[Asia Exclusive] Heo In, KB Kookmin Bank CEO: "Customers and Employees Both Come First"

CEO of 현장通's 'Actions Speak Louder Than Words' Strategy

[Asia Economy Reporter Kangwook Cho] Heo In, President of KB Kookmin Bank, has the motto "Customers and employees both come first." Since taking office, he has focused on improving the work environment. This is based on the belief that employees must be happy to serve customers better. He often emphasizes "an organization with a human touch, working agilely and leading change as a young and vibrant organization," which stems from this belief.

As the first bank president born in the 1960s in the banking sector, he is also working to break the stereotype that banks are bureaucratic and formal. In 2018, he was the first in the banking industry to decide to abolish uniforms for female employees. With the introduction of casual dress, incidents where some customers disregarded female employees decreased, greatly increasing employee satisfaction. Male employees were allowed to wear no ties and business casual attire.

He also reduced meetings and reports. Meeting materials are no longer prepared in time-consuming presentation formats but are simply written using document programs. This is because employees were spending more time making reports look good rather than focusing on the content. The head office workspace was also changed to an open layout using glass walls for executive and department head offices. The seating arrangement, where team leaders sat in the middle and team members on both sides, was changed so that team leaders and members sit side by side.

After taking office in November 2017, in the first executive personnel reshuffle in December, he drastically reduced the number of vice presidents from eight to three. Instead, he increased the number of younger executive directors and managing directors who are proficient in practical work. In his New Year's address last year, President Heo emphasized, "Developing bankers with diverse capabilities is an absolute task with no alternatives," and stated, "We will continue efforts to secure future competitiveness by giving preferential treatment to employees with comprehensive consulting capabilities."

He is a rare "sales expert" and "field expert" bank president with over eight years of experience as a branch manager. For this reason, even after becoming CEO, he emphasizes focusing on actions rather than words. At the 2018 management meeting, he cited the example of the "Dutch reach" to advocate leading by example. The Dutch reach is a car door accident prevention method devised in the Netherlands in the 1960s. When opening a car door to get out, using the hand farthest from the door to open it forces the body to turn, allowing the person to check for approaching bicycles or motorcycles from behind. This symbolizes putting actions before words.

President Heo stated, "We will continue to strive to resolve customer inconveniences and provide differentiated customer value," and emphasized, "We will create a KB where both customers and employees enjoy convenient experiences through people-centered digital innovation."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.