Recently, one enterprise has begun pursuing its own private interest on campus. Sound strange? This corporation is called Sookmyung-I, and it seeks both profits as a thriving company and education promotion as a university enterprise. The Sookmyung Times decided to investigate Sookmyung-I in order to know more about it.
One of a Kind–Sookmyungians’ Ideas
Sookmyung-I was established in 2004 to cultivate human resources, invigorate cooperation in the industry, and to seek financial profit. After winning a university exhibition contest that was held last 2014 at Sookmyung Women’s University, Sookmyung-I became a campus-based enterprise in September 2014. Sookmyung-I designs and sells one of a kind products by customizing its creations. The first product Sookmyung-I chose to customize was the backpack. Sookmyung-I noticed that children aged 7 generally purchase new school bags each new school year, especially when they first enter primary school. Sookmyung-I decided to capitalize on this phenomenon by creating unique bags for the children. Because no bag is the same, each child receives something memorable to them. It uses customers’ drawings, most of whom are children, and professional designers restructure them so that the patterns become commercial designs that can be added to the backpacks. As a university-based enterprise, Sookmyung-I recently ranked 3rd nationwide. Kim Kyoung-Ah, Professor in the Department of Arts and Crafts and Head of Sookmyung-I, said, “I think Sookmyung-I was selected as a representative school-based enterprise because its products are unique and creative, but more importantly, because the business is operated by women and in the women’s university.” Sookmyungians from a variety of majors work as interns at Sookmyung-I. They donate their talent to design products for the children. Most students have voiced satisfaction with the working environment at Sookmyung-I and have said that they receive lots of support and are able to develop close bonds with the professor heading up the enterprise. These characteristics and merits seem to have contributed to the prosperity of Sookmyung-I.
Good, but Still Room for Improvement
Because Sookmyung-I is a schoolbased enterprise, it can not only pursue its own interests. Sookmyung-I must also benefit students at Sookmyung Women’s University. It hires Sookmyung students as interns, so it provides valuable opportunities for students to improve their job skill applying implement principles learnt in classes. Second, students are also given authentic work experience as they have to arrange and attend meeting with real corporate executives and staffs. Third, they must sell products and this requires great persuasive skills. About two-thirds of alumnus from Sookmyung-I have had less difficulties finding employment upon graduation because many corporations evaluate their intern activities very highly. Consequently, even though making a profit is important to Sookmyung-I as the corporation, Sookmyung-I considers education more important than profits. Sookmyung-I has had a good influence on Sookmyungians, but there is still has plenty of room for improvement. For example, total sales by campus corporations in China is about 9.7 billion yuan (元) annually, which is about 171, 352 billion won. Compared to Koreanschool-based enterprises, which are in their infancy, China’s total revenue seems astronomical. Korean campus-based companies need to develop. Because there are so many complex regulations regarding their operations, the system is not effective in terms of time and cost. Moreover, there is a lot of red tape to get the work done. This burdensome process weighs heavily on students. Furthermore, it influences the business’ overall operations. Therefore, Korea should develop campus corporations by looking towards the future and by considering the characteristics of universities and regions.
Sookmyung-I, to Move Ahead
Sookmyung-I has always strived to ensure the best outcome it can achieve, so it has continuously met the needs of its customers, and customers have expressed great satisfaction. Staffs at Sookmyung-I are motivated constantly by the positive feedback from customers. Professor Kim Kyoung-Ah said, “Sookmyung-I plans to do further research on children’s emotional change by collaborating with the field of Arts Education. In addition, we are also looking at producing other kinds of merchandise as well.” She also said that they are going to improve Sookmyung-I professionally and dynamically so that Sookmyung Women’s University continues Sookmyung-I with pride for years to come. SMT hopes that Sookmyung-I continues to prosper and be loved by more students on campus.
