December 9th marks the 3rd anniversary of Chairman Kim Woo-jung's death. Chairman Kim founded Daewoo Industries at the age of 30 in 1967 with a capital of 5 million won and made Daewoo the second largest group in the business world in 30 years in 1997. Chairman Kim said, "The world is wide and there are many things to do." which is still talked about in the population. The spirit of global management contained in these words implies a new dream that Korea needs now.

With the challenging entrepreneurial spirit of entrepreneurs like Chairman Kim, Korea has created a miracle that no one in the world believed would happen. Over the past half century, the Korean people, united with their will to make Korea a prosperous country, have achieved dreams that no one can dream of together. The problem starts now. Currently, Korea has achieved its dream of becoming an advanced country, but it has not been able to create a new dream for the next 50 years.

We need a new dream. Our new dream is for Korea to become a first-class country in the world and to become a country that manages the world. However, the path we must take to become a first-class nation must be completely different from the path we have taken until we become an advanced nation. We must create a new system that is completely different from the way we have been doing so far and lead countries around the world.

The path we must take to become a first-class nation should not be a development-led model in which only companies develop and grow, but a model of coexistence and co-prosperity in which all stakeholders of companies develop together. We already have entrepreneurs who created this business model 100 years ago. Yoo Il-han, who founded Yuhan Corporation in 1926, said, "The biggest goal of a company is to pursue profits. But it should be earned in return for sincere business activities. And the profits from the company should be returned to the society that raised the company." he said. It is said that the goal of corporate management should be to achieve the common goal of pursuing profits and realizing a welfare society through sincere business activities. The 2nd and 3rd Yoo Il-han must come out in Korea now. Korea's global management is possible only through a new entrepreneurial spirit that pursues corporate profits and realizes a welfare society as a common goal.

Whether Korea can go the way of a new world-class country that manages the world depends on how to create a virtuous cycle of business and social development. All countries around the world are in the dilemma of growing polarization and disparity in society while companies are growing. With such a system, it cannot become a country that manages the world. Businesses create new values while actively responding to changes in society and the environment, and the nation creates a system so that the new values created by businesses can become a driving force for the common prosperity of society, not just economic profits for businesses, will run the world. After all, the virtuous cycle system of corporate and social development is the path of new capitalism that the whole world wants to go.

The path to a new first-rate country cannot be created by individual companies. In modern society, the competence and competitiveness of the corporate ecosystem determine the outcome, not the competence of individual companies. In the past, it was an era in which the competition was decided by the capabilities of individual companies, but in the future, competition will be decided by the capabilities of the business ecosystem, suppliers and partners, and the industrial ecosystem to which the company belongs. In a new ecosystem, anyone with a new idea can create a company, and the company's capabilities must be combined with the ecosystem's capabilities to act as a new growth engine. The country that can create the world's most competitive innovation and win-win ecosystem will become the country that manages the world.

On the third anniversary of Chairman Kim's death, Korea needs to look back on Chairman Kim's world management. What kind of dream does Korea have right now? We need a new dream of a first-class nation.

[Han Sang-man, president of the Korean Business Administration Association, professor at Sungkyunkwan University]

Source : [Maekyung Economist] A New Dream of a Top Nation https://www.mk.co.kr/news/contributors/10556896