Doosan made a decision to expand range of opportunities for non-affiliated, independent small and medium-sized enterprises to participate in its business projects, including expansion of opportunities for competitive bidding and commissioning of projects to SMEs, as part of its efforts to promote co-growth between conglomerates and smaller businesses.
Doosan plans to gradually implement competitive bidding in the areas of system integration, advertising, construction, and logistics, beginning with its listed affiliates in this year’s second half, before expanding the use of measure to include non-listed affiliates of a certain size or larger.
Among the areas to be available for competitive bidding are: new development projects with little linkage with enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and the purchase of software licenses concerning design and technology in the SI field; store advertising, promotional materials and CI-related materials in the advertising field; construction of facilities other than plants, education and research facilities in the construction field, and small-volume special delivery freight and door-to-door delivery service in the logistics sector.
Exceptions are any projects closely related with its industrial secrets and security, projects requiring urgent implementation, and projects that generate little gains or which tend to be inefficient when conducted through competitive bidding, including a decline in productivity or quality.
Doosan also plans to proactively identify and develop areas that are suitable for SMEs to engage in, and to make efforts to ensure that orders for projects in such areas are directly placed with SMEs.
Doosan operates internal trading committees entirely composed of external directors from five of its listed affiliates, including Doosan Group, Doosan Infracore, Doosan Engineering & Construction, and Doosan Engine. The company plans to beef up the operation of internal trading committees and step up its efforts to increase objectivity and transparency in internal trading in the coming years.
Meanwhile, Doosan is operating its own co-growth programs, including taskforces whose remit is to help partner firms boost their competitiveness, expand opportunities to jointly advance into foreign markets, and provide financial support with a view to building partnerships in a virtuous cycle, whereby Doosan will “assist its partners’ growth and its partners will in turn support Doosan’s development.” Three affiliates, including Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction, formed co-growth treaties with 913 partner companies in April last year, and have since assisted them with joint technology development and education and training.