[Interview with Dean Johngseok Bae] “KU, University that makes everyone proud”

Q. Please share your impression looking back at the last two months since you have taken the lead of KUBS

I am still spending my day and night thinking about the promising pathway for the growth of KUBS, which can also correspond well with the preceding executives of the school. I thought my role would be pretty much similar to the things that I have experienced before as Associate Dean of Business School and Director of Institute of Business Research and Education (IBRE), but now I can say it is totally different. Workloads in different KUBS departments are quite considerable, and I have to be responsible to make wise decisions over the streams of ongoing businesses.

According to the Mintzberg, who defined the roles of business leaders, I would say a Dean of KUBS has multiple responsibilities in three dimensions: interpersonal / informational / decisional roles.

Q. What are you planning for the next 2 years, as a leader who should open up a new pathway for the future.

The core vision of KUBS education has not been changed for the last 5 years, since 2015. I believe that’s because the preceding Deans have pursued a sustainable goal that can create large possibilities in the future. Therefore, I’ll continue strive to maintain that goal in the long-term. We are keep looking forward to the ‘Business for Society - Inspiring Next Leaders’, and again, we are to become Asia’s No.1 business school in the next coming 10 years.

In specific, I would try to interpret our vision in different terms, through the lens from the diversified business perspectives. I believe the genuine reason of business should be found in the process of creating happiness and making the world better place to live in. In KUBS, the three core curriculums – Entrepreneurship, Social Value, Business Analytics – will fit into the direction that we are heading and I expect there will be a foreseeable impact on our performance soon.

Q. What aspects do you think does KUBS need to take a leap forward to achieve the objective of becoming ‘Global Top 30, Asia No. 1 by 2030’.
 

To achieve the objectives, research, educational, and administrative capabilities must be strengthened. For research capabilities, we need to invite tenure-track professors with high research abilities and various types of research professors, find ways to increase the research cycle, and also secure enough research time for incumbent professors at the same time.

In order to secure educational capabilities, each program needs to be innovated. This will require consideration for expanding the scope of courses which students can choose from, providing continuous teaching methods, offering incentives to open new courses, and restructuring of courses by the undergraduate/MS&PhD/MBA program etc., ultimately contributing to the expansion of the previously mentioned four dimensions.

Finally, administrative capabilities should also be reinforced. It will be necessary to establish quarterly and annual performance indicators by combining each task and various evaluation indicators at KUBS, set long-term and short-term goals while continuously managing them, and link such goals to the system construction. Of course, we also need to make various efforts to improve the capabilities of our staff members.

Q. In a rapidly changing environment (i.e. due to COVID-19), what kind of talented people do you think does the society need. Please tell us how KUBS will nurture people with such talents.

Business administration is not designed to nurture people who will work for 4~5 years under other people and who can only do what they are told to do. It is important to nurture talented people who will become leaders in each field of society and can contribute to lead a good life together.

I hope that our KUBS students will be able to become talented people who pursue 'novelty with dignity', people who have both personality and ability. In times of crisis, we not only need talented people who have resilience in the process of overcoming the crisis while sufficiently manifesting the four dimensions (height, depth, width, and length) mentioned above, but also need those who can comprehensively look at the crisis and make balanced decisions.

In fact, 'dignity' is already established in Korea University’s culture and tradition. It's not just about individual interests, but about promoting the benefits of the whole. In this context, I think we have been already fostering talented people who pursue the common good in our society. In order to accumulate this spirit, we should consider variously including this in the curriculum of the Business School, and furthermore through extracurricular courses such as various events and activities.

Q. Do you have any last words to give to the members of KUBS.

First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to all members of the Business School. Our students' passion and pride are the start of developing KUBS. I would also like to thank the staff members for their hard work in each field. Moreover, without the dedication of our alumni, KUBS would not have developed as it is now. Above all, the dedication of professors who give their best in lectures and research was the driving force of development. I am really thankful to you all. I believe that all members have been devoted to their own and many ways, leading KUBS so far.

If I were to be a little greedy, however, I think this period - called a crisis - is the right time for KUBS to accumulate the foundation competency to become a lasting organization. To this end, I hope our members will seek "novelty with dignity" and create a new culture. I hope that the value of continuously ‘creating’ novelty, ‘collaborating’ by forming partnerships that trust and respect each other, and ‘contributing’ to each and everyone's development becomes internalized. I surely believe this culture will be a great help for KUBS to take a step further in the future.