Life-time computer man

By Kim Tae-gyu

Hancom CEO Lee Hong-goo is a computer man, who has worked in the industry throughout his career that stretches back to the mid 1980s.

After graduating Hanyang University, he got aboard IBM Korea in 1985 where he worked for a decade throughout 1996.

He also assumed major spots at such computer companies as Compaq Korea and HP Korea and took charge of Dell Korea in early 2010 before taking a leadership of Hancom in Dec. 2010.

Lee studied management of business administration at Yonsei University in the late 1990s and also went through courses for top executives at Seoul National University and Harvard Business School.

``At Harvard, I learned of so many corporations, which had faced ups and downs and even those that collapsed. My conclusion was that decision making was the most crucial factor in their fortune,’’ he said.

``The experiences gave me a belief that the no-nonsense approach is one of most significant keys in managing companies in such segments as balancing profitability of today and tomorrow.’’

In addition, he noted that he also got sure that any corporation is required to extend its business horizon to areas related to its core competency ― the very philosophy that prodded him to shed the distribution channel of Hancom.

Lee’s vision of Hancom is about two frontiers _ a fresh business sector and a global maneuver and its recent exploit of signing with the world’s foremost search engine Google offers euphoria.

The firm announced midway through August that ThinkFree Office Mobile Viewer will be used as the default document viewer on Nexus 7 of Google, a seven-inch tablet running the latest version of Android.

Customers of the tablet PC will be able to open and read PDF files and Microsoft’s Office documents as soon as they unpack their new tablets thanks to the ThinkFree features without any additional applications or plug-ins.

On the back of its competitive edge in software, Lee vows to make the company join the global leadership in the industry.

Founded in 1990, Hancom was second to none in a variety of software including the office suites in Korea and posed a challenge to the global leaders including Microsoft of the United States.

It presently offers Hancom Office, an alternative office suite for desktop environment along with ThinkFree family of products for online and mobile.