Korea University Achieves Highest Pass Rate on 56th CPA Examination for 5th Consecutive Years  Korea University achieved the highest pass rate on 56th CPA Examination. Korea University had the greatest number of 152 CPA successful applicants passing ‘2021 56th CPA Exam for Certified Public Accounts’ held on June 26 (Sat) – 27 (Sun), recording the highest cumulative numbers for 6 consecutive years since 2016.    Korea University has produced a total of 152 successful CPA candidates in the 56th CPA exam, which was followed by Yonsei University with 118, Chung-Ang University with 104, Sungkyunkwan University with 102 and Kyung Hee University with 91. (Source: Korean University Newspaper's September 10th press release)    Korea University has been showing outstanding results producing total 599 successful applicants for 5 years and 120 in annual average. Furthermore, Korea University reaffirmed its status as the strongest institute for CPA by widening the gap between second place in the final exam by more than 30.   The reason for which Korea University stands out in CPA Exam lies in the efficient CPA Prep Program “Jeongjincho (精進礎, Advisor=Professor Jinhan Pae).” Jeongjincho conducts entrance exams three times a year and selects 69 students in order of exam scores, which anyone can apply for regardless of their major. Jeongjincho provides separate spaces, monthly mock exams, online lecture fees, and mentoring programs with senior successful applicants so that students can focus on CPA study.     Introduction of Jeongjincho>>

2021 2nd KUBS DT DAY completed   The 2nd KUBS DT Day 2021, hosted by Korea University Business School (Dean = Johngseok Bae) and organized by Center for Digital Transformation & Business (hereafter CDTB), was held on October 15 (Fri). KUBS DT Day, which was held as part of the National Research Foundation's University Innovation Support Project, was conducted through real-time online streaming service to increase participation of various experts, industry officials, and students who want to develop their digital capabilities. The event included panel discussion, an interim presentation of the Capstone project in which students from the Graduate School of Business Administration (MSBA) students are participating, the final presentation of the DTB Data Utilization Contest, introduction of CDTB by the Joint Center Director Kim Byungcho, and a general review and awards ceremony. In his opening remarks, Dean Johngseok Bae of Business School explained the purpose of the event, “We will conduct a colloquium in the form of a panel discussion to help students understand digital transformation and promote cooperation with the industry,” and added, ¨I hope it will be a meaningful event for the attendees.” At the Colloquium following the opening remarks, Professor Baehoo Kim (CDTB co-director) held a panel discussion on the theme of ‘Digital Leadership in Business’ as a moderator, and vividly delivered how works in the real field get done, which is difficult to hear in classrooms. First, Jeong Ran-suk, head of the data strategy division at Lotte Members, talked about 'various changes and innovations attempted by Lotte Members'. “It has become very important to understand customer needs based on data,” said Jeong, adding, “Currently, companies are carrying out their work according to the direction of DT innovation.” In addition, she noted that “Companies are contemplating for investment and development in innovation trends using data.” Next, Seung-hyeon Yoo, professor at Korea University School of Medicine, continued the discussion on ‘research using data in the field of diabetes’. Professor Yoo said, “We are considering an optimized treatment model based on patient data.” He said, “After the COVID-19 pandemic, patient data is collected based on Naver Cloud and customized treatment projects are underway.” He also added, “In this rapidly changing era, people with the ability to embrace different values ​​will become the talents of the digital age.” Thirdly, Baek Chul, head of data strategy team at the Korea Credit Information Service, spoke about ‘digital leadership in line with the era of big data’. Team leader Baek Cheol said, “The data finance industry should move toward to data openness, data exchange, and my data system and its combination.” He added, “You could become an expert in the field of finance data of you excavate your strengths keeping in mind the four fields to approach the field of data as aforementioned.” Next, Park Hyung-il, head of GS Retail's AI division, continued the discussion. “The latest topic of discussion at GS Retail is convergence DT,” and he emphasized, “It is important to melt the know-how of long-time workers and new trends together in the field.” In addition, he said, "I hope that there will be more opportunities to exchange opinions on this topic while educating DT in educational institutions." Lastly, Se-Hoon Min, Executive Vice President of Deloitte Consulting, talked about 'specific DT consulting cases and key sources of digital leadership'. Executive Vice President Min said, “We are moving to the stage of considering which business entities to link in order to develop the business” and “We need to also think about how our organization culture should change according to trend.”   