Retirement of Professor Kim Icksoo…”Retirement is not a full stop, it is a semicolon”       The retirement ceremony of Professor Kim Icksoo, who has been striving to educate future scholars for 26 years at Korea University Business School(Dean=Dr. Bae, Johngseok), was held on last February 24th(Wed) at the Ahn-Young-Il Hall of LG-POSCO Building. The ceremony was finally resumed due to the spread of COVID-19 in 2020. Only a minimum number of people attended the ceremony while thoroughly following the quarantine regulations, and fellow professors and students who could not attend to celebrate Professor Kim Icksoo's retirement through the online live broadcast.   Professor Pyun, Ju Hyun, the head professor of the International Business area (Professor Kim Icksoo’s major) started the ceremony by introducing a sketch of Professor Kim’s life. Professor Kim Icksoo entered KUBS in 1973, and after passing the Public Officer Qualification Exam while attending school, he resigned from his career as a public officer and started studying abroad. He earned a master's and doctorate degree economics from Oxford University in the United Kingdom. After being appointed to Korea University Business School in 1995, he worked as a pioneer in Chinese economy and market strategy research to educate students.       Following the introduction of Professor Kim, Dean of KUBS Dr. Bae, Johngseok gave a speech by saying “We would like to thank you for your effort as a representative of KUBS”, and passed on his words “I respect the academic expertise and influence of Professer Kim Icksoo, a pioneer in Chinese-related research”.     Professor Kim Icksoo then received a government citation for his contribution to the development of national education. He also received a plaque of appreciation from KUBS for contributing to the development of the school with dedicating lectures and academic achievements.     Professor Kim Icksoo expressed his feelings by speaking in his retirement speech, “Retirement is usually considered as something sad, but on the one hand, I am excited to be able to write a book that communicates with the public or engage in various activities without the pressure of research or thesis”. He also said “Retirement is not a full stop, it is a semicolon (;)” and added “I don’t know what will happen in the future, but my retirement is not the end of my life or studies.” Professor Kim Icksoo ended his memorable retirement speech by reciting Li Bai’s Chinese Poem ‘Haengronan(行路難)’ in both Chinese and Korean.   After Professor Kim’s retirement speech, valedictory speeches of his fellow professors continued. Professor Lee Doo-Hee applauded by saying “Professor Kim Icksoo showed his excellent academic ability, Chinese proficiency, passion of coaching undergraduate student clubs for a long time, and dedication to his family” and added, “He is like a glowing rainbow which and gives hope and sets an example to other people”. The retirement ceremony ended with a congratulatory video of Professor Kim’s students which left us with gentle touching and impression.

‘2021 10th KUBS Teen Mentoring Day’ for Future KUBS Students     On January 30th(Sat.), Korea University Business School (KUBS, Dean=Johngseok Bae) held ‘2021 10th KUBS Teen Mentoring Day’ for future KUBS students. The event was held online while thoroughly following COVID-19 prevention regulations. The event was hosted by KUBS Student Ambassador ‘KUBE’ and eleven undergraduates as mentors. As the ‘10th KUBS Teen Mentoring Day’ had once been postponed due to the COVID situation in February 2020, inquiries from high school students nationwide had sharply increased to participate in this event.   A total of 116 students were selected amidst a high competition rate. The students participated in a comprehensive program comprised of △Introduction to KUBS △Overview of seven majors within business and three tracks △Special lecture on business △Online campus tour △Business administration workshop △ Mentoring session with KUBS students △Q&A session.   KUBS Associate Dean Jae Uk Chun welcomed the participants and said, “we hope this will be a meaningful, motivational experience for you.” KUBS Professor Joonmahn Lee gave a special lecture and explained the core of business by presenting interesting examples for high school students. In the business administration workshop, students became marketers and had a chance to apply marketing strategy.   After the workshop, KUBS students gave tips on studying and remaining calm during the mentoring session. There was also a Q&A session where students could ask about KUBS admission and overall campus life at Korea University.   KUBE’s 12th president Ha Ji Min (Business ’19), who organized and hosted the event, said “I had a great time interacting with high school students online. I’m also proud that we could introduce KUBS and provide an opportunity for students to become interested in business through Mentoring Day.”   In the satisfaction survey, the students who participated in ‘2021 10th KUBS Teen Mentoring Day’ gave positive comments such as “it was a meaningful program where I could get information, advice, and how campus life has changed due to COVID-19,” and “realistic advice that comes from actual experience helped a lot.”   KUBS is holding events to aid high school students in choosing their academic and career plans. ‘Campus Tour and Mentoring Day for students’ will be held in May, and students can participate in campus tour and mentoring sessions with undergraduates. Participation announcements will be made in April.  

