A mentoring session was held at Hyundai Motor Hall on Nov. 5, organized by the Career Development Center of Korea University Business School (Dean=Kim Jaewook). In this seminar questions and answers have been exchanged about the preparation of the CPA exam and the work of the accountant. Seo Man-gyu (Hyundai LLC, Admitted to KUBS on '03) and Kim Jin-hyung (Deloitte Anjin LLC, Admitted to KUBS on '07) attended the event and gave generous advice to their juniors.   First of all, the first part of the session was a question-and-answer session about the preparation of the CPA exam. "After I was discharged from the military, I got interested in what kind of career I should pursue," said Seo Man-gyu. "I was fascinated by the fact that my friends around me prepared this exam a lot and the preparation system was well-prepared in school. The fact that it has a diverse career path, including finance and taxation, seemed exciting too." "I took on a challenge to become an accountant because I liked to deal with numbers, and therefore becoming an accountant was an apt career path for a business major," said Kim Jin-hyung. He added, "After being discharged from the military, I studied wholeheartedly and passed the exam after three years." There were also questions about the order of studying CPA subjects. He answered, "I studied low-volatile subjects such as Principles of Accounting, Intermediate Accounting, Tax Law, and Financial Management first."   The session was followed by questions about accountants' work. When asked about the intensity of the overall work at accounting firms, Seo Man-gyu said, "At present, most accounting firms have adopted a 52-hour work week, which has greatly improved our working environment," adding, "Of course, we will be busier than ordinary conglomerates during the season, but the living standards are not bad." "If I take on a project in the off-season, I will work as if it is the season," said Kim Jin-hyung. "But these days, the atmosphere of the accounting firm is focused on strengthening quality rather than increasing the time." There was also a question about the salary, to which Seo Man-gyu said, "the annual salary has gone up a lot, but that also means a lot more responsibilities than in the past."   During the two-hour seminar, the students and alumni actively asked questions and gave responses, bringing back and forth practical information on the preparation process and practice of accountants. "If you've decided to take the exam, I want you to challenge yourself," Seo Man-gyu said. "I hope you don't leave any lingering doubts and work hard with all your spirit."

Backed by a support from KUBS (Dean Jaewook Kim), jointly hosted by Startup Research Center (President Heecheon Kim), the 2019 fall CHOO CHOO Day event was held in D. CAMP Gangnam, on November 15th (Fri). CHOO CHOO Day is a year-end ceremony where the KUBS startup CEOs present their final project pitches and developments that have been proceeded for a year. At this year’s event, 146 attendees including the investors, startup relations, and the potential business developers showed up with their great interest in KUBS startups. At the beginning, Jeongbin Moon, the head of Il-Jin Startup Center, made an opening remark: “I am honored to see you all, and I would like to say thanks to all for the attendance despite the bad weather condition outside. We are so proud to host this event at D. CAMP, the building that owns a living history of South Korean startup industry. Please enjoy, and kindly keep your heart opened toward the KUBS startups.” Next, the event continued with an open-mike session by Jeongmin Oh, the CEO of Hidden Track (4th Class of CHOO CHOO). The CEO stated, “I understand that undergraduate students who are eager to running startups would be having a hard experience taking academic studies on the other hand at the same time. As you all have put your substantial effort, I cannot conceal the fact that my expectation level is very high. However, please do not be too stressed with today’s outcome.” The 7 listed startups in CHOO CHOO 2019 were highly competitive: △”Delivery Lab”, the online grocery platform which eases consumers’ price comparison, △”Bolt and Nut”, a service platform for manufacturing companies, △”ICO”, an on/offline class intermediation agent targeting the students in abroad, △”Young-Gam Company”, a chatbot developer, △”HCLab”, IoT-based healthcare service company which mainly cares the chronic back pains, △”Cheonmyeong and Company”, an online reservation service provider, △”Cosmetheus”, a consulting firm that provides a broad ranged analysis in online trending data. Each company presented their annual growth profile through various communication channels such as public speech, Q&A session and marketing booth opening.  Opened during 5 to 8PM, the event attracted a lot of visitors even after the end of the team presentation session. KUBS Startup Research Center, the host of CHOO CHOO Day, is the first startup institutor established in domestic colleges. It operates a semester-based startup programs to discover and support the potential CEOs in campus. The startup competition, “Startup Express” seeks for a new company that needs a financial aid for its early growth. To achieve the final ticket for the selection, a startup team should go through a ten-to-one competition stepping a process of business summary assessment and interview session. Overall, numerous high-profile corporates have been sponsoring KUBS startups with their solid maintenance of MOU relationships. Representative firms are followed: Kim and Chang, Samil PWC, Amazon Web Service, Y Crowd Funding.  

