Chairman Lee Sang-jin of the Korean Standards Association (KSA) speaks at the 2018 Global Industrial Innovation Conference at the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Seoul on June 21. (Photo: KSA)

The 2018 Global Industrial Innovation Conference brought together about 500 Korean and foreign innovation experts and company officials in charge of innovation in Seoul on June 21.
The conference that took place at the International Convention Hall of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry was designed to share the latest Korean and foreign industry and management innovation practices and serve as an opportunity of forming networking.
The Korean Standards Association (KSA) hosted the 2018 Global Industrial Innovation Conference under the theme “Future Innovation Focusing People.”
Sixteen Korean and foreign corporate and policy-making speakers gave lectures or unveiled practices.
Among the key-note speakers were futurist Jerome C. Glenn, Prof. Daniel Susskind, who worked as a Senior Policy Adviser at the Cabinet Office of the British government, and Chairman Jang Byung-gyu of the Presidential Commission on the 4th Industrial.
‘Determination to Lay a Foundation to Grow KSA into Maturity Body’
The Korean Standards Association (KSA) is now facing outside and inside challenges. Its mainstay businesses such as quality certification, education and consulting have turned into money losers due to excessive competition. The KSA logged a deficit last year for the first time in 12 years. It will have to cope with rapid changes caused by the advent of the 4th Industrial Revolution.
KSA Chairman Lee Sang-jin, who took office in March, is determined to serve as a so-called “relief pitcher” to reinvent the association with innovation and restructuring. In a recent interview, Chairman Lee stressed organizational innovation.
“(I’ll) devote myself to spurring a vigor into the inflexible corporate culture through honest communication with rank and file and strengthening their awareness toward the bottom line and transforming it into a full-fledged civilian management body whose management activities are fully evaluated,” he said.
Despite his long-term career as a government official, experts said Lee has the right stuff to spearhead innovation at the KSA because of his diverse resume.
Lee, who passed the 32nd higher administrative exam, began his career at the predecessor of the Ministry of Science and ICT in 1989. He had a 28-year career as a government official. Lee was involved in marketing activities of a private sector entry by serving as a branch office head of Korea Post. He had a stint as director-general in charge of conformity policy at the Korean Agency for Standards and Technologies under the umbrella of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE), a job closely related to KSA. He also served as director-general in charge of trade cooperation and deputy minister of trade negotiation at the MOTIE.
Chairman Lee said he will spend his three-year term laying a foundation to grow the KSA into a mature entity by ramping up its expertise capabilities through choice and focus, and creating a corporate culture with synergetic effects through collaboration among departments.
Chairman Lee emphasized global management to help the KSA make a jumpstart as a global standard & quality knowledge service institution. In this regard, the KSA has its eye on the establishment of the Asia Quality Center (AQC). Chairman Lee touched on the need of the establishment of the AQC, saying that many emerging countries across the world are interested in the corporate knowhow of Korea, which has made considerable economic strides in a short period of time. The ultimate goal of the project is to serve as the Asian hub of standard & quality innovation by enhancing Korea’s standing as a standards & quality powerhouse, and leading future standard & quality industries.
The KSA also plans to explore new and diverse profit models and the diversify its business portfolio, which is now focused on the corporate sector by expanding it to the public sector. Among the new services in the public limelight are safety-related international standard ISO45001, anti-graft management standard ISO37001, green gas emission trading system and emission reduction target certification.
“The KSA will be at the forefront of developing and spreading Korean standards of new industries that will emerge in line with the advent of the 4th Industrial revolution,” Chairman Lee said.
Global completion over standards will get more fierce in the era of the 4th Industrial Revolution, and efforts will be redoubled in areas ranging from the spreading of standards to research and policy so that Korean-type standards can be reflected in the course of global standardization in such spotlight sectors as smart factory, smart city, IoT and big data, he said.

한국표준협회, 글로벌 산업혁신 컨퍼런스...제4차 산업혁명 대응 마련
 
한국표준협회(회장 이상진)는 21일 서울 대한상공회의소 국제회의장 및 부속회의실에서 산업계 관계자 500여명이 참가한 가운데 ‘2018 글로벌 산업혁신 컨퍼런스’를 개최했다.

‘2018 글로벌 산업혁신 컨퍼런스’는 국내외 최신의 산업·경영혁신 사례 공유 컨퍼런스로 기업 혁신 추진자 및 학계 전문가가 한 자리에 모이는 네트워킹의 장을 마련하고자 기획됐다.

금년에는 특히 ‘사람 중심 미래 혁신'이라는 주제로 바람직한 디지털 혁신과 양질의 일자리 확보를 통해 혁신의 성장을 이루기위한 구체적인 실행사례에 대한 논의가 진행됐다. 아울러 컨퍼런스에서 진행된 16명의 국내외 기업 관계자, 정책 담당자 및 연구자의 특강과 사례발표가 이어졌다.
기조강연자으로 나선 세계적인 미래학자 제롬 C. 글렌과 전 영국 국무조정실 선임정책자문관 대니얼 서스킨드 교수, 대통령직속 4차 산업혁명위원회 장병규 위원장이 사람이 중심이 되어 이끌어갈 미래 산업의 방안을 발표했으며 AVEVA, 미쓰비시전기, 현대제철, 산토리 등 글로벌 기업들의 추진사례도 소개됐다.

이상진 한국표준협회장과 미래학자 장병규 위원장, 제롬 C. 글렌, 대니얼 서스킨드 교수 등 한국과 미국, 영국을 대표한 전문가 간의 토의는 기업 관계자들이 미래 과학기술 및 산업정책 대응방향을 설정하는 데 참고가 됐다.

한국표준협회 관계자는 "앞으로도 다양한 세미나와 컨퍼런스를 개최해 제4차 산업혁명 등 미래를 준비하는 기업들의 경쟁력 강화를 지속적으로 지원하겠다"고 말했다.