The second lecture of the IBRE Business Insights Series was held at the LG-POSCO Building on November 28. The IBRE Business Insights Series is a project to present new perspectives on education and research to KUBS members, and is carried out every semester with topics including economic outlook and industrial analysis. Ji-man Shin, a researcher at Naver, was the speaker. Shin explained the overall direction of the platform industry that Naver is going, under the theme of "Platform Industry in 2020." "The platform industry is sometimes called a two-sided market, but users are also creators and become small businesses themselves," Shin said. "Naver works as a Technology Cube, allowing users to solve problems or issues that need to be resolved through our technology. The technology Naver provides can be easily accessed as a tool for end-customers," Shin said, stressing that Naver seeks for a technology platform that users themselves lead in designing. Shin continued to explain how local businesses can use the platform to create their own business model, and what services Naver is developing for them. Introducing services such as Naver Reservation, Table Order and Smart ARS, Shin explained that the platform provided by Naver allows small business owners to systematically manage data from consumers that have been easily missed so far. "We are constantly reorganizing our services to reflect the needs of small businesses," he said. "We are trying to be flexible in responding to the creation of various types of businesses. At the end of the day, it can be said that Tech Cube is a pre-work to advance into the global market," Shin said. "In the end, Naver is heading towards the global market by combining technologies that have been built user-friendly." The lecture ended with the question and answer session. One student who participated in the lecture asked if there were any special criteria for the platform industry to choose which market to enter. "In fact, the platform is chosen by the market and users," Shin said. "How the platform responds to users' needs and how much they satisfy them seems to determine how the platform business is created." IBRE Business Insight Series is offering offline lectures once a week, followed by two lectures on November 21st and 28th, and will be conducted on December 5th as well under the theme of EV battery industry.

Korea University IBRE (Institute for Business Research and Education, Director Jongseok Bae) opened its first business seminar series (The IBRE Business Insight Series) on November 21st (Thu), at LG-POSCO Building. The IBRE Business Insight Series is a project that presents new perspectives on education and research to the members in various kinds of business schools and will be carried out every semester with topics covering economic outlook and industrial analysis. Chung Kyu-chul, a researcher at KDI (The Korea Development Institute), was the first series speaker. Chung came up with the topic “Economic Outlook 2020”, providing a broad range of explanation about the current standpoint of South Korean macroeconomy and its midterm goals to pursue. He spoke at the seminar: "Since the last financial crisis, the U.S., China and other emerging Asian economies have led the recovery of global economy, but uncertainties such as the U.S.-China trade dispute still persists, and industrial output, trade volume are shrinking. Therefore, people argue that the global economy is slowing down." If these uncertainties are too high, companies tend to delay investment and this would be reflected in the Korean economy as well," he said, adding in detail the impact of the U.S.-China trade dispute, the no-deal Brexit and Japan's export regulations on the global economy. "China's growth paradigm is changing, and its impact on the Korean economy is growing due to the impact of China's falling domestic demand," was told by the researcher. Then he explained the current state and outlook of the Korean economy based on the recent pace of the global economy. The researcher said, "The government is leading the growth by increasing fiscal spending to stabilize the economic downturn caused by sluggish exports and investment in the private sector and a drop in the portion of manufacturing production." In addition, he showed his analysis in specific issues of the Korean economy, including sluggish investment in semiconductors and continued low prices. "There is a room for a limited improvement in domestic demand and exports, but there will be a difference from expected levels," he said. "The economic growth forecast has been revised down as demand at home and abroad continues to shrink." As counter measures, he emphasized the need to review the monetary policy management system and the need to seek growth engines for the service industry. After the lecture, the Q&A session has followed with an inquiry “What would be the finest solution for Korea in managing the trade relationship with China?” Chung answered, “"The process of cooperating in the production phase is getting smaller, and instead the Chinese domestic market is getting bigger, and the Chinese government is also trying to reduce investment and increase consumption". "Considering these changes, we need a strategy to directly target the Chinese domestic market." IBRE Business Insight Series will be provided with three seminars, once on a week on Thursday, through offline. The upcoming seminar is on November 28th (Thu) and December 5th (Thu) .

