Korea Asset Management Corp. President Hong Young-man

President Hong Young-man of Korea Asset Management Corp. (KAMCO) said in his New Year’s speech that this year should be the year for KAMCO to become a state-owned company that the people love by resetting its corporate culture based on trust and harmony and finding new growth engines to support government policies. 

The CEO recalled that the year 2013 was the year that KAMCO displayed its outstanding abilities in such key areas as finance, home economics, and other public areas, especially in the management of the People Happiness Fund set up by the government. KAMCO helped more than 270,000 people to restructure their personnel debts, took care of the management of state assets, and engaged in the launch of IPAF, a system for global financial cooperation and the collection of defaulted taxes to help the National Tax Service, making huge progress in its development.

This year should be the one for KAMCO to be ready to cope with all kinds of changes in the management environment by strengthening its capacity to take over non-performing assets, restructuring, and the management of defaulted money to be paid to the government. KAMCO should also search for new growth engines in order to build a stable base for its earnings.

CEO Hong also touched on the need for tightening the unity of KAMCO and a new step toward overcoming challenges through fair, open, creative and futuristic management under a new management philosophy to recover the trust of the people, organizational harmony, and the pursuit of sustainable management.

He warned that those who commit wrongdoings against the company will be punished as he will try to make KAMCO a company where fair reimbursement is given to those employees who do good jobs through a fair performance evaluation.

“In an open management, harmony and trust traditions will be stressed to strengthen internal communication so that a corporate culture of trust and harmony inside the company will be reestablished,” the CEO said. He said he will listen directly to regional heads, team heads, and others who are in those units, adding that any employee who has a problem with the company can come to him directly and talk about it.

“All employees should listen to what the people say about KAMCO to recover public trust for the company,” Hong said, reflecting how well the company had done in administering the People Happiness Fund last year because everyone at KAMCO showed pride in being at the forefront of the opening of the age of happiness for the people.

In pushing for “Creative Management,” Hong said, “While nothing is perfectly new under heaven, it is best not to repeat the existing customs, but to find something new that can move fellow employees and customers. You need positive dedication and professionalism in the jobs you are in charge of for the company in order to come up with something creative for that can surprise anyone in the company.”

Hong said he would like to advise young employees to not be afraid of failure and be armed with a challenging spirit at all times in order to ensure the vitality of the company.

Regarding futuristic management, he said a frog jumps out of hot water right away if thrown in, but dies when it is thrown into warm water that is slowly being heated up. This applies to a company, too, as slow changes can kill it. “We have to adapt to changes fast with preemptive moves sometimes to complete our mission to take care of state properties,” he said.

Hong said he is occupied with thoughts about appropriate strategies to get the company moving in the right direction, adding that he needs everyone working for the company to chip in so that he can come up with the right strategies to direct the company to its targets. “The desired products can be made through the endless process of questions and answers in my management philosophy,” Hong said to conclude his New Year’s speech.