The afternoon session began with an interim presentation of the MSBA Capstone Project. The Capstone Project is the most important course in the MSBA program, and it is a project developing a business model with a partner institution instead of writing a graduation thesis. Advisors from partner organizations such as Lotte Members, Deloitte Consulting, GS Retail, and Korea Credit Information Service attended for feedback. In this Capstone project, a total of seven teams participated with the following topics: △CLV LTV prediction model △Product recommendation using review data and text mining △Recommendation algorithm improvement through correlation analysis between products △Personalized financial product recommendation and credit evaluation △Change trajectory cluster of prediabetes indicators △ Villa house valuation using big data △ Credit evaluation modeling to distinguish between low-credit and medium-credit users. Each team identified a business problem and presented solutions and strategies using real data, and each presentation was followed by feedback from advisors after the presentation.   Next, the final presentation of the DTB data utilization contest was held. The data utilization contest, held for the second time, is a contest to discover creative business models and ideas using public data or data provided by companies. In this data utilization contest, a total of seven teams participated: △HANUL (psychological indicators and quantitative trading) △Subscriptions and likes (customized recommendations based on card consumption analysis) △How about these drinks (recommended models for non-popular alcoholic consumers in Korea) △Daily life (multiple sclerosis diagnosis and monitoring utilizing patient data and AI) △Food chart (prediction of food trends using deep learning) △KU (ku)reungi (model for resolving disparity in “Ttareungi”) △SSakTrio (Placement of Untact Smart vending machine). After each team's presentation, the advisors' feedback and Q&A followed.   After the presentations, Professor Byung Choo Kim (co-director of CDTB) briefly introduced CDTB and shared his thoughts on the presentations. Director Kim encouraged the participants by saying, “It was impressive how the Capstone presenters intensively worked on the problems, not confining themselves to textbook solutions.” Moreover, he commented on the Data Utilization Competition, mentioning that “All seven teams showed meaningful outcomes in business and came up with unique ideas by collaborating with students from various departments.” He added, “It has been upgraded than before.”   Finally, the winners of the Data Utilization Competition were announced. After fierce competition, ‘Food Chart’ (Hyejin Won from Department of Computer Science of Engineering and four others) and ‘KU-reung-i’ (Saeyeon Lim from Department of Sociology and four others) won the Participation Award. The Excellence Award went to ‘NANUL’ (Taewoon Han from Business School and two others) and ‘Ssac-trio’ (Yeseul Yoon from Business School MSBA and four others). Lastly, the team ‘What About This Drink?’ won the Grand Prize, and the event ended with the Vice President of CDTB, Professor JoonHo Hwang, awarding the winning teams.   Article | Sangbong Chung (College of Political Science and Economics, Department of PSIR 17), Yeonghee Chung (School of Media & Communication 20) Photo | Serim Shin (College of Political Science and Economics, Department of Economics 18)

[Metaverse Colloquium] The future, culture and data that will captivate the MZ generation The Metaverse Colloquium hosted by KUBS(Dean=Johngseok Bae) Startup Station(Director= Hojung Shin) and the Center for Digital Transformation & Business (CDTB; Head= Baeho Kim and Byung Cho Kim) was held on October 22(Fri). The main theme of the colloquium was “Culture and Data that will captivate the MZ generation.” Galaxy Corporation CEO Choi Yong Ho, director of Hana Financial Investment Park In Gyu, and director of Hilstone Partners Cho Sung Yeon participated as the speakers of the colloquium. Due to COVID-19, the colloquium was held online via Zoom with those who signed up for the event in advance. KUBS Dean Johngseok Bae welcomed the participants and said, “KUBS is doing a lot of research and industry-university collaboration based on digital platforms and is running a startup station rooted on entrepreneur mindset. We have prepared three sessions that will interest the MZ generation. Thank you to all the speakers and participants of this event.”   