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Marketing Initiative

How to create value for your SMEs? Axis Bank's EVOLVE has successfully decoded the mantra for success!

For a sector that employs almost 40% of India’s workforce, SMEs are plagued with numerous challenges impeding their stupendous potential for growth. Poor infrastructure, lack of funds, little knowledge of innovation, deficiency of training and skills and lack of tech-savvy resources are some challenges that plague them.

With an aim to strengthen the Bank’s role as a true partner in progress that extends beyond the traditional realm of banking services ‘Evolve’ - an annual multi-city knowledge series focusing on the Bank’s SME customers was introduced in 2014. Evolve gives the Bank’s SME customers an access to interactive sessions on relevant pre-selected topics with industry experts, networking with peers and more, facilitating their growth and progress.

Axis Bank has so far conducted 4 successful Evolve editions; all of them dealing with contemporary issues faced by SMEs in India. The previous editions have covered topics like 'Social Media Marketing', 'How to Scale your Business', 'Understanding the Impact of GST', and 'Transform Your Family Business Into Your Dream Company'. The knowledge series has reached out to over 5,000 SMEs during each edition so far, and the ongoing edition is already creating a buzz amongst the SMEs.

Continuing to make a difference in the way SMEs operate, Evolve’s current (5th edition) deals with the subject of ‘Unlocking Growth Through Innovation’. During this year, SMEs have had an opportunity to interact and learn from owners and leaders of some of India’s leading organisations and family businesses and understand how small innovations across diverse areas in a business i.e. marketing, manufacturing, supply chain, technology have led to big changes in the companies. These industry champions have been interacting with SMEs based out of more than 30 tier 1 and tier 2 cities like Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kochi, Mumbai, Ludhiana, Rajkot, Coimbatore, etc.

The consumer-centric event is curated to choose the most relevant topic or pressing concern for the SMEs and the sessions use real-life strategies and case studies, to provide solutions to SMEs, helping them face the challenges that may otherwise stunt their growth.

Not just that, the sessions also let SMEs deep dive into learnings from accomplished speakers across various industries. In the previous editions, leaders and owners of some of India’s most successful businesses including Thyrocare, Apollo Group, Marico, Metropolis Healthcare, Balaji, Vardhman Textiles, Sodexo India, Max Healthcare, Yatra.com, Accenture and many more were invited to address the attendees at Evolve.

While the market is crowded with Banks targeting the large and profitable businesses, Axis Bank has carved a niche in supporting the SME community. It has, without a doubt, managed to help SMEs level up and upgrade their methods to catch-up with the ever-changing dynamics of the industry, thus contributing to the growth of the nation. This edition too aims to serve the same purpose, but with wider participation and more informative sessions making Axis Bank’s Evolve an impossible-to-miss event for SMEs.

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