UK Financial Times Announces World's Top 100 E-MBA Rankings for 2019... KUBS ahead of Columbia University (36th) and Cornell University (46th) KUBS (Dean: Jae Wook Kim) E-MBA was ranked 27th in the Executive MBA Ranking 2019 by the UK Financial Times. According to the FT, KUBS E-MBA was ranked 27th this year, after being 38th last year, marking the first in the national level for the ninth consecutive year. For the last three years, KUBS E-MBA was ranked 28th on average (20th in 2017, 38th in 2018 and 27th in 2019), proving that its curriculum which is focused on practice in different industries was top-notch. Its rank is higher than those of world's most prestigious business schools, including Columbia Business School (36th), UCLA: Anderson (42nd), and Cornell University: Johnson (46th). This year, HEC Paris was ranked first, followed by Kellogg/HKUST Business School. Among Korean universities, Yonsei University was ranked 34th. The FT rankings are based on various evaluation categories such as salary increase rate, promotion rate, faculty with doctorates, and internationalization index; it announces the rankings of the world's top 100 E-MBA programs every year. For this year's evaluation, KUBS E-MBA received high marks in such categories as salary increase rate, aims achieved and faculty with doctorates. KUBS E-MBA stands out clearly, because it was ranked in the top place while being a program run by a single university only. Many E-MBA programs at top-ranked Asian universities operate joint degree programs, and KUBS E-MBA remains competitive nonetheless.     [베리타스알파] FT 세계 EMBA 고려대 '국내 1위'.. 순위 11계단 상승 '27위'

On November 11 and 12, a research team from The Association to Advance Collegiate School of Business (AACSB) visited KUBS; Dr. John Kraft (Dean, University of Florida), Dr. Antonio Travaglione (Dean, University of Newcastle) and Dr. Greg Whittraded (Former Dean, The University of Auckland) visited KUBS. From KUBS, Professor Jae Wook Kim (Dean), Joong Hyuk Kim (Associate Dean for Faculty and Academic Affairs), Weon Sang Yoo (Associate Dean for MBA Programs), Chang-Wha Chung (Associate Dean for Planning and Budget) and Baeho Kim (Associate Dean for Research) were present for the event. KUBS, which was certified by the AACSB in 2005 for the first time in Korea for all programs including both undergraduate and graduate-level education, has since obtained accreditation for three times in a row in 2010 and 2015. The research team has evaluated various areas of KUBS, including faculty, curriculum, research and student support. It also conducted interviews with the President of Korea University, teachers, employees and students. The result of the accreditation will be announced early next year. AACSB is a non-profit organization founded in 1916 by the presidents of major US universities. It establishes the standards that many business schools should follow, and gives an international accreditation after a rigorous screening. As of 2019, 856 business schools in 56 countries have AACSB accreditations, including Harvard, Stanford and Columbia.   The due diligence for another international accreditation held by KUBS – EQUIS (EFMD Quality Implementation System) accreditation – will be carried out next year.        

The 2019 Social Value Research Competition awards ceremony was held at the LG-POSCO Building at Korea University on November 12(Tue). The 2019 Social Value Research Competition was hosted by Korea University Business School and sponsored by the SK SUPEX Promotion Council. About 40 people attended the ceremony, including Jae Wook Kim, Dean of KUBS, Johngseok Bae, Director of IBRE and Jungbin Moon, a professor at KUBS. "I believe that the undergraduates selected for the Social Value Research Competition are talented people who will become future management leaders and lead social value projects pursued by our society." said Jae Wook Kim, Dean of KUBS. Through a screening process in June, a total of 10 teams (40 undergraduates) were selected and they conducted research on social values in various fields such as management, welfare, health care, housing, IT, residential human rights, mobility, care for the elderly, and shared economy businesses. Four teams won the award at the 2019 Social Value Research Competition, which marked the first time this year. The award had three categories: the KUBS Dean Award(Grand Prize) the SK Social Value Award(Best Excellence Award), and the SK Social Value Award(Excellence Award). The KUBS Dean Awaed was won by Baek Ha-won, Lee Kyung-min, Lee Seo-yeon and Song Hyun-ah, who studied "How to foster the Korean social capital market." The SK Social Value Award(Best Excellence Award) was awarded to the 'Creating Social and Economic Values through the Project to Create Local Society AAC ZONE', while the SK Social Value Award(Excellence Award) was awarded by a team that studied 'How to Set Up a Social Stock Exchange for Social Enterprises' and 'Benchmarking South Korea's Social Economy Ecosystem'.  

