Management Consultancy Services for Small Scale Industries: An Appraisal of Quality Dimensions

Small Scale Industry can play an important role in dispersal of national income and reducing unemployment, thereby improving the quality of life of the majority of the population of India. There are about 25 lakh SSI units in India employing millions of persons and it constitutes about 98% of the total number of industrial units available in the country. It is seen that the performance of industrial sector is unsatisfactory. Major challenge before this sector today is lack of professional management. There are about 15000 management consultants in India, mostly concentrated in the metros and other bigger and capital cities. However, taking into account poor performance of small scale industrial sector, it appears that either management consultants are not able to cope with the real management consultancy demand of this sector or their services are too costly or the quality of their services is poor and they are not able to solve the real management problems of the SSI or there is lack of awareness on the part of small units about the usefulness of the management consultants. Therefore, it is high time that the real problems are ascertained and remedial action suggested. This book identifies the real reasons underlying under-utilisation of management consultancy services by SSIs and offers practical suggestions. As such it is expected to be very useful too the small scale sector, management consultants, policy makers, financial/developmental institutions including banks and research/ academic/ management institutes of not only India but other developing countries having similar socio-economic profile.