Korea University Business School (KUBS) Achieves EQUIS 5-years accreditation for 3 consecutive years       After achieving Korea’s first EQUIS accreditation, continues its success for 3 consecutive years... prove its world-class education level through business education accreditation. Korea University Business University (Dean Johngseok Bae) has succeeded in accrediting EQUIS (EFMD Quality Improvement System) business education for three consecutive years by the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD).   EFMD strictly evaluates 10 items including for EQUIS accreditation: △ Vision △ Strategy △ Education Environment △ Quality of Curriculum △ Quality of Faculty △ Internationalization △ Student Qualification. Since EQUIS is very strict in its screening criteria, only 191 schools around the world has it, including the University of Cambridge, Beijing University, and the National University of Singapore.   Originally, the review was scheduled to be conducted by an EFMD review team visiting KUBSin May 2020, but it was postponed once due to the COVID-19 situation and then conducted online in December 2020. However, in online screening process, interviews were conducted for various members, including △ Professor △ Staff △ Students △ Graduates by Course, and so on. After a three-day in-depth review, the review team gave an excellent evaluation of the research capabilities and educational environment of KUBS, which is closely related to actual cases. In particular, the team praised the competitiveness of KUBS, saying, "It is very impressive that the KUBS have established a Business Analytics course and Center for Digital Transformation and Business to meet the demands of the 4th industrial revolution society."   As a result, KUBS achieved EQUIS accreditation for the first time in Korea in 2007, and succeeded in five-year certification in all three re-accreditation reviews, earning it a "Special Re-accreditation" status. Through this privilege, five years later, the five-year accreditation can be extended again through a simple screening process.   Dean said, "Korea University business school proved that it is a business university suitable for global standards by successfully accredited by EQUIS for the first time in Korea for three consecutive times." He added, "Korea University Business School's efforts to not settle for this, lead the rapidly changing times, and foster social leaders with character will continue."   Meanwhile, Korea University Business School is the first university in Korea to earn AACSBBusiness Accreditation throughout its entire degree programs, and has been selected as the nation's only full member of the CEMS Global Alliance.      