Galaxy Corporation CEO Choi Yong Hoi conducted the first session on the topic of ‘Metaverse in the entertainment industry.’ Starting from his own magazine publishing company at 23, Mr. Choi entered the media sector. He later developed algorithms used by Naver and commercialized more than 200 brands and started his business with a dream of becoming a ‘unicorn.’ He emphasized the importance of the metaverse and suggested Mamison’s sub-character (부캐) as an example. “sub- characters are endlessly reproduced within metaverse, as well as business models,” he said. He defined the goal of the metaverse era as generating IP and digital data from sub-characters, satisfying fandoms and artist management firms, and diversifying contents with artists. The 2nd session was led by director of Hana Financial Investment Park In Gyu on the topic of ‘The 4th Industrial revolution and Real estate metaverse.’ Mr. Park defined the 4th Industrial revolution as the fusion of reality and virtual worlds to benefit humans. He emphasized that we must predict and adjust to the virtual world to optimize the real world. Regarding AI and 12 TECH, he said that “the 4th Industrial revolution will be an age that information of real and virtual worlds exchange in a virtuous cycle with blockchain as a medium.” He also explained about the relation between the industrial revolution and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and predicted new higher-level needs that surpass self-actualization in the age of the 4th Industrial revolution. He concluded the session by explaining the concept of smart city. The last session led by the director of Hillstone Partners Cho Sung Yeon was conducted with ‘metaverse expanding into industries’ as the topic. Mr. Cho explained metaverse and general-purpose technology and emphasized that the core technology to metaverse is ‘a compound of general-purpose technology.’ He mentioned the uncanny valley theory and emphasized the incremental publicization and development of related technology as a strategy. He mentioned Maslow’s hierarchy of needs that was introduced in the previous session and explained that metaverse satisfies the four higher level needs (self-actualization, esteem, love and belonging, and safety needs). Mr. Cho introduced the virtual workplaces and virtual interviews by presenting videos of metaverse companies ‘NVIDIA’ and ’EXP’ as examples. Lastly, he concluded his session by explaining the applications of metaverse in medicine.   After the three sessions, head of CDTB Baeho Kim thanked everyone for participating, and the Metaverse Colloquium hosted by the CDTB and Startup Station was concluded.   Editor | Yoon Seon Woo (Media and Communication ’18)

Korea University Business School ranks 20th in the world by the FT E-MBA Rankings   KUBS ranks 20th by the Financial Times World’s Top 100 E-MBA Rankings 2021   KUBS maintains first place in Korea for 11 consecutive years, moving up seven steps from 27th in 2019 to 20th this year   Korea University (President=Chung, Jin Taek)  Business School Executive MBA (E-MBA) program ranked 20th in the world by Financial Times (FT) the Top 100 EMBA Programmes. According to the report published by the FT on October 18, 2021, KUBS E-MBA entered the Top 20 business school rankings last year by ranking 19th and has been maintaining the status for two consecutive years. In addition, KUBS has been maintaining first place in Korea for 11 consecutive years.   KUBS has ranked higher than many of the world’s prestigious universities including the University of Pennsylvania: Warton (38th), National University of Singapore Business School (22nd), and Columbia Business School (34th). This year’s first place was taken by HEC Paris International EMBA. Of all other universities in Korea, Yonsei University ranked 40th following KUBS. Photo by Financial Times Business School Rankings   The FT E-MBA rankings are for universities that have been accredited by AACSB or EQUIS, which are international business education institutions. The evaluation criteria include ▲salary ▲salary increase ▲career progress ▲aims achieved ▲female faculty/students ▲international faculty/students and ▲FT research rank.   The ranking of KUBS E-MBA is noticeable because it has entered the Top 20 solely with its exclusive business program. While most high-ranked Asian universities run their program with partner universities in the United States or Europe, Korea University was able to rank 20th with its exclusive program. Thus, KUBS has proven that its curriculum, which aims to develop students’ skills as CEOs by focusing on hands-on experiences, is one of the world’s best programs.

