"A CEO Who Doesn't Learn Is Like a Drunk Driver"

[Interview] Jo Youngtak, CEO of Hunet
The CEO's Role is to "Envision Future-Oriented Work"
Record High Sales Last Year Amid COVID-19 Driven Remote Education Attention
Active Investment in Edutech Including AI Coach and Avatar MBA Development

Jo Young-tak, CEO of Hunet, stated that the leadership in education will shift from offline to online education within two years, expressing his ambition to grow the company into a leader in the future education market based on various edutech incorporating AI technology. Photo by Kim Hee-yoon

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heeyoon] Cho Youngtak, CEO of Hunet, commutes to the headquarters in Guro-gu only three days a week. He works full-time only on Wednesdays, and on the other days, he heads to a single-person office in a shared officetel set up in Yeouido. Cho said, "Unless it is a necessary meeting, I have delegated the rest of the work to the executives and business divisions," adding, "I have been practicing this for two years, believing that the CEO's role is to plan future-oriented tasks. Since the absence of the CEO has not been significantly felt in work so far, I think it was a wise choice," and smiled sheepishly.

There are no president’s or executive offices at Hunet’s headquarters. Cho’s seat is among the desks of regular employees. When asked if employees feel uncomfortable, Cho said, "At first, it was a bit awkward and uncomfortable, but now, since the seats are close, immediate communication is possible, so it is not a big concern." Anyway, the CEO who comes to the office three days a week and employees who work 4.5 days a week (Hunet implements a 4.5-day workweek, with one day being remote work) do not spend much time together in the office.

The ‘future-oriented work’ he focused on while away from the company appeared as a result of proactive investment in edutech in 2015, leading to the highest sales in the company’s history last year (60 billion KRW).

As COVID-19 spread and non-face-to-face education became common, e-learning, which had only played a supplementary role to offline classes, changed the landscape of traditional corporate training. Cho said, "In 2015, I read in the book ‘Future Smart’ that by 2030, one robot instructor would teach 70% of the world’s population, conducting classes in 100 languages across all fields and ages. I felt a crisis that if we continued like this, we would fail in 15 years, so we started preparing for edutech." He explained, "We invested nearly 50 billion KRW over five years, to the point where the company was shaken, but just as we were wrapping up, the COVID-19 issue emerged, presenting the best opportunity."

Corporate training for new employees and promotions, which had been conducted offline in groups, as well as employee competency enhancement training, naturally shifted to e-learning and live classes. Last year, Hunet received favorable reviews for conducting live classes for various corporate trainings involving around 1,000 participants, such as insurance new product training for nationwide insurance planners, regular training for clinical staff at university hospitals, and new product practical training for bakery company stores.

HUNET recorded its highest sales ever last year due to increased demand for non-face-to-face learning caused by COVID-19. CEO Cho stated that the company will continue to advance as a leading digital transformation company by developing various services such as AI-based personalized learning and AI CEO coaching. Graphic by Jin-kyung Lee, Designer

Leading Digital Transformation as an Education Company through Self-Management, High-Level Talent Matching, and Knowledge Sharing Platforms

With prolonged remote work and self-management becoming major issues, Hunet’s ‘Grow’ also became a hot topic. Introducing himself as a heavy user of Grow, Cho said, "Grow is a self-management assistant that helps form personal success habits centered on three themes: vision management, goal management, and gratitude journaling." He added, "From planning learning progress to hobbies like drawing and home training, a culture where users encourage and support each other upon achieving goals has already attracted 150,000 users. We aim to grow it into a super app."

Cho identified Hunet’s main new businesses this year as Grow, the spun-off high-level talent matching service ‘Talent Bank,’ and the knowledge-sharing platform ‘Happy College.’ Talent Bank, in particular, has been spotlighted as a platform matching retired high-level personnel in the era of longevity. Reflecting on the time when he founded Hunet after leaving a large company, Cho said, "It is unfortunate that most people retire in their 50s and spend the remaining 50 years without work. This platform was an idea I had since the founding of the company." He added, "In that sense, Hunet set the retirement age at 100 from the start. In reality, as the working period in society shortens, we contribute to creating various senior jobs and have been recognized for growth potential through the spin-off."

He also mentioned that they are developing an AI learning management system ‘LABS,’ the first in Korea, which provides optimal lectures tailored to learners’ study situations, as well as an AI CEO coaching program. Having long advocated ‘happy management’ and operating the CEO education institution ‘Happy Management University’ based on the spirit of ‘Jariita’ (benefiting others is benefiting oneself), Cho emphasized, "As global management standards shift from profit maximization to stakeholder support, a CEO who does not study in this changing flow is like a person driving under the influence. We will strive to become an education company leading AI, edutech, and digital transformation, providing educational environments through various platforms."

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