Bookworm chief executives in Korea

Biz leaders apply theories in books to management

By Park Jae-hyuk

Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and Larry Page have all said that the secret of their success is reading books, still keeping their long-lasting habits even after they earned a huge amount of money.

And there are bookworm chief executives in Korea, too although they are not so famous as the U.S. businessmen who founded Microsoft, Facebook and Google.

According to industry officials, Friday, AmorePacific Chairman Suh Kyung-bae, HanmiGlobal Chairman Kim Jong-hoon and LS Group Chairman Koo Ja-yeol are representative bookworm business leaders who have promoted the joy and importance of reading.

In his recently published book titled, “Fly Higher to See Farther,” Suh recommended several books to read and introduced his style of reading. He makes plenty of notes on books and summarizes the main texts and to-do lists on the front page.

When he was a college student, the chairman of Korea’s top cosmetics firm vowed to read at least 1,000 books during his lifetime.

Saying that “There are answers in books,” he established some principles ― carefully read book reviews on newspapers, buy all books of an author who wrote a good book and get along with bookworms.

Chairman Kim of HanmiGlobal, who wrote books titled “The Passion towards Perfection” and “We Go to Work in Heaven,” is known to read a book every week. In particular, the chairman last year read about 50 books during his two-month sabbatical leave.

In addition, he has promoted the importance of reading to the company employees. Every worker of the construction project management firm annually receives 200,000 won ($178) for buying books. The company gives prizes every month to employees who wrote excellent book reviews.

“Reading books may not be an easy task for employees in fact,” a HanmiGlobal official said. “But those who actively read books and write the reviews said they are satisfied with their intellectual growth.”

As well as awarding qualified book reviews, HanmiGlobal opens debates and delivers special lectures on books as well. Employees can autonomously participate in the debates and the lectures, according to the official.

LS Group Chairman Koo is also famous for reading around 10 books every month.

The tycoon is known to establish a goal of global management, after reading columnist Thomas Friedman’s books titled “The Lexus and the Olive Tree” and “The World Is Flat.” He enjoys reading various categories, as well as books about business and economics.

An LS official said: “The chairman gives books to newly appointed executives every year, seeking to apply theories in books to management.”