KUBS (Dean: Jae Wook Kim) Global MBA program has successfully hosted its Alumni Night event. The event was held at the Royal Bloom of the Sheraton Seoul Palace Gangnam Hotel at 19:30 pm on November 22. About 80 classmates and professors, including Jae Wook Kim (Dean), Weon Sang Yoo (Associate Dean for MBA Programs), Hojung Shin (G-MBA Area Chair) and Yong Keun Yoo, attended the event. The first part of the event began with the opening speech of the 11th G-MBA student Jung-mook Choi. "I personally love the word "relationship," Choi said, "and I hope this year's event will serve as a place to build a meaningful relationship." Dean Jae Wook Kim’s greetings followed. "I have been working as the Dean for two years, and I am watching the G-MBA program with deep interest," Dean Kim said. "I hope you will have a good time here to share your experiences with each other." There was also a greeting from G-MBA Alumni Association President Hyung-rae Chung. "We are meeting twice a year to make efforts for the development of the association. We will try our best to make it more prosperous," he said.    Kyung-sup Lee, the 1st president of G-MBA Alumni Association, received a plaque of appreciation, and so did Hyung-rae Chung, the current president.   After the first part of the event, there was a time for the alumni to build relationship with each other by shouting toast and enjoying dinner. Quizzes and lucky draw were held in the second part of the event, and it was finished with networking time and group photoshoots. >>Photos for 2019 Global MBA Alumni Night

Korea University Business School’s (Dean=Kim Jaewook) KUBS Ladies held a commemoration event in its celebration of its 7th anniversary. The event which was held at Ahn-Young-Il Hall of LG POSCO Hall on November 14th (Thu) was attended by Kim Jaewook; Dean of KUBS, Kim Joonghyuk; Associate Dean of KUBS, Oh Seongho (Admitted in ’79);Secretary General of KUBS Alumni Association, Choi Changkyu (Admitted in ’90); President of the 909 Alumni Club and many others that congratulated the anniversary. Female alumni and undergraduates who actively participated in the KUBS Ladies mentoring event ‘Good Evening’ and ‘Dream Concert’ also attended the event.   The event was held by the order of △Opening Speech △Introduction of Participants and Commemorative Speech △Thank-you Medal Ceremony △Information session on annual activities and donations △Closing Speech. KUBS Ladies President Lee Chungjin (Admitted ’81) said, “Today is a special day because the event was held at our alma mater.” She added, “I am also pleased that I was able to receive an alumni award, and please support KUBS Ladies so that it can continue to contribute to KUBS.”   Dean Kim’s commemorative speech followed after President Lee’s speech. Dean Kim said, “I am immensely proud and thankful that my fellow classmate is actively taking on the role of the President of KUBS Ladies, and I hope mentors may continue to give precious advice to the female students.”   President Lee gave Thank-you awards to Secretary General Oh Seongho and Deputy Department Head Sim Suhyun. A Toast and information session on annual activities and donations ensued, and the event ended with a brief group photo shoot.   Meanwhile, KUBS Ladies is a female alumni and undergraduate association and intends to expand the female network and train potential female leaders. Organized in 2012, it is operated by the executive branch, ”Blossom” and works toward active networking between female alumni and undergraduates.

In November 21st (Thu) at Hyundai Motor Hall, a recruitment information session for the AI Start-Up ‘Moloco’ was held. The Korea University Business School Career Development Center held the session, and Koo Hyunseo, the Head of the Korea Branch, led the event.   The session started with Koo’s introduction of the company. According to Koo, Moloco is a Start-Up with more than 70 employees around the world in seven branches (Seattle, Palo Alto: HQ, New York, London, Seoul, Tokyo) that is based in Silicon Valley and provides global experience. It is rapidly growing as a global ad-tech start-up based on its top-tier machine learning and big data technology, and is grabbing the attention of the online ad industry. Koo continued on to explain the company’s mission, the algorithm behind the work, and the vision to provide a performance ad platform based on its top-notch technology.   The qualifications to work for Moloco is good communication skills based on Korean and English proficiency, ability to operate Spreadsheet and presentation tools effectively, high aptitude to learn, aggressiveness toward work, and being meticulous. Experience in the ad or mobile industry, or experience in SQL and other data analysis tools would be a plus.   A Q&A session followed with the HR manager, in which one student asked “what role a business major undergraduate can take on after graduating.” To this, the HR manager answered that they can take on research regarding Programmatic Ads and Performance marketing, Campaign management, Performance monitoring and analysis, market research as an account manager or data scientist.   Meanwhile, Moloco’s main clients include not only Korea’s Band, WeMakePrice, Zigbang, Line, Watcha, but also Hulu and Zynga of the U.S. Recently, the company has signed a mobile marketing cooperation MOU with the subsidiary of Thailand’s third largest communication company ‘True,’ ‘True Digital Plus.’  

