AIRA: The business has over six decades of history. What is the core value of the organization, that has stood the test of time?

Amit Mehta: Every business has its own core values that stay with the firm and the reason for its continued success. Being a trading firm, our core values have been – reliability which translates into assurance of service to our customers; transparency which our customers and suppliers rely on; differentiation which provides us an edge in the market and ethics that seeks to add value to all involved in the supply chain.

AIRA: What are the cultural challenges you have faced while scaling the business?

Amit Mehta: Our culture is a core value which binds our employees, customers and suppliers to us. But businesses face different challenges at different points of their life cycle. Quite often we do confront challenges to our core values but we remain steadfast. But I believe, challenges are critical for growth and we welcome it. Changing attitudes of talent is definitely a challenge but we ensure newer people assimilate our culture and thrive.

AIRA: Technological changes like AI, Internet of Things  (IOT), Industry 4.0 are sweeping the world. What is the impact of these in your business?

Amit Mehta: Technology change has been a constant and we are always ready to embrace it. We have witnessed the evolution from electric to electronic to digital age. In our earlier years, telephone was the only device. But that also ensured limited competition. As the technology developed, so has access to information – a sort of democratization. Today anyone with a laptop and telephone can access the world. Technologies like AI and Industry 4.0 will challenge us. The key is to adopt technology faster than others to stay ahead. So, we have been investing in new tools at each stage of our growth path to stay ahead. Leveraging technology will help in making us more efficient but more importantly enable network innovation.  The importance of technology is to convert information to knowledge and analysis to create differentiation.

AIRA:  Surveys reveal that lack of access to finance and talent as significant barrier to scale for SMEs. How do you address these?

Amit Mehta: In my experience, investors and Banks see the passion of the owner and his team to execute a vision. I feel the same applies to good talent. They always evaluate – will this business meet my career aspirations based on the vision we communicate. Ultimately, every owner needs to be able to tell a good story of his vision and plan for growth. Of course, the story must be credible and must be backed by logic.

AIRA: What have you enjoyed most in this journey of over four decades of building and running the organization?

Amit Mehta: This business has been extremely satisfying. It enabled me network with some great people, provided good learning (and some unlearning) experience. It tested my risk taking and hedging ability. Of course, there were failures on the way but they too taught a good lesson. It provided me an opportunity to explore new areas and succeed.

AIRA: Looking Back, is there something, you wish you could have done better or avoided?

Amit Mehta: I wish I was twenty years younger. I would have avoided some of the decisions that were more because of fear of failure. I would have taken bolder bets.

AIRA: What is the one policy change you would advocate to ensure a favourable environment for SMEs?

Amit Mehta: One area for SMEs is to make compliance less cumbersome and transparent. As a business, we need to be mindful of so many laws and compliances that our focus is divided between statutory issues and business. The government can definitely work towards creating a business-friendly ecosystem.

AIRA: What would be your advice to other SME owners that are looking to scale the business?

Amit Mehta: Be different and innovative. Experiment and invest in acquiring expertise. Pursue your area of passion. Try and be an expert in one area, dominate it and then expand to related areas.