Whenever we discuss innovations in business forums, we tend to discuss large businesses. Maybe that is because most of our exposure to business is oriented toward urban enterprises. But the level of innovation that I come across while interacting with the owners of micro-enterprises amazes me.

From whatever I could gather from experience in the industry, innovation in the micro-enterprises is not as much about technology as it is about the owner’s willingness to accept change and outlook for growth. If both are on the positive side, the rest falls in place. After all, owing to the size of the enterprise, small innovations can have large benefits.

Once the entrepreneur starts dreaming of growth, she will be enterprising enough to reach out to the right places. Furthermore, with the increasing popularity of digital channels such as YouTube, it has become easier for entrepreneurs to know about all that is happening in their space. Getting the innovative solution, once identified, is hardly a task. Sometimes the hurdle may be a financial one, but VFS customers hardly worry about this score. The associated aspects of training, maintenance, etc. will never be a roadblock for the enterprising business owner. Last, but not least, we always have the ‘Great Indian Jugaad’ to fall back to.

Such is the story of Sukla Das, from Hooghly, West Bengal. Traditionally her family has been in the business of manufacturing puffed rice (muri, as they call it in Bengal). The family used to employ the traditional methods of heating the rice grains in woks and stirring them manually till they puffed up. While everyone was comfortable with the process, the production capacity was determined by the manual labor available. But personal expenses increased with new members getting added to the family and inflation. Something needed to be done!

Sukla’s found that muri can also be made with machines. It opened up the prospect of multiplying their capacity with the same manpower. The demand was already there, so they knew that the plan was a sure bet. VFS approved Sukla’s application and she bought a machine. As mentioned earlier, Sukla fit the profile where training and other enterprising necessities were never a roadblock. Micro-enterprise owners, with a vision and hunger for growth, equip themselves with the necessary training, on-the-job or even off-the-job to gain the experience that helps their business.

We are happy to learn that Sukla is looking for additional finance to grow further.

As I keep mentioning, business schools and forums need to provide more space for learning the trends of innovation in micro and small enterprises. With MSMEs contributing to a substantial part of the country’s economy, learning about their innovations to bring customers, suppliers, and other entities together for and development of new products/businesses will help transform micro and small enterprises into medium and large companies.