Korea University Business School and KB Bank signed 「Memorandum of Understanding for Mutual Cooperation in Social Contribution」 Korea University Business School (Dean Jong-Seok Bae) signed a business agreement for mutual cooperation in social contribution with KB Bank (President Heo In) on the 15th.   The signing ceremony, which was held on the same day, was attended by key officials from both institutions, including Bae Jong-seok, dean of Korea University Business School and Dean of Business School, Yoo Yong-geun, vice president of Graduate School of Business, and Kim Woon-tae, representative of KB Bank's Small and Medium Business Customer Group.   Through this agreement, KB Bank decided to recommend executives and employees of small and medium-sized enterprises as students for the business administration education program provided free of charge by the faculty of Korea University Business School as part of talent donation. In addition, Korea University Business School plans to promote mutual development with KB Bank, strengthen social contribution by nurturing small and medium-sized business management and innovation, and practice ESG management.   At the signing ceremony, Bae Jong-seok, dean of Korea University Business School and Dean of Graduate School of Business, said, “We welcome the signing of business agreement for social contribution mutual cooperation with KB Bank, an institution that represents Korean finance. We look forward to becoming a partner in the future,” he said.   Kim Woon-tae, CEO of KB Bank's Small and Medium Business Customer Group, also said, "We will provide the best financial services to become 'The people's lifelong financial partner' by strengthening social contribution in addition to providing financial support." He also added, “We will strive to accomplish a win-win development and become a more trusted institution.”

[2021 Startup Institute Lecture Series #7] “Overcoming a crisis to create a Healthy Organization”  Director Seo Hyun-sun of Ginger Tea Project The 7th lecture of the 2021 Lecture Series hosted by Korea University Business School (Dean = Jong-Seok Bae) and Startup Institute (President = Shin-Jeong Shin) was held on September 28 (Tue). The Lecture Series is a part of the Entrepreneurship Academy of the Seungmyeongho Entrepreneurship Education Center (Director = Dongseop Lee), an educational institution within the Startup Research Institute. This special lecture, held online due to COVID-19, was conducted by Seo Hyun-sun, director of Ginger Tea Project, under the theme of ‘Creating a Healthy Organization: Overcoming the Founder’s Internal Crisis and Shaky Organizational Culture’. Director Seo Hyun-sun is a founding member of Ginger Tea Project, a non-profit organization consulting firm founded in 2014. After working as a team leader and co-representative, she is currently in charge of various tasks such as organization operation and research as a director. “Through my personal stories, I wanted to solve the internal crises that came to me when I actually started the business,” said the director. She gave a lecture on two topics, ‘Entrepreneur’s internal crisis’ and ‘Shaky Organizational Culture,’ and the discussion regarding worries coming along with starting a business followed. Regarding ‘the entrepreneur’s internal crisis’, the director introduced three keywords: fear, burden, and instability, along with anecdotes from her own process of starting and managing her business. Director Seo said, “I decided to do the things I wanted to do until the end because it was okay to fail,” When women with career interruptions gathered and decided to start a business together, they decided “to do the things they wanted to do until the end because it was okay to fail,” and such words helped them to accept fear. Also, after the co-founder left the organization and Director Seo felt the fear of failure, she felt that “she would not regret going down this road after thinking about it” and that “it would be nice to look inside the heart to see what worries lie in there.” Talking about the financial instability of non-profit organization, she especially emphasized that you look at the business as a whole and acknowledge the time lag that comes with the business. Regarding the organizational culture, he said, “Our own handicap, such as women who have lost their careers or receive little investment, has created a creative organizational culture.” Director Seo explained, “Financial sustainability is also important, but focusing on sustainability that enables growth and provides experiences has become our unique DNA,” explaining the background of forming Ginger Tea Project’s unique organizational culture. Finally, after discussing the importance of colleagues and family in a difficult situation, Director Seo emphasized that even a small decision at a small scale can make a significant difference, saying, “I believe that an organization with a healthy inside has a high potential to develop into a good organization.” The lecture ended with a question-and-answer session.   Written | Jeong Sang-bong (College of Economics and Economics, Political Science 17)