안녕하세요, 어느덧 2012년의 둘째 주를 맞이하게 되었습니다. 정말 Time Flies, 시간은 쏜살같이 날아가고만 있군요.
)에는 김길연 사장님께서 머니투데이 <기업가정신재단>에서 주최한 <청년기업가대회>에서 1/2등을 차지한 두 팀을 대상으로 '진정한 리더십'을 주제로 강연하셨었는데요, 기업가정신(Entrepreneurship)을 갖춘 차세대 리더들에 전달하는 메시지였던만큼 엔써즈 블로그를 방문해 주시는 분들께도 도움이 되길 바라는 마음에서 관련하여 게재된 머니투데이 기사(
Jack
KilYoun Kim, CEO of Enswers, Talks about True Leadership
Jack Kilyoun
Kim & Taek Kyeong Lee (Co-Founder of DAUM Communications) Speak to
Prospective Entrepreneurs
Startups encounter crisis every
three, five and seven years. You need to work hard at these times to survive.
“My team worked days &
nights. When the company shut down after six years, partitions were the only
things left in the office.” Jack KilYoun Kim, CEO of Enswers, is a successful entrepreneur
in Korean startup industry. His company was valued at KRW 45 billion and this is
only five years after he founded the company with two other colleagues. But
this didn’t come at zero cost. Prior to Enswers, he invested nearly six years
to run a company. This failed and all he was left with was an enormous amount
of debt. “After the failure, I realized the significance of ‘timing’ and ‘commercialization
potential of a technology’,” he said. He now stands in front of a large crowd
as a young CEO of a KT (Korea Telecom) subsidiary in his mid-thirties and tells
them. “Do not work to make money. You need to sincerely work hard and find it genuinely
interesting. I strongly recommend all of you to believe you could change the
world with the one & only technology of yours,” he added.
What He
Learned From Failure
Jack founded SL2 (voice recognition
technology company) in 2000 with fellow KAIST graduates. There were startups
here and there then, making it easy for Jack and his crew to receive the first
round funding from Samsung Securities Co., Ltd. His team was eager to come up
with an outcome for the investment. Their only goal was to increase sales –
without securing profits. They failed in six years. “Few of us started leaving
after realizing it would be impossible to go public. A military serviceman (exempted
to serve at a company) and myself were the only ones left in the end. I had to
sell computers to pay off debt. The only things left in the office were
partitions and leftover debts,” he mentioned.
“It is very important you know
when and what to commercialize,” he emphasized. “The market was not ready for
voice recognition as iPhone 4S’ SIRI is now. And it was a challenge to remove
noises. I could tell a device to ‘Open the Window’ and it would do so; however,
once the window is open and noises are in, it is difficult to get the device to
close the window by processing my order – ‘Close the Window’.”
In the picture:
<Motivation> Don’t work
to make money. You need to find joy in enthusiasm. More importantly is your
dream to challenge what used to be impossible.
<Corporate Culture> You’re
reluctant to obey what you’re told to do. You need to encourage others to work
even when they’re not told to do so. It’s okay to fight (or dispute) with one another.
Make sure no one holds grudges.
<Leadership> CEO on your
business card means nothing. CEO should know how to make profits even after paying
staff for their hard work. Do not sympathize with staff at hard times. CEO should
stand strong and blow energy into others.
<Evaluation &
Rewards> There is no such thing as 100% satisfaction. This also means there’s
no such thing as 1/N. Everyone should know of their responsibility.
<Stress Management> Do
you work out? I feel better after working out. If you’re still stressed out,
then go ahead and find a place at a bookstore.
Enjoy Competition
And Focus On The Main Product
After failure, Jack started selling
phone-network devices (ex. turn off the light with a phone call) and free-lanced
in System Integration for large conglomerates. “I did make some cash then, but
I lost track of where I was heading. I didn’t have so-called the ‘Main Product’.
I still tell my friends to not get heavily involved in System Integration,” he
mentioned. In 2007, he started to see value in UCC (User Created Content) and
began to develop a technology that dissects a video into images. “I realized
there was competition in the global market. I knew this was it, then. If there
is no competition, then there simply is no marketability. If I am able to differentiate
from others and enjoy competition, I knew I had chances there.” He was not able
to make profits off this new business the first year. He returned home empty-handed.
“There were few short-term project offers, but I declined them. Whenever my
colleagues were going through hard times, I told them, ‘Our main product has to
be strong. This will guarantee us exponential growth in sales.” Enswers started
out as a company of three, including Jack, and now has 60 staff. Annual sales also
went up from KRW 0.8 billion to KRW 5 billion.
