Mr. Yu Ji Soo, the President of Kookmin University, and Mr. Yoon, Sang Gyu, the CEO of Neowiz Games / Moderator: Mr. Heo, Won Soon, The Korea Economic Daily

So far the development process/activity of Korea is summarized as “Look East”. It was the way of looking to the U.S., only crossing the pacific and to the east. Now it is time to seek the opportunities from western places such as China, India, Central Asia, The Middle East and Africa. “I would like to say ‘Look West’ to all young people.” (Yu Ji Soo, President, Kookmin University)

It would be better if college students seek the opportunities locally rather than hanging out only in Seoul. It can be said “Look Local”. (Yoon, Sang Kyu, CEO, Neowiz Games)

The teacher and student meeting after 20 years expressed their opinions with a smile. This article reminds us of the program ‘Meeting of President and Alumnus CEO’ held on the 12th of this month in the President’s Room at Kookmin University.

President Yu was infamous at school for squeezing the credits, since he had been selected as a Professor of Business Administration at Kookmin University in 1987. But he gave an A+ to Mr. Yoon (Business Administration, Registration No: 90) in cost management class in the summer session. President Yu said: “I remembered that he had the unique force of assimilating group work without the regular preparation and revisions.”

In April 2012, President Yu and Mr. Yoon met again in the President’s Room after 21 years from being a strict teacher and his student, to being the 10th President of Kookmin University and CEO of Neowiz game company respectively. The two persons shared their memory of the past for bit. As the Professor of Business Administration and a successful businessman, soon they will have valuable discussions about entrepreneurship, and the knowledge and direction of social development that have to be considered by the young generation.

Moderator - What do we need to have for successful entrepreneurship

Mr. Yoon - Everybody has easy access to the Internet these days; especially in this period, the young generation cannot live without the Internet. That’s why it is thought that entrepreneurship must be the business based on the Internet.  The Internet was just emerging when we founded Neowiz in 1997 with my 8 friends. The company has grown with the development of the Internet. Of course, although we did not have excellent ‘vision’ and luck has supported us, we had the thought: “Let’s do new things”.

President Yu - Although Mr. Yoon spoke modestly, the main motive for your entrepreneur’s success in perspectives of administration is that you have grabbed the opportunity called “development of technology” properly. And another motive for the success of entrepreneurs can be accounted to “decentralization”. It can be said that Korea was able to overcome the global financial crisis in fast mode because it has grabbed the regional opportunity from China. The growth of the energy market can be treated as a typical example representing the adoption of behavioral change.

Mr. Yoon – The ‘Opportunity of Province’ proposed by the President is echoing in my heart. The young generation now thinking about entrepreneurship, need to have a broad perspective of extending the market all around the world. I think businesses like agriculture can be the primary industry and manufacturing and services can be the 2nd and 3rd industries respectively.

Moderator - You mean, it is necessary to follow the trend in a proper way

Mr. Yoon - I think the talented who have creative and general thinking can grab such trends properly. As a person having the managerial experience of a game company, I sometimes found that the well-rounded employee made a better game than the employee majoring in computers only. The knowledge of people majoring in mathematics, human behavior and biology, have a positive impact in creating games.

President Yu - I’m hearing that there is bigger gap between the capacities of graduate students to industry than what the industry wants. Our society requires skills such as honesty, cooperation and communication rather than English skill. Although it is hard to change the nature of human beings, the university can promote the basic quality for communication and it can be done by integrating different fields of study.

Moderator – How does the integration between different streams of education provide the benefits?

President Yu - Lets use an example of automobile development. The engine and body of the automobile is basically manufactured from mechanical engineering. Knowledge about human behavior is required for designing these things because they are the reflection of human activity. There is no doubt that the project would fail if done by the engineer, designer, or scholar of human behavior without the knowledge of the other fields. It is because of the lack of mutual understanding. Mutual understanding can be increased by gaining knowledge in various fields while in university.

