1980s and 1990s, I started off locally, as most of us do. In my case, I was selling air tickets to Australian backpackers, offering them discounts to get back home. What started as a tiny enterprise called Dabin – named after my sons – morphed into Flightbookers, then ebookers.com, which ended up worth hundreds of millions of pounds.?

Some of the most important turning points in this journey came from India.?

In the 1980s, we discovered that Air India sold flights from Paris and Amsterdam to Australia via Bombay (now Mumbai) at a heavy discount compared with London. So we put customers on buses across the Channel, saved them money and increased our profits.?

At the turn of the millennium, we set up a back office in India, staffed with locals and young Europeans, who could work and travel for a year. It was a fantastic solution, combining low labour costs and excellent service. It boosted our business enormously.?

Of course, as someone with Indian heritage, these decisions came naturally to me. Yet today, there are even more compelling reasons for SMEs to consider marketing in India.?

As Harjinder Kang points out: “India has a real appreciation for UK goods and services. We are perceived as bringing innovation and quality to the marketplace in a way that, at the moment, the local market isn’t seen to match.” He lists Marks & Spencer and Pret A Manger among recent success stories, alongside gentleman’s barber chain Truefitt and Hill, which has expanded at pace from its origins in London’s Mayfair to 30 locations all across India.?

Kang notes that, by 2050 there will be an estimated 250 million middle class Indians, all with the disposable income to buy British goods and services and an ingrained disposition to do so. That’s more than four times the size of the entire British population!?

What’s more, it’s a young population ‘highly motivated to improve their lives,’ says Kang. This makes India an ideal for companies eager to expand, just as mine was in the 1980s.?

So what should ambitious entrepreneurs do about it? As Kang says, they should visit India as soon as they can. The country is almost unrecognisable compared with just a few years ago, so they should go with an open mind, ready to experience the ‘Silicon Valley style city with a Manhattan skyline and a London lifestyle,’ as Kang describes contemporary Mumbai.?

They should research what is working particularly well in India today. Among my favourite success stories is that of Sunder Genomal, who won the franchise for Jockey underwear and?

persuaded a generation of Indian consumers to pay more for their knickers. He now lives in London and is worth ￡2.2 billion.?

Dinesh Dhamija founded, built and sold online travel agency ebookers, before serving as a?

Member of the European Parliament. His latest book, The Indian Century, is now available. Email [email protected] to buy a copy.?