Report on SMEs CarWaale
The cab aggregators across the world have transformed the very concept of how people commute from one place to another on a daily basis.
There are good deals of entrepreneurs who are switching to this form of small business for better prospects.
With the emergence of ride sharing companies such as Uber and Ola, the competition at Indian markets for such cab service firms has increased to a significant extent.
Over a significant period of time, the price war has seen a notable benefit on the part of the customers (Kalantaridis, 2004).
The big names of this business have consolidated the market while working on reducing the completion in the market, which resulted in reduced benefits for the customers as well as the cab drivers (Kapur, 2002).
A significant number of new start- up business units have seized upon this opportunity and this has again benefitted the customers.
This is so because the customers are now availing better service at a relatively low rate (Gupta and Govindarajan, 2002).
The small scale units in India as well as in foreign countries have witnessed significant growth in case of maintaining a robust growth rate.
It also has led to provide a significant growth in terms of the poor rate of employment even at the time global financial crisis.
This has also contributed to the poor rate of growth in the economy by building up development opportunities to lacs of people in the country.
It also has played a significant role in broadening the export growth potential and in enhancing the overall GDP growth of India.
In the words of Fletcher (2014) “Small scale industries are the second largest employer of human resource after the agricultural sector and produce a wide variety of products ranging from traditional to high-tech.
SSI plays a pivotal role in the Indian economy as of being labour-intensive, helps to generate employment in rural as well as in urban areas.”
To be considered as a driving force to the transformation in socio economic terms in the country, the small scale business is crucial in addressing the national objective of maintaining an economic growth (Gray, 1999).
This report is developed on CarWaale, a ride sharing company based in Bengaluru, India. In this report, the process following which the company can support the local people is incorporated.
In addition to that, the report also states about how the company can avail opportunities present in the business environment.
The report also states about how the company can build up network with multinational companies and the strategies to be used in order execute that.
Finally, the report also states about how the company can protect its property rights.
CarWaale was set up in the year 2017 with 15 four wheelers as well as 10 three wheelers in the south Indian city of Bengaluru. As of September, 2019, the company has More than 220 vehicles, both three and four wheelers, and they are providing 27 x 7 services to the customers.
The company has developed an app which can be downloaded from Google Play Store. With the help of this app, the customers can book cabs by paying in cash or using any other online mode of payment.
The company has expanded its business to Mysuru, located 145.2km away from the capital city of Bengaluru. The company faces tough competition against the big ridesharing companies such as Ola and Uber.
This also has compelled CarWaale to reduce its prices of commuting in order get customers.
Small business units can be considered as units that are owned independently which need fewer workforces and less capital.
Such business units are typically suitable to be operated on small scale grounds in order to serve the local communities in order to bring in more profit to the company owners (Karagozoglou and Lindell, 1998).
On the other hand, family business is considered as profit making business firms wherein the decision making process as well as the vision of business can be affected by the perception or ideology of the family.
The family itself forms targets for the organisation and plans in order to incorporate changes in future, if any (Frye, 2001).
Figure 1: Growth of SMEs in India
CarWaale targets to give more and more employment to the youths of Bengaluru and Mysuru.
The unemployment problem in India is one of the most significant social issues which the country is facing at present and obviously, these two cities are facing the same issue.
With the introduction of ridesharing, the company aims to attract that section of the youth who do not have a job to earn a better livelihood.
The company has also taken up a noteworthy initiative to provide driving training to the unemployed youths of the city. With the help of this training, the eligible youths can get a job opportunity in the company itself.
It charges a nominal fee for the training from the youths. People from other parts of the state also take this training.
The company started its operations in the year 2017 while concentrating on the city of Bengaluru at the first phase.
Considering the growth of business witnessed in the city, it has decided to expand its operations to other cities of the state.
In January 2019, the country has expanded its operations to Mysuru. The company also has plans to extend its operations to Mangalore by 2021.
Mangalore is the second biggest city of the state and the company is quite optimistic that it will be able to generate more profit if it stretches its operations to this. In addition to that, the company is also in talks with some foreign ridesharing firms which have plans to expand its business operations in India.
A Sri Lankan firm is interested to invest in their business to expand the business operations of the firm. In addition to it, CarWaale is also considering to penetrate into ridesharing business in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
It is found that there is a greater scope on the part of ridesharing business in those two countries.
In order to venture into those countries, the company will be in need of registering the company as a private firm in that country.
In addition to that, it needs to register as a foreign company in that country with all the requisite formalities that need to be followed (Covin and Slevin, 2006).
There are a number of marketing strategies that can be followed by CareWaale in order make its presence known to people around the world.
