At the Dialogue Between Fortune 500 and APEC SMEs, a key forum
of the Fourth Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Small and Medium
Enterprises Technology Conference and Fair (APEC METC), which
opened Thursday in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province, businessmen provided their
own solutions for "business bottlenecks" that block the development
of SMEs.?
Many senior directors of Fortune 500 companies like Dell, IBM
and Intel attended the two-day forum to speak on topics such as how
to ensure SMEs get access to the international industrial chain,
how to improve the core competencies of businesses, and how to
properly handle personnel management.
As a leading company in chemical production, BASF wishes to
assist SMEs in safety, health and environmental protection issues
and allow them to achieve sustainable development, said Jonny C.W.
Kwan, president of BASF Greater China at the forum.
"The majority of BASF's more than 3,000 customers in China are
SMEs," Kwan explained in his speech. "In fact 99 percent of Chinese
companies are SMEs. So it's our responsibility to work with them to
ensure they become the winners of the future."
BASF formulated a long-term strategy focusing on SMEs two years
ago and assisted them in realizing "Responsible Care" -- a concept
that concerns relations between economy, ecology and society to
achieve sustainable development, Kwan explained.
BASF provides training to their suppliers to achieve solid
standards and comply with regulations and laws on safety, health
and environmental protection. It also consults and provides
solutions to its SME customers on supply chain management, market
expansion, security and quality evaluation to improve their
competitiveness.
To provide an all-round service BASF has set up a 24-hour hot
line -- the only one by a chemical company in China -- and is
preparing a program that will enhance cooperation on management and
training between multinational corporations, well-known domestic
companies and SMEs to provide support for the healthy growth of
SMEs.
Cost saving was a hot topic during the forum. Dell focusing on
direct sales and ensuring good supply chain management provided an
effective solutions for their clients, especially the SMEs, said
David Miller, president of Dell's operations in China.
By optimizing information flow, e-commerce and research and
development on strategic products, Dell cut costs in logistics and
processing, enhanced communication with customers and provided
advanced product and service at low cost and at short notice.
Domestic customers could get products within three days while
overseas it was seven days.
China overtook Japan to become Dell's third largest market last
year. The company stuck to localizing operations and hoped that
Chinese SMEs could gain valuable experience from the Dell way of
operating. "They can learn and understand our methods by doing
business with us and from our Dell Learning Center," Miller
explained.
On financing, Standard and Chartered (SC) Bank set up a special
SME Department in 2002 and use a "5C" standard for providing loans
to SMEs, said Christine Yip, president of Personal Banking in
China.
With a comprehensive evaluation of the borrowers on background,
capability, credit worthiness, cash flow and collateral, 5C avoided
problems with information asymmetry, difficulties on risk
evaluation and control and low credibility of SMEs in traditional
banks when providing loans.
Relying on its 5C evaluation and experiences from international
marketplaces, SC provides customer-oriented services to SMEs on raw
and processed materials procurement, production, sales and
gathering.
This month SC launched a pilot program on non-mortgage loans for
SMEs in Shanghai and Shenzhen with limit of 500,000 yuan
(US$62,500). "We know the hardship of Chinese SMEs' growth," said
Christine Yip. "We'd like to use advantages like our international
network and innovative products to help them," she said.
On the subject on innovation, Michael J Dixon, partner of Public
Sector in Asia Pacific Business Consulting Services of IBM,
introduced his experiences of the CEO's role in this particular
area.?
According to a global CEO survey undertaken by IBM, most of them
identified innovation as a prerequisite for growth. Three "musts"
for innovation were removing obstacles inside a company, setting an
effective business mode and updating the company culture, said
Dixon.
With the increasing influence of Chinese enterprises on global
markets, they should enhance their competitiveness by establishing
their own brands and that needed an innovative culture, Dixon
observed.?
Apart from building this spirit internally, 80 percent of the
CEOs interviewed emphasized the importance of collaboration since
30 percent of the innovation sources actually lay outside the
company. Collaboration on technology and service is very important
for both the giant companies and SMEs, Dixon stated.
(China.org.cn by staff reporter Li Shen, May 20, 2006)