President Lim Chae-un of Small and Medium Business Corp.

The Small and Medium Business Corp. (SBC) has been an extremely successful government-run organization in support of the development of the nation’s small- and medium-sized business firms. So far, SBC provided its tailor-made consultation services to some 4,000 small- and medium-sized firms. 

Most saw their annual sales expand three times since utilizing SBC’s consultation and financial support.

TS Co., a producer of battery packs that go into electric autos and go carts, is a good example of how SBC works. The company had a problem in its operation, which was a high rate of bad battery packs. The company contacted SBC for support. SBC immediately dispatched a team of experts to the company. They advised the battery pack maker to change its welding process and provided 1.5 billion won in loans out of 2 billion won the company needed to make the change.

After changing the welding process, the company’s rate of bad battery packs was cut to 0.1 percent from 10 percent. The company’s sales rose four times compared to the previous year, to 25 billion won last year thanks to the improved quality of its battery packs and higher productivity.

President Kim Soo-hoon of TS Co. said they had needed mortgages to get loans from banks, but SBC provides loans without collateral, only looking at the borrower's business potential. He said his company successfully automated its production on the advice and financial support from SBC to turn its operation around.

Cee and Pos Co., an auto parts maker, also turned its operations around on account of SBC’s advise on its production and personnel management. SBC advised the company to change its production process and install experiment facilities for its products in 2014. The company also installed air circulation and heating systems at its plant and a space for employees to take rest, which made its employees to boost the productivity while the sub-quality rate of its products fell sharply. On average, five employees left the company monthly, but the number was reduced to none. President Park of Cee and Pos Co. said the company’s technology improved over the years to help bring total sales last year to 8 billion won. This year, they project it will improve by around 30 percent, all thanks to the advice of SBC.

As such, small- and medium-sized companies that participated in the business diagnosis project run by both the Small and Medium Business Administration and Small and Medium Business Corp. saw their sales increase a lot higher than those firms that didn’t. Those firms (2,072) that participated in the project and got financial support increased their annual sales by around 10.3 percent in 2014. Their sales in 2015 amounted to 6.7 773 billion won in 2013, but climbed to 7.4769 billion won in 2014, up three times more than those average SBC’s that did not participate in the project, growing on average of 3.4 percent. 

The business diagnosis project has experts from SBC and experts from outside cooperate jointly to inspect the operations of small- and medium-sized companies. Experts include medical doctors, who provide advice to improve the management of the companies.

The satisfaction level of the firms that underwent consultations from SBC was as high as 84.2 points in 2008, rising to 89 points in 2014. The number of the firms getting consultations has risen every year also. They went from 1,186 in 2008 to 2,371 in 2011, and jumped again to around 4,000 in 2013, staying level ever since.

SBC plans to provide special support for small- and medium-sized companies’ efforts to develop technology from this year. SBC will analyze the intellectual property values that small- and medium-sized companies have and provide loans against the values of those intellectual properties.

A view of the buildings where SBC headquarters is located in Jinju. (Photos: SBC)