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| Publishing Trends |
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Vol.6 Winter 2009
(Page 13) |
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Secrets to Business When Times are Tough |
 By Han Mihwa |
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In the 1960s, South Korea saw the birth of conglomerates. These first-generation businesses were born in a financially favorable climate with the active support of the government. In the 1970s, a second generation of large-scale companies was created without help from the government.
These businesses enjoyed domestic competitive power to such an extent that they gave rise to plutocrat myths. However, the situation changed drastically with the economic crises of 1997 and 2008. With the exception of a few companies, such as Samsung, Hyundai, LG, and SK, many businesses either collapsed or faced grave dangers.
However, regardless of these pressures, there still exists a few second-generation businesses that have done more than merely stay afloat. How on earth did these relative newcomers not only survive, but also find such success in a turbulent time when global companies are helplessly collapsing?
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We introduce books by two representatives from this generation of companies: CEO Yoon Seok-keum of WoongJin Group who has published Positivity Creates a Masterpiece and Lee Seung-han of Home Plus who has published Creative Virus H2C. In these books, they share the wisdom of their lives as they reveal the hardships they endured at the start of their businesses and how they managed to overcome these obstacles.
WoongJin Group began in 1980 as a small educational publishing company with seven employees. Today, it has grown into a large enterprise with 14 affiliated companies in seven business areas with yearly target sales of 520 billion Korean won. CEO Yoon got his start in the 1970s as a salesman with the Korean branch of Britannica, and went on to become the top Britannica salesman for selling the most English encyclopedias in the world. In his book Positivity Creates a Masterpiece, Yoon shares two secrets for his success: one, that a businessman must consider every crisis as an opportunity, and two, that it is crucial to have a positive outlook on every matter. CEO Lee Seung-han of Home Plus began his career as an employee at a conglomerate. He then became a key player in shaping Korea’s distribution industry through his success with Home Plus. In a time when the distribution industry was largely relegated to selling products from warehouse-style marts, he found success by attempting something completely new. In his book Creative Virus H2C, Lee credits creativity as the leading reason for his success.
Although the U.S. financial crisis has slowed the sale of business and economic manuals in Korea, the inspiring stories of how these two CEOs were able to transform a crisis into a positive force are sure to change the tide. |
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