KUBS students win excellence award in 22nd Economic Universiade KUBS students, Nam Jae Yong(Business ’16) and Lee Taek Joon(Business ’17), won the excellence award in the economics essay field in 22nd Economic Universiade, hosted by E-daily and sponsored by Ministry of Strategy and Finance. Economic Universiade competition is held every year to △develop career paths △enhance cognitive abilities △contribute to the real economy △foster globally talented youths. ‘Green New Deal and Digital New Deal’ was the topic for 22nd Economic Universiade competition. Undergraduates and graduate students participated and competed fiercely in four essay fields: △Economics △Employment △Industry △Education. In the economics essay field, which Nam Jae Yong and Lee Taek Joon won the excellence award, participants were required to submit an essay within ten sheets (A4) and give a presentation about ‘the Green New Deal or Digital New Deal’s impacts on the Korean economy.’ In their major course, they further developed a model which they had previously worked on while preparing for KUBS Social Value Research Competition. The two students participated under the team name ‘Team KUBS(Korea University Business School)’ and showed their love for the school.   Q. Congratulations! Please briefly introduce your paper that received the award. Our paper is about a policy plan that can enhance Korean Green New Deal based on a Korean Environment Impact Bond(EIB). This policy plan suggests ordinary citizens as direct investors for environmental projects and aims to open a financing source. Social Impact Bond(SIB) is a type of social financing that aims to solve social or environmental issues while also generating profit. It is a contract that receives capital from private investors and evaluates provided services and returns profits to investors based on how well social aims were met. EIB is a type of SIB and normally focuses on solving environmental issues. SIB started off to solve social problems, but recently it has evolved to incorporate environmental issues as well. It was first introduced in 2016 when Baltimore and Washington D.C aimed to expand its sewage facility related infrastructure to prevent the flooding of wastewater and heavy rain. Atlanta was the first to invite citizens and ordinary investors to EIB. We researched Atlanta’s EIB case and worked to uncover a new approach to Green New Deal with EIB. New Deal projects have longer investment periods, higher risk and public characteristics which leads to mediocre profit rates. Therefore, we thought that it would be difficult for funds to be invested in New Deal projects if we leave it to the market and started to devise methods to enhance New Deal related funding. We suggested K-EIB, which has the following characteristics. △The public sector such as the government and policy financing institutes take charge of initial investment and bare the costs and risk when raising funds for Green New Deal projects. △Various tax benefits should be provided to private funds to ensure their profitability. △EIB should be divided into three layers and the government should invest in each layer’s last ranked stake to bare capital loss and reinforce credit ratings of these investments to attract private funding. In the post-COVID era, we think the New Normal will be ‘Untact(Transition to Digital)’ and ‘Eco-friendly.’ Jeremy Rifkin, the author of 『Global Green New Deal』, predicts that profits to natural resources will be privatized and the cost of destruction will transform civilization from the Era of Progress to the Era of Resilience. We hope that in the face of these trends, K-EIB will be used for Green New Deal projects and be a core pillar for a Korean Green New Deal.   Q. We heard that this was developed from an idea you thought of during your major courses. We met while preparing for ‘2020 Social Value Research Competition.’ We researched various investment strategies based on social value and got to know impact investing and social finance. We conducted a research on SIB, one of many business models that were profitable. We gave a presentation on the SIB model we researched and received feedback from Professor James L. Park in his ‘Corporate Finance’ lecture. We developed this idea based on the feedback we received. We also participated in ‘LG Global Challengers’ competition with the recommendation of professors and worked hard to utilize our model in real policies. The feedback we received from professors during lectures and competitions helped us improve our SIB model. We think applying this model to the Green New Deal project, which the government is currently leading, was key in receiving the award.   Q. How do you feel about winning the award? Jae Yong: It is an honor to contribute to KUBS. The various activities we did on campus was the foundation to receiving the award. Taek Joon: It’s a great honor to glorify KUBS with the achievements that were based on what we learned in our lectures. I want to share this joy with the school and Jae Yong who worked hard every night together!

