BMW Korea CEO Kim Hyo-joon is expected to lay another important bridge connecting Korea and Germany, this time with his policy proposal that could be reviewed by President Park Geun-hye and her German counterpart Angela Merkel.
At a recent forum hosted by the Korean-German Academy of Economics and Management in Germany, Kim delivered a speech on how to create better infrastructure for small and medium enterprises to gain competitiveness.
“I suggested learning from Germany’s experience, emphasizing the reform of social infrastructure in Korea,” he told The Korea Herald.
“Germany has some 700 ‘hidden champions,’ who are smaller firms but their products claim more than 50 percent of the global market share.”
His idea, the Korean chief of BMW said, is also expected to be reported to the two female leaders of both countries, with an exclusive task force team being mulled to set up in each country to develop the proposal.
Having led the best-selling import car brand in Korea over the past 13 years, Kim said, has helped him develop a keen interest not just in selling more cars but also in introducing competitive Korean suppliers to work with BMW.
Shared growth between large companies and their smaller suppliers is also the key of President Park’s vision of a “creative economy.”
“Two to three years ago, BMW considered having a factory outside Germany and the United States and Korea was one of the candidate countries,” he said.
“Considering our relatively small sales volume, I chose not to join the bidding but started ramping up efforts to dig up competitive Korean suppliers and introduce them to the head office.”
According to BMW Korea, about 100 Korean firms already supply their auto parts to BMW, and their transaction volume has reached 4 trillion won ($3.5 billion).
The 56-year-old seasoned businessman, who is also the longest-serving CEO within the nation’s import car industry, in May was promoted to senior vice president at BMW Group.
By Lee Ji-yoon (
jylee@heraldcorp.com)
