'Report Reduction and Capacity Building Training'... Icheon City's Completely Changed Meeting

First Expanded Executive Meeting Featuring Guest Lecture by Professor Kim Ki-young of Sookmyung Women's University
Mayor Kim Kyung-hee: "Introduced to Enhance Managerial Competence"

The first 'Expanded Executive Meeting' of the year held by Icheon City, Gyeonggi Province on the 29th was different from previous years. At this meeting, attended by all executives of grade 6 and above, the business reports were brief. Soon after, Professor Kim Ki-young from the Department of Visual Communication Design at Sookmyung Women's University entered the meeting room and delivered a lecture on the theme of 'Brand and Sustainable Growth.'

On the 29th, attendees are listening to a lecture by Professor Kim Ki-young of Sookmyung Women's University at the Icheon City expanded executive meeting. [Photo by Icheon City]

Icheon City changed the format of its monthly executive meetings. Moving away from simple business reporting, the meetings now focus on key agenda items such as major issues and pledge implementation, shortening the time spent on reports, and dedicating the remaining time to professional competency enhancement training.

Professor Kim, who gave the lecture that day, was formerly in charge of planning and branding for Emart's No Brand. No Brand was launched with the message 'Consumers, not brands,' achieving sales growth from 7.6 billion KRW in 2016 to over 1 trillion KRW in 2020. Professor Kim is also recognized as a brand strategy expert who successfully branded the 'Honey Butter Chip' into a major hit.

In his lecture, Professor Kim introduced the concept and necessity of branding, examples of existing local government brands, and emphasized that design and brand strategy are essential for sustainable growth. He also added that breaking existing frameworks with new experiments, changing perspectives, and continuous challenges are necessary.

The change in Icheon City's executive meeting format reflects Mayor Kim Kyung-hee's determination to enhance the capabilities of managers at grade 6 and above and to cultivate a broad perspective and insight. Mayor Kim explained, "The change in the meeting format is intended to improve the capabilities of managerial staff in response to the rapidly changing internal and external administrative environment, enabling Icheon City to transform more progressively."

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