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[2018-1 Global CEO Lecture] “Act on Your Dreams”…Jung-Ho Kim, CEO of Bear Better Company
2018.03.26 Views 1598 경영대학
[Spring 2018 Global CEO Special Lecture Series]
Jung-Ho Kim, CEO of Bear Better Company … “Act on Your Dreams”
Jung-Ho Kim, CEO of Bear Better Company … “Act on Your Dreams”
On March 22 (Thu) at 3:30pm, the Business School invited our second guest Mr. Jung-Ho Kim, CEO of Bear Better Company for the Spring 2018 Global CEO special lecture series held at Supex Hall, LG-POSCO Building.
The topic of the lecture was ‘Challenge and Startup’ by Mr. Jung-Ho Kim, who is a Trade’85 graduate of Korea University and a co-founder of Naver. Mr. Kim also started a social enterprise ‘Bear Better’ in 2012. Bear Better hires employees with developmental disabilities, operating businesses across various industries such as coffee roasting, baking, florist retail, and printing. More than 200 employees with developmental disabilities work at Bear Better, hired by the employment connections with 250 businesses.
Thinking that students might be more interested in his personal stories growing up and his success, Mr. Jung-Ho Kim started his lecture by sharing his stories rather than giving a presentation of his company. “My family had financial difficulties when I grew up.” Mr. Kim said. “I worked part-time for years during university, all I had in my mind was to graduate early so I can have a full-time job, make money as soon as possible.” As planned, he started his career at Samsung SDS straight after his graduation. 10 years at Samsung SDS, he developed a quite unique career path. “I worked in human resources, mostly recruiting Masters and Ph. D holders across the world.” He continued “it was not the kind of job I have always wanted, but looking back I think I would never have started Naver if it wasn’t for the thousands of IT seminars I had to attend during my years at the human resources team.”
At the time when Mr. Kim started Naver, there were other 140 existing worldwide portal websites. However, he only focused on the possibility of his business in spite of what others say. Naver took over a game business ‘Hangame’, and it made a big success on the market. The co-founders of Naver became the iconic figure of successful startups. “I saved up really hard when I worked at Samsung SDS to make a budget for startup. Naver really is my 10 years of hard work.” After Naver entered its stable phase, Mr. Kim went on holiday to take a break. A social enterprise he met in Nairobi, Kenya inspired him to start up a new enterprise ‘Bear Better’. “It was impressive to see how a British fashion business prioritized single mothers on their hiring processes. It got me thinking I should run a social enterprise in Korea too”, said Mr. Kim, the founder of Bear Better, a social enterprise established in 2012.
Mr. Jung-Ho Kim concluded his lecture by stressing ‘Dream and Effort’. “Act on your dreams. If you have a dream or a goal to achieve, I would suggest you take a moment and think deeply to see if you are actually making efforts accordingly.”
In his Q&A session, a participant asked, “what do you think was the secret to your success in business?” Mr. Kim replied, “I was lucky, of course, but more importantly I think knowing what I am capable of has led me here.” “Pay attention to what you are good at, rather than what you are interested in,” he added, acknowledging that success is not guaranteed even though you work hard on what you are good at. He also pointed out that 30% of new employees quit their job within their first year, even employees at big corporations like Samsung. “Even if your work is not something that you have always wanted, sometimes it is important to hold onto it because you never know where you will end up. Take me as an example” he concluded.
The Business School’s Spring 2018 series of ‘Global CEO Special Lectures’ are designed to invite global CEOs to share their ideas and experiences. Coming up lectures will invite △ Seon-Yong Lee, CEO of Bear Tree Park △ Kwang-Chul Choi, Chair of SK Group SUPEX Committee Social Contribution Department (4/5) △ Christopher Wood, CEO of ELCA Korea (4/12) △ Jonggu Choi, Chairman of the Financial Services Commissions (4/19) △ Sang-ho Yoo, President of Korea Investment & Securities Co., Ltd. (4/26) △Ki-seok Park, CEO of SIGONG tech (5/3) △ Younghoon Park, Executive Director of GS SHOP (home shopping) (5/10) △ Young Yul Seo, Chairman of PT.Pratama Abadi Industri (5/17) △ Kyung-Soo Park, CEO of PSK (5/24) △ Young-Sik Kim, President of PwC Korea (5/31).