Former CEO-Turned-Chief Talks About Efficiency
By Kim Ji-soo
Staff Reporter
The back garden of Sejong Center for the Performing Arts, with its colossal edifice blocking out the traffic and commotion along the main Gwanghwamun road and with its benches and summer water fountain, has provided a sanctuary for harried Seoulites.
The benches, the people and the greenery were the same on one May day. But there was a change. The former parking lot had been demolished to make way for more greens, the lawns are neatly arranged and the benches have been replaced.
It's one of the ostensible changes that the performing arts center has undergone in the past year or so. After years of conflict between the management and union members, comprised of artists belonging to the center's troupes, a former CEO of a textile company took stewardship in December 2005. Kim Joo-song, 60, assumed a position traditionally held by artists or those in the cultural industries. Once aboard, Kim with his 30 year-long-career at Kolon Group, tackled the management-union conflict.
``There was resistance. But the center needed to change, to become efficient and true to its identity. Art is something that you cannot do without money, so we had to become efficient," Kim said in an interview with The Korea Times last week at this office.
Kim attended to resolving the ``hardware'' problems of the center's aging facilities. Its convention center was no longer serving its need and the center had always been criticized for its lack of a proper performing venue solely for music. The convention center was turned into the hugely successful Sejong Chamber Hall. Next was the center's small theater. Kim set to improve the small theater's sound quality and enlarge its seating capacity from 400 to 750. The work is now in progress, with a newly renovated small theater expected to open at the end of the year.
Then Kim took to resolving the conflict with management, its secretariat and the art troupes. He quelled talks of dissolving the nine troupes _ the Seoul Metropolitan Traditional Music Orchestra, the Seoul Metropolitan Youth Traditional Music Orchestra, the Seoul Metropolitan Chorus, the Seoul Metropolitan Junior Chorus, the Seoul Youth Philharmonic Orchestra, the Seoul Metropolitan Dance Theater, the Seoul Metropolitan Musical Theater, the Seoul Metropolitan Theater and the Seoul Metropolitan Opera. Kim said he saw that much of the labor conflict lay with the center's secretariat, accustomed to bureaucracy, mannerism and self-interest.
``The nine art troupes must be maintained for public interest and benefit. But it needs a more sophisticated management, a more rational management,'' Kim said.
He talked frequently with the members of the art troupes, emphasizing the need to maintain their high caliber by having regular evaluations.
``I told the head of the art troupes and the members as well. Where is there an artist that is not constantly being evaluated?,'' he said. ``Best quality is best promotion. We live in a marketing era. We need to make an effort.''
He said the troupes now operate an assessment system, which was borne out of consensus. ``We also need to infuse new blood in the art troupes.''
Having reached the year and a half mark, a turning point in his 3-year tenure, Kim said that he has not fulfilled his goal completely.
``I would say the center has shifted from irregular to insufficiently regular,'' he said, giving himself 75 points for the first half of his tenure.
The center has introduced new programs. They have been holding 1,000-won concerts every month this year. This is when the average ticket price to the Grand Theater runs at 100,000 won.
``By enhancing our efficiency, we were able to turn our eyes to public interest," Kim said. The center is expected to open Sejong Art Academy in June, offering appreciation sessions and classes on opera, art history and music history.
Financial independence has improved to 31 percent in 2006 over 24.2 percent of the previous year.
He has introduced a system where groups or troupes that rent long-term pay additional commission on top of rental fees if the performances are a massive hit. He also hopes to invite corporate sponsorship for the center's troupes as well.
But by and large, he wants to fight against the prevailing sentiment that the new is good.
``Everything about the Sejong Center is a landmark. I would like to turn the center into a classic, where the old and the new merge harmoniously. That would mean offering good performances, bringing in more audiences,'' Kim said.