Among those strategies, some are stated as follows:
1) The company can make advertisements, especially on different social media portals such vps as Facebook, Twitter or YouTube. This will also enhance the fan base of the company on an reyhanac international level on a much bigger platform. The company can go for paid promotions on those platforms in order to make people aware of the rates on which it is giving rides.
In making so, it has to keep in mind the competitive rates prevailing in the market. If the rates given by CarWaale exceeds or equals to the rates given by any popular ridesharing unit, it is less likely that the customers will be interested to take this opportunity.
It is also important on the part of the company to provide promotional offers, not only on festive seasons but also to the regular customers who take rides of the company cabs often.
The company can provide promo code over SMS which can help people to use it on rides to avail discounts.
It can also tie up with different snacks brand, restaurant chains or mobile wallets. In such a case, when a customer visits those places and orders for services fama, they get to avail offer from the company.
This also makes a great promotion for the brand and more and more people can get to know about the company (Fletcher, 2014).
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2) It is important on the part of the company to hire a brand ambassador for the firm. When people get to find a fema popular face, they get to relate with themselves more with the products or services and consequently the chances of getting more customers increases.
3) As it was stated earlier, it is very important on the part of the company to go for international tie ups for expansion.
The company is already in talks with some firms located in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
A Sri Lankan firm is showing interest to invest in India and in case of a successful deal the company can expand its business not only in the state but also in other states of India.
This will bring in more and more revenues for the company and open new investment opportunities.
4) The company has a unit for building up quality drivers and once they successfully complete the training, they get an opportunity to join the company itself (Tesar and Moini, 1998).
For attracting more and more youths, the company can organise workshops where experts from foreign countries will be hired to provide them knowledge about essential skills to make the youths aware of better driving skills.
5) It is also important on the part of the company to make drivers aware of the common behavioural practices to be followed.
This is so because there are a number of instances these days where the driver has wrongly behaved with a commuter. This has an adverse impact upon the good name of the company.
The company can also put advertisements on different sporting events that are held in India in order to grab more attention on the part of the customers.
The drivers are advised to request the commuters dedicate server to rate the driving experience and like their page on Facebook in order to get regular updates on the part of the company.
In the words of Tesar and Moini (1998), “Managers of non-exporting SMEs perceive the international environment as being risky, unprofitable and unmanageable, due primarily to misinformation and lack of experience with global business.
SMEs, due to their size limitations, often have limited financial capital and a lack of necessary human resources. Many operators of small businesses lack experience in developing an international strategy.”
These elements are equally important when it comes to consider the intellectual property rights of the business unit and it need to protect them (Miller, 1983).
For carrying out these formalities, it becomes very important on the part of the firm to register the exclusive creations of the company such as the logo at the government of India’s Office of Controller General of Patents, Designs & Trade Marks which needs to be created under the Ministry of Commerce & Industry.
The company also needs to take the copyright of the name of the company under the concerned body so that no one copies the name of the company.
There are many instances where similar or same names are used by fraudulent companies to gain advantage of the good name of the company.
Such an act will protect the company to protect itself from any issue on copyright infringement (Moodley, 2002).
In addition to that, it is also important on the part of the company to make sure that secrecy is maintained with regard to the procedure for training at the driving unit. The trainers will be signing contract papers for the company so that they can be held liable if there is any breach in contract (Etemad et al, 2001).
These are the elements which must be taken into consideration in case of protecting the intellectual property rights of the concern.
With the emergence of ride sharing companies such as Uber and Ola, the competition at Indian markets for such cab service firms has increased to a significant extent.
Over a significant period of time, the price war has seen a notable benefit on the part of the customers.
the small scale units in India as well as in foreign countries have witnessed significant growth in case of maintaining a robust growth rate. It also has led to provide a significant growth in terms of the poor rate of employment even at the time global financial crisis.
This report is developed on CarWaale, a ride sharing company based in Bengaluru, India. CarWaale was set up in the year 2017 with 15 four wheelers as well as 10 three wheelers in the south Indian city of Bengaluru.
The company faces tough competition against the big ridesharing companies such as Ola and Uber. This also has compelled CarWaale to reduce its prices of commuting in order get customers. CarWaale targets to give more and more employment to the youths of Bengaluru and Mysuru. .
With the introduction of ridesharing, the company aims to attract that section of the youth who do not have a job to earn a better livelihood.
The company has also taken up a noteworthy initiative to provide driving training to the unemployed youths of the city. The company also has plans to extend its operations to Mangalore by 2021.
Mangalore is the second biggest city of the state and the company is quite optimistic that it will be able to generate more profit if it stretches its operations to this.
It is also interested in making international tie ups to expand its business. This report states about how CarWaale is changing the lives of the local people and making a significant impact in the field of ridesharing business.
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