CEO On
Your Business Card Is Not It
Jack gave away few life
lessons to those who won the Young Entrepreneurs Competition. First off is
attitude. “You are genuinely happy in the early stage. You get to be CEO or Director
and you are still young. But you will soon realize everyone at a nearby bar is
called Sajangnim (Korean word for Mr. CEO). That’s when I realized CEO has to
find a way to make profits even after paying salaries to all staff. Not just increasing
the amount of sales. CEO should never admit anything can be challenging, when
all the others in the company can. The entire company begins to shake with CEO
sympathizing with others and complaining about hardships.”
He also emphasized
the importance of maintaining corporate culture exclusive to startups. “Enswers
staff can work whenever they want. If you’re told to study, you’re more
reluctant to do so. It’s exactly the same t work. One more thing, I tell my staff
to fight (or dispute) with one another. Of course, no one should hold grudges.
Directions can be set after endless debates and negotiations take place.”
He also mentioned it is impossible
to fulfill all staff needs in terms of rewards. “We, as in all staff, set the
rules and make sure everyone abides by them. Everyone should take
responsibility for all they have done, so applying 1/n rule is simply
unacceptable. As I said earlier, the most important thing is to educate your
staff ‘your commitment will bring some changes to the world’. This should be
based on commercialization potential, but dreaming as such helps staff enjoy
what they do at work.”
Taek Kyeong
Lee, “You think your ideas are good? Now, that’s risky.”
In the picture:
1. Starting
a business is not a method. Starting a business itself should be the goal.
Starting a business to do good for community? Nonsense.
2. Idea is just a Mine. Gemstones
found in the mine are items.
3. You could do what you like
for a hobby, but you should do what you’re good at for your business.
4. Bet on the essential values
of your business. Copy and pasting good features & functions of other
services does not help.
5. Choice and concentration
are two important factors. Most entrepreneurs suffer from pursuing too much.
“Ideas are public goods. Don’t
pretend it is yours only. You need to share your ideas and allow others to cast
opinions. Arbitration is the key.”
“Starting a business is not a
method. Starting a business itself should be the goal.” Lee emphasized the significance
of knowing why you want to start a business. “If you are starting a business to
solely make money, it is just too meaningless. There are some people that have
founded startups for social good. I think these people go through extreme pains
of starting a business. You need a proper reason to start a business, such as ‘I
want to make this type of service’ or ‘I want to change this industry’.”
Idea
is just a Mine
Lee first advised it is too risky
to start a business with so much faith in an idea. “Many come to me with interesting
ideas. Honestly to me, these seem like ideas that popped up while they were in
the bathroom. Simply, it’s risky. Ideas are just a huge mine. Gemstones found
in the mine are items. Business models are only born after these gemstones are
polished and crafted. Those success stories with a brilliant idea are only seen
in cartoons.”
“You need to speak
with a lot of people to polish and craft ideas,” he added. “There are some people
who are afraid their ideas would be stolen after sharing with friends and
peers, but there is no such thing as an idea of your own. Let’s say a thousand
people came up with a single idea. Only 10 out of 1,000 can work on the idea.
Only 1 or two of them succeed.” Ideas are like public goods, so it is more
effective to open them up for discussions and debates for refining.
“It makes perfect sense
to do something you want than you are good at for hobbies, but you need to
challenge in the industry of your expertise when it comes to starting a
business.” Instead of picking up ideas, getting into more details of preparing
a business and executing some points step by step are indeed more important.
Bet on
the Essential Values
“Once you have started a business,
you need to proceed by maintaining the essential values. I’ve seen many crying
over ‘we spent so much time & energy on this startup and how come there is
no one paying attention’. Sorry, but you’re wrong. The essential values of your
products are found by your clients, not yourself & fellow creators. That’s
why it’s important to know your client needs, find solutions and build a
business model.
You have to be careful not to open up a service that’s mixture of (literally)
everything. Increasing features & functions just means you’re unconfident
of your product. I consider it irresponsible. You’re expecting your client
would like at least one of the many features & functions you added to the
original product. I’ve seen this startup that had a mediocre-quality main dish
and great dessert - they should position themselves as a dessert café, not a restaurant.
Once you’ve started a business, you need to make a choice and concentrate. Remember,
many entrepreneurs suffer from indigestion.”
"In Korea, NHN, DAUM, Nexon,
Neowiz, Hangame and a few others are known as successful startups. Microsoft,
Facebook and Google are some examples abroad. Their success came on their first
try. So, I’m telling you. Have confidence in yourself. Starting a business for
the first time does not necessarily mean you are going to fail!”.
<The
End>