KUBS Students Supporting the Economy of Anam, “The Home of KU” (From the left) Jungyoon Lee, Sunwoo Park, Sooah Jang   The year 2020 was a time that small and local business stores around the campus town area have been experiencing the deepest recession due to the COVID-19. “Ensemble”, a project group launched to support the stagnant Anam economy came up with a positive signal around the campus town community, and the members of Ensemble turned out to be the KUBS students. The three members – Sunwoo Park (KUBS16), Jungyoon Lee (KUBS18), Sooah Jang (Double Major in Business 18) – designed a prepaid-coupon issuance business that allows students to purchase restaurants/café coupons at a discounted price and to provide funds to the stores at the same time.   When asked of how Ensemble got started in March, Mr. Sunwoo Park, the group leader stated, “When we are in Anam, we feel as if we were in our hometown. People around the campus, including store owners, service providers, and other neighbors, have always lived in harmony with KU students. In this difficult times, we couldn’t just stand and watch the people suffering, and we thought that we should do something right away.”   From March to October, Ensemble initiated two online coupon sales projects. In version 1.0, Ensemble paid for large amounts of the merchandise at a discounted price decided in consensus with the vendor, and KU students could purchase them through an online platform.   In version 2.0, “Anam Restaurant Week” which was held for three weeks, provided coupons at a 20 percent discount on average, and students could provide funding through Ensemble’s website on the restaurants they wish to get coupons. As a result, seven restaurants got funding from more than 250 students and faculty members, and the project was closed with a successful sign of harmony along the campus community.   The outcome of two projects has left a package of implications in different aspects. “More than 500 of students have participated to support the small and local stores, and the whole community could build up an emotional sense of solidarity. Also, considering that 2020 was a difficult time for freshmen to get friendly with the campus town, Ensemble’s project was able to open up a new path to advertise the stories of KU community”, stated Mr. Park.   After that, Mr. Park also left a comment on the culture that students gathering for creative projects to solve the social issues. “I think students starting up with project teams and actively challenging to solve neighborhood problems is a very advanced culture. So far, there has been many project teams striving to revive the campus town economy after COVID-19, and I’ll be kind of proud if Ensemble could have contributed in those trends and culture as well.”   Mr. Park told the school that he has been working on another project to be launched in early March this year. KUBS is looking forward to watch another great social impact created by Business School students.

  The ‘CDTB Colloquium’ was held online by KUBS(Dean=Bae Johngseok) and hosted by the Center for Digital Transformation & Business(CDTB, Head=Kim Byung Cho) on January 20th (Wed). Guest speaker Yoo Seung Hyun, professor of endocrinology at Korea University Medical Center, gave a lecture titled The Who, What and Why of Future Health Care – How is change made.’   “Changes that would have took several years are happening in just nine months because of COVID-19.” Professor Yoo emphasized that we are living in the age that rapidly changes. He pointed out untact diagnosis as a major change in the medical sector. The rise of remote medical treatment was seen more abroad due to complete lock downs, but Korea also has 1.08 million cases of this up to January as treatment via telephone were temporarily allowed. Professor Yoo pointed out that “We must be cautious about whether remote medical treatment is being implemented by burdening the medical community. Without their agreement and sufficient policies on remote medical treatment, the medical community could take on excessive responsibility.”   Professor Yoo then suggested positive aspects and points to beware when using AI in the medical sector. He introduced a saying that “AI itself will not replace doctors themselves, but rather doctors that utilize AI will replace doctors who do not use AI” and claimed that “Medical AI will not replace doctors artificially but augment the doctor’s abilities.” Medical AI will be especially useful in analyzing complex medical data and giving doctors insight. However, without meticulous planning, AI might deter treatment and training AI may become an additional burden to physicians. Legal responsibility is also an important issue in medical AI.   “Massive volumes of medical data are now viewed as important as assets. For medical data to be used in a valuable manner, business administration based on data analysis plays an important role,” Professor Yoo said. Medical service must be designed with a focus on patients and guarantee a certain quality level. In the past, it was difficult for patients to possess an organized copy of their medical data or give it to businesses that can utilize it. Now, patients can use technology such as ‘My data’ platform and solve these problems. For a successful medical service model that uses data and analyzes it to be implemented, a business approach is needed.   Professor Yoo explained that future health care is far more complex than having the doctor and patients as two parties. Not only the government, insurance companies, and pharmaceutical companies, but medical device providers and investors will also be included in the vast stakeholder group. Therefore, it is important for medical related businesses to review what value their services will provide. Professor Yoo concluded the lecture by saying, “Future health care has already arrived. Let us all work together for future health care that puts humans first.”   Meanwhile, KUBS founded the Center for Digital Transformation & Business (CDTB) in 2019 as a platform to lead the digital transformation era and promote connection between industry, university, and institute. CDTB is planning and carrying out various special lectures on digital transformation.