Kim Yong-ho, 34, majored in French literature at university and worked seven years at Hyosung's overseas sales team. In 2009, he was selected for a Japanese government scholarship program called the Young Leaders' Program (YLP), and was sent to Hitotsubashi University's Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy. Upon returning to Korea last year, he started working with Arthur D. Little, a global business consulting firm, as a strategy consultant.
The company produces textiles and fibers. I was in a team that marketed technical yarns for industrial goods such as seat belts, airbags, ropes and others.
I was lucky. Every year the Japanese embassy in Seoul selects YLP participants on recommendations from the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI). When the FKI sent out notices to its member companies, my boss picked it up and recommended me to the company.
Our class had 55 people and 10 of them were on the YLP sponsorship. They came from various countries such as Korea, China, Southeast Asian countries and the U.S.
There was no such condition since I was not funded by the company but by the Japanese government. While I was at Hitotsubashi, I was interested in strategy, marketing and finance, so I thought I’d better move on to work in those fields. My boss at Hyosung was a bit disappointed but nevertheless he encouraged me to move on with my decision.
First of all, a consulting firm is not as hierarchical as ordinary Korean firms. Junior employees can speak up in meetings as long as they have sound logic. Secondly, teamwork is more important here as you work on a project basis.
I didn’t need to speak Japanese, because all the classes were in English. Hitotsubashi ICS is a globalized program. There were 55 students in the class but only around 10 were Japanese. If you don’t plan to find a job in Japan, you don’t need to speak the language.
It was a very intimate class with a small number of students studying together. We were very close to each other and to the professors. I guess that there were as many professors as students, so everyone was assigned a professor as his or her mentor. It is also a more globalized program than other programs in Japan and in Korea. The dean (Christina Ahmadjian) herself is not Japanese.
It’s a small class, so the alumni network is weak.
Hirotaka Tacheuchi, a former dean who taught strategy; and Ryuji Yasuda, who is still teaching finance.
Interview by Cho Jin-seo