The AICG-KCMI Joint Symposium on ‘Governance Issues and Policies of Domestic Companies’ was held at the Hyundai Motor Hall on November 8th. The event was co-hosted by the Asian Institute of Corporate Governance (AICG) and the Korea Capital Market Institute (KCMI). Attending the event were Park Chang-kyun (KCMI), Kim Woochan (KUBS), Kim Woojin (SNU), Na Hyun Seung (KUBS), Park Yoo-kyoung (APG), Ahn Soo-hyun (HUFS), Lee Si-yeon (KIF) and Lee Chang-min (Hanyang Univ).   The event began with an opening speech by Park Kyung Suh, Director of the AICG. "AICG has tried to solve a number of finance and governance-related problems that Korean companies have faced," said Park. "I hope that valuable discussions will continue throughout the joint symposium today."   It was followed by a welcoming speech by Park Young-seok, Head of the KCMI. "Since the financial crisis, there has been a social consensus that the chaebol-oriented economic system is no longer valid," Park said. "It is true that the institutional establishments to enhance corporate value have been pursued ever since. Despite that, we still have a weak corporate governance which brings the so-called Korea Discount phenomenon," he said. "I hope we can take full advantage of our researchers' capabilities at the joint symposium today to have various discussions."   Then the event was followed by a congratulatory speech by Cho Sung-wook, Chairman of the Fair Trade Commission. Since the Chairman herself was absent, Kim Sung-sam, a member of FTC, delivered a congratulatory speech instead. “Today’s meeting is where we discuss a number of recent issues related to corporate governance in Korea,” said Kim, adding that although many improvements have been made, the nation’s corporate governance is still lagging behind. "Improving corporate governance is a must-have task to ensure the rationality of corporate management and prevent problems that hinder fair competition," he said. "Based on today's discussions, FTC will also make continuous efforts to achieve this."   Park Chang-kyun, a senior researcher at KCMI, first gave a presentation under the theme of "Shareholder Activism and Corporate Governance of NPS." Park explained why people oppose NPS’s shareholder activism, including the concerns about “pension socialism” and its effectiveness, and conducted a critical analysis. "There needs to be a mechanism to exclude government intervention," said Park, suggesting that the fund management committee should be reorganized into a professional organization to establish a system that operates in the form of a sub-committee.   Professor Kim Woochan from KUBS then gave a presentation under the theme of "Is It Necessary to Defend Management Rights? Dual Class Shares and Poison Pill." "The threats to management rights can be made by either hostile takeover or proxy fights, but they often end up being rarely used," Professor Kim said. "The reason why there is no threat to management rights is due to following reasons: the ownership structure in Korea, various means of protecting management rights and difficulties in making public purchases or proxy fights. Nevertheless, the reason why people demand measures to defend management rights is to block the rightful exercise of shareholder rights," he said. "Now, lots of companies lack the check-and-balance from outside shareholders," Professor Kim said. "In a situation where the industrial structure is rapidly changing, capitals should be quickly redistributed from the declining industry to the growing industry, before the companies go bankrupt."   Finally, Professor Kim Woojin from SNU gave a presentation under the theme of "Current Status and Remaining Tasks of Private Benefits of Control.” Professor Kim explained the background of private benefits of control, citing some details from the Monopoly Regulation And Fair Trade Act. Professor Kim then explained the limitations of the current system, which are first, the court's different interpretations of "unjustice," and second, different standards for assessing transactions among affiliated companies. "We need to enhance our understanding and awareness of this issue," Professor Kim said. "We need to recognize the prevention of corporate damages as the key factor, and set a discipline in private sector, rather than as a rule of law.”   The last session wrapped up the event with a panel discussion involving six participants and the audience, conducted by Professor Kim Joong Hyuk (KUBS).