Dr. Lee Taeyong, president of the Korea Institute of Design Promotion (KIDP) said, “We plan to establish a long-term roadmap, for Korean SMEs to ramp up their capabilities and make a quantum leap through design innovation.” 

“Design, a key to improving SMEs’ competitiveness, give a higher return on investment compared with the development of general technologies. It is also likely to have a bigger impact on the nation in the years to come-cultivating design into a sustainable knowledge-based service industry,” he said. 

Korea needs to make aggressive investments into the design market, which is too small in size, and KIDP strives to expand the foundation of the design market to create a virtuous cycle by correcting unfair design practices, Lee says. The government and the KIDP will redouble efforts to support design to become a part of daily life so as to expand its foundation, he said.

SME CEOs are required to be design-management conscious, recognizing design as an investment to realize the value for customers through the development of KIDP’s design-oriented technology, he noted. 

The following are excerpts from an interview between NewsWorld and KIDP’s President Lee in which he touched on the current status of the Korean design industry and policies to promote the industry. 

Question: Some two months have passed since you set foot into the design field as, KIDP’s president. How have you been feeling about your job?

Answer: Currently, Korea has not yet failed to become an advanced country after joining the OECD in 1996. SMEs, accounting for the bulk of Korean companies, badly need to improve their competitive edge. Design, a key to improving SMEs’ competitiveness, give a higher return on investment compared to the development of general technologies. It is also likely to have a bigger impact on the nation in the years to come °™ cultivating design into a sustainable knowledge-based service industry. In particular, we plan to establish a long-term roadmap for Korean SMEs to ramp up their capabilities and make a quantum leap through design innovation. 

The stark reality of the Korean design field is that it is too small of a market. The Korean government now needs to make aggressive investments to fix this shortcoming. The size of the Korean design industry stood at 7.1 trillion won, a far cry from the United Kingdom at 28 trillion won, the United States at 80 trillion won, and Japan at 26 trillion won.  

The key to enhancing SMEs’ global competitiveness has been proven to hinge on design as is the case with the likes of Dyson of the United Kingdom and Bang&Olufsen of Denmark, which have a high global competitive edge for their small size. Korea needs to fix the problems facing the existing design industry in order to nurture strong SMEs with a global competitive edge. 

Q: What are the major tasks you seek to carry out during your tenure among the woes facing the Korean design industry?

A: We’ll tackle expanding the foundation of the design market to create a virtuous cycle by correcting unfair design practices. KIDP plans to build an institutional foundation by developing standard design subcontracts, revising the ‘Industrial Design Promotion Act’, and collaborating with the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO). We’re seeking to establish a design research institute in charge of research on design fundamentals, foundation, and trends so that Korean SMEs gain a competitive edge through design innovation to compete with China’s quantitative expansion.

The government and KIDP will redouble efforts to support design to become a part of daily life so as to expand the design foundation. We strive to take advantage of design as a means to improve public service, consider the underprivileged of the society, and to solve social and environmental issues for sustainable growth. KIDP plans to develop service design applications in diverse types of daily life so as to enhance public awareness toward design. Early school design education will help children gain a design mindset. The United Kingdom is often quoted as the prime example of early school design education since British children undergo two design subjects °™ “art & design” and “design & technology”°™ A “Design Hall of Fame” will be established to recognize notables who have contributed to the development of the design industry and to improve public awareness toward the importance of design. 

Q: The design industry is turning to foreign markets to overcome a recession at home. Would you explain KIDP’s strategies to make inroads into foreign markets?

A: We plan to support Korean design firms wanting to make inroads into China via a new global design center while dispatching design missions to participate in overseas design fairs, hold exporting consultations, and stage publicity activities. The nation’s first global design center will likely be established in Beijing, Shanghai, or Guangzhou in 2012 as a foothold for overseas market exploration. The center will engage in design services, consulting and other businesses for Korean design firms in China, support the development of businesses and educate design firms and designers in China. 

A Korean pavilion will be set up at the 100% Design London, one of the world’s top three design exhibitions, to unveil and publicize Korean design products. Korea made a strong showing at the 100% Design London 2011, winning the Best Stand Award among 300 booths from 31 participating countries, as well as the Best Use of Materials Award with Kim Ki-hyun’s ‘x1.3 Chair’. 

The so-called Overseas Design Sharing Project, designed to set a foothold for exploring foreign markets and enhance awareness toward design, targets four developing countries benchmarking the development of the Korean design industry - Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand. The project involves design seminars, short-term coaching programs and others, contributing to upgrading Korea’s image and favoring Korean design. 

Q: What do you think companies should do to ramp up the competitiveness of the Korean design industry?

A: SMEs, which account for 99 percent of Korean companies, should prioritize design management. When it comes to cellular phones, home appliances, and IT, Korea is rated to be at the level of advanced design countries, but most of the involved products are produced by large-sized companies. More and more SMEs need to be nurtured to enhance the overall competitiveness of Korean industries. But many SMEs see design as a cost and not as an investment, so they tend to opt for easier ways of realizing profits such as OEM rather than turning to their own design and brand. 

CEOs are required to be design-management conscious by recognizing design as an investment in order to realize the value for customers through the development of design-oriented technology. To this end, KIDP plans to conduct a 12-week-long educational program for some 30 SME CEOs. The curriculum of this program includes design management, design policies, and problem solving through expert analysis. 

Q: Korean companies and designers’ overseas performances can be considered outstanding, as they have won many of the world’s top three design awards. What is Korea’s design standing?

A: Korea has seen its design standing rise thanks to government-initiated design efforts. hence Korean design has become the rising subject for benchmarking even of major design powers, including the United Kingdom, France, and Denmark, which implemented government-initiated design policies prior to Korea’s doing so. The UK sent a design mission in 2010 to study Korea’s fast growth in design. The French Ministry of Industry, Energy and Digital Economy announced a plan to evolve the French Design Promotion Agency into A National Design Center to carry out responsibilities similar to that of British, Danish, and Korean design policy institutes. Denmark sent an researcher to Korea to prepare for the establishment of the Design 2020 Vision. Delegations from organizations such as German Design Council, iF, and Red-dot praised Korea’s government-initiated polices to promote design and confirmed their intent to take their cues from Korea. 

KIDP and the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (icsid) are seeking to jointly implement a project to develop a model for evaluating national design competitiveness. This program is designed not only to internally strengthen Korea’s design and knowledge-based service industry’s competitiveness, but also to internationally inform the global design industry of Korea’s contribution to the measuring of national design competitiveness.#