The 2019 'Lecture Series' hosted by Korea University Business School (Dean= Jae Wook Kim) Startup Institute (Director= Hicheon Kim) was held at Hana Square Multimedia Room on Nov. 19 (Tue). This time, Lee Hee-yoon, manager of global startup accelerator ‘SparkLabs’; YeonJu Oh, CEO of ‘AX Inc', a startup which received accelerating from SparkLabs; Yonghyeon Kim, CEO of 'GINT', which also received accelerating from SparkLabs gave the lecture. The lecture started with the introduction of the SparkLabs by manager Lee Hee-yoon. "An acccelerator not just involves in investment but involves in a new concept of investment model that combines the incubation of startups." said manager Lee. "SparkLabs is a global investment institution that started in South Korea in 2012 and is currently expanding by region and sector." "The key role of an accelerator is reducing time," he said. "When it is identified that a business model possesses possibility of success, an accelerator quickly proves the possibility and helps companies grow faster." YeonJu Oh, CEO of AX Inc., then continued the lecture under the theme "Starting Start-Up in your 20s”. AX, Inc. is a startup in the field of tour and activity that presents automated reservation management solutions to local travel agencies. "The biggest difference for the AX is that it enables instant booking through real-time inventory management," CEO Oh said. "In the travel industry, which is already an amazing red-ocean market, we are trying to target the blue-ocean market, which increases sales, reduces costs, and even provides big data." Oh then talked about her own experiences. “I think many experiences such as school admissions consulting and programming have built up and connected to the current business," said Oh "I wanted to say that if you ‘start’ anything in your 20s, you would be able to 'up! in the end'." As the second speaker Yonghyeon Kim, CEO of GINT continued the lecture under the theme "Starting a Technology-Based Business." GINT is a company specialized in electronic control and data services that provides intelligent technology platforms for tractors and construction equipment. "After working as a researcher at Hyundai Motor Group and Samsung Electronics, I started by registering as a corporation even without deciding on an item," said Kim. "Since it took a year just to develop a business model, I wanted to tell prospective start-up CEOs in detail about something very important but was unexpected before the start of my business." "We need to carefully consider which business model increases company's value.” "We need to define this properly so that we can have weapons that can enter existing hegemony of industry markets through destructive innovation." "I hope you spend a lot of time looking for a problem that you didn't consider before," he said. "You will be able to create some kind of breakthrough by that process.” After each speaker's lecture, a heated question-and-answer session followed. "I wonder what on criteria you decided to make a pivot," said a student who is currently preparing to start a business. CEO Oh said, "In the beginning of a business, it is difficult to know the exact time for change." and emphasized the need for accelerating. "I think the biggest asset of the start-up is time and speed transfer," manager Lee said. "It's not easy for a first-time start-up to make a decision on when to stop or when to change direction, so that is why accelerating is so important." It was followed by questions about the process of settling and changing of business model. "Although we changed the business model for about 50 times in a year, the first and last ones were not so different after all," said Kim. "Through the process of questioning, we were able to verify whether this project is a business that we can do for 100 years." Every semester, Startup Institute provides startup education through "Lecture on Demand," a working-level lecture series, and "Lecture Series," a special lecture series on startups and ventures. Classes are open courses, which means they are open to not only the employees of a tenant company, but also anyone interested in starting a business. For related inquiries, you can contact the Startup Institute (02-3290-1699).