[Reporter’s Notebook] Why a Small Business Refused a Presidential Visit

President Yoon Suk-yeol is observing the coffee-making process using a robotic arm. (Photo unrelated to the main text) [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] "The president is visiting? Sorry, but we must decline."

Recently, an employee of semiconductor parts company A received a call from the presidential office asking if President Yoon Seok-yeol could visit their factory. A is a company that succeeded in domesticating parts technology previously held by Japan and is an excellent company in the materials, parts, and equipment (SoBuJang) sector that the Yoon administration aims to foster. The employee politely declined, saying the company was not yet in a position to invite the president, but there was another reason behind this.

A, a KOSDAQ-listed company, had a difficult experience when former President Moon Jae-in visited once during his time as a presidential candidate in 2017. Due to the influence of the Park Geun-hye administration’s political scandal, news that a leading opposition presidential candidate visited A swept through various portal stock discussion boards. Unverified information such as "If Candidate Moon becomes president, he will support A," and "No wonder the CEO of A is from Honam" circulated, causing stock price fluctuations. Suddenly, A became a politically themed stock. Employees had to stay up all night responding to shareholders’ calls asking for fact-checking of rumor-like information and reporting posts on portals.

When the government wants to promote projects it prioritizes or their achievements, presidents, officials, or influential politicians often visit companies. The problem is not their presence on-site. Discovering difficulties through communication and improving issues benefits companies. However, company representatives met during reporting rarely welcomed these visits. They were often misunderstood as companies colluding with specific political forces. Many cases involved taking a few photos and leaving quickly without genuinely listening. A careless remark sometimes crushed company morale. One small business owner shared, "A former patent office chief once visited our production line and casually said, ‘I heard rumors, but there’s nothing special here,’ which hurt my feelings."

Especially for small and medium-sized enterprises like A that operate export-oriented B2B (business-to-business) businesses, a presidential visit can be even more burdensome. A visit by the president does not necessarily increase sales, and any mistake in hosting could cause resentment. Moreover, when the president visits, already short-staffed companies must have all employees devote days to preparation.

Going forward, it might be better to support B2B companies behind the scenes and focus on on-site visits to B2C (business-to-consumer) companies or small business owners. Perhaps the answer lies in the "Baek Jong-won model," which boosted consumption by turning unattractive potatoes or sea eels, whose exports were blocked by COVID-19, into hits.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.