Mr. Yoon - The talented people that the president spoke of have advantages for entrepreneurship not only in industry. Having a high level of competency in a certain field is the basic requirement for Korea to become the first mover in a global market and emerge as the leader. And also the number of talented should be increased, who has the ability to understand most of the problems of our society.

Moderator - In which manner do we need to change universities’ educational systems?

Mr. Yoon – The university evaluation of the current government is so shortsighted. The appropriate priority should be given to the university trying to develop science & technology, and also the university which cultivates the liberal arts. Government needs to have a respect for diversity and patiently take the time in supporting a university until it begins to perform properly and shows it is directly associated with entrepreneurship. We have to continue to face the challenge of believing that the entrepreneurship can hit the jackpot sooner or later. At first, universities have to show their investment in a particular field with long term vision, and then the students studying in typical university can learn properly.

President Yu - Lets also talk on the topic related to evaluation; our university trying to treat substantiality as an important indicator. For example, not the ratio indicators of foreign students but that is the enriching level of foreign students. These two components are associated with the success of university business.

Moderator - What are the necessary things to activate the inauguration of enterprises?

President Yu - It is true that our society seem to have lost its spirit during the 1960’s ~ 1970’s. Have you heard the term ‘Trade Agent’ these days? Where did all young people go, who were running in the trade train holding the only one document bag without any office? But it should not be said: ‘Have a challenging spirit’ without any appropriate reason. We have to show the way to them. I would like to say to all our young people to “Look West”. The most progressive market of the world is located in western places such as China, Central Asia and India. It will be difficult to have successful business by hanging on the domestic market of 50 million people with a per capita income of $20,000. So far we have begun to encourage accomplishing the target of overseas markets.

Mr. Yoon – I’m in 100% agreement with that. In addition, I would like to say that the provinces also have opportunities. We can refer to it as ‘Look Local’. Primary industry such as agriculture and others can be good items for enterprise and their distribution is also an item for businesses without large resources. It is not necessary that all young people be involved in IT and mobile items. The government also has to promote industry in the provinces actively, so that can be operated by the young generation. If we are able to do this, the problem of a capital centered economic power and the aging society of the provinces can be solved simultaneously.

Moderator - What kind of talent should be supported by the university?

Mr. Yoon - Although our company is based on the Internet and computers, the company needs human resources with talent in various disciplines. And the most important things that are required for extending into various disciplines are having good communication skills. It is possible to understand and make our own ideas, only if we have good hearing power. I think that the skill of students that should be strengthened by the university is communication.

Moderator - Is there anything that universities are seeking from companies?

President Yu - It would be better if companies change their thinking of supporting only widely reputed universities. We can find a building with the name of almost all companies at high level universities. But there won’t be any building with name of such companies at the university which has little popularity. Although the universities need to improve the specialty level by concentration and selection, it would be better if companies also invest to support their work. Kookmin University has the specialty on automobile engineering and design as much as the other domestic universities have. We have a plan on keeping these points strengthened in the future too. It would be great to invest in our university, if the company needed the talent persons in this field. And the development of industry can be speeded, if other universities also receive the investment proper to their special fields.

President Yu Ji Soo
Dr. Yu Ji Soo (60), the President of Kookmin University is the academic scholar representing Korea’s automobile industry. He received a doctorate in business administration from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign in the USA after graduating from Seoul National University. Since he entered Kookmin University as Professor of Business Administration, he has been involved in different roles such as Dean of Business Administration, chief of the research and exchange program and has been selected as 10th president last March for a 4 year term.

Mr. Yoon, Sang Kyu
Mr. Yoon, Sang Kyu (41), the CEO of Neowiz Games, graduated from Kookmin University majoring in Business Administration in 1997 with the registration number 90, founded Neowiz in association with Mr. Na, Sung Kyun, the chairman of Neowiz group and others at that time. The total selling and business benefits of Neowiz game rose to 667.7 billion won (55% growth over 2010) and 108.1billion won (an increase of 357%) last year, the first year of Mr. Yoon’s promotion to CEO.