These shoes are made for walking: IBK heads get the message
Industrial Bank of Korea CEO Kim Do-jin, left, presents a pair of shoes to a branch manager at a meeting with the lender’s employees at its training center in Chungju, North Chungcheong Province, Friday. / Courtesy of IBK
By Nam Hyun-woo
Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) CEO Kim Do-jin presented more than 1,000 pairs of shoes to branch heads and executives of IBK affiliates, generating considerable discussion about the unusual gifts.
According to IBK, Kim presided over a meeting of branch heads and affiliate executives at the bank’s training center in Chungju, North Chungcheong Province, Friday. The meeting was the first of its kind since Kim became chief in late December.
Kim presented shoes to two branch heads, who represented participants.
In his speech, Kim stressed that “branch heads should be more proactive to make the bank more solid and innovative.”
His remarks and gifts are seemingly designed to encourage the branch heads to visit more clients in the field, not just stay in the office and do paperwork.
“To ensure a sustainable future, IBK is required to make profits, which is essential in achieving the bank’s priority of supporting small- and medium-sized enterprises,” said Kim. “Toward that end we have to seek balanced growth between our divisions for corporate and individuals clients, interest and non-interest profits, and domestic and overseas businesses.”
The Seoul-based lender finalized its mid- and long-term strategies, which are about enhancing core competencies for improved profitability, diversifying its portfolio, maximizing customer value and improving operational efficiency.
Such an approach is also in line with Kim’s inauguration speech late last year, when he urged the bank to expand its business horizons to survive and thrive to deal with protracted low interest rates. “For the survival of the bank, it has to get away from the conventional revenue structure, in which it relies on interest revenue for 90 percent of its income,” he said.
“The bank will move forward to have revenue from non-interest and non-banking account for 20 percent each of its total income.”