 *Lee Suk-chae (KT) Year of birth: 1945 Place of birth: Seongju, North Gyeongsang Province Education: Bachelor's degree in economics from Seoul National University, Ph.D. degree in economics from Boston University Best quote: ``We need to build a work system that resembles that of Wikipedia’s, where somebody will suggest an idea and someone else will improve it, with the whole process leading to a result that provides new value.’’ |
It wasn’t long ago that KT was seen as a huge but boring telecommunications company.
KT is not. The difference between the old KT and new is Chairman Lee Suk-chae.
The assertive 65-year-old wasted no time in proving that he was what the doctor ordered for the beleaguered telecommunications operator, providing pace and purpose to the company’s rebuilding efforts with bold and quick decision-making.
Lee’s first move was to have KT absorb its mobile telephony unit, KTF, to provide the foundation to strengthen its position in the wireless market dominated by rival SK Telecom, which has more than 50 percent of Korean mobile-phone users as customers.
Lee couldn’t have found a better weapon for KT’s revamped mobile business than the Apple iPhone, of which the company managed to sell more than 1.3 million since its release in November last year.
The introduction of the iPhone brought drastic changes to everyday Korean habits as well as the dynamics of the technology market, touching off a smartphone boom that ignited a long-muted mobile Internet explosion and led to the creation of a whole new industry of mobile applications developers.
The next goal for KT is to use its dual strength in fixed-line and wireless networks to change the way people live and work. Lee recently expressed high hopes for the company’s aspirations in cloud computing , which describes a new era of Internet usage when most activities and data storage are provided online and accessed from personal computers and a wide range of mobile devices.
KT’s cloud computing business is expected to provide the backbone to Korea’s so-called ``smart work’’ initiative, which is aimed at taking advantage of ubiquitous high-speed Internet connections and Web-based computing power to better monitor and manage remote workers. The country aims to have around 30 percent of public employees working from home or nearby ``smart-work’’ centers by 2015 with smartphones, laptops and other mobile Internet devices, ultimately boosting productivity and minimizing carbon emissions.
Lee believes that the success of the company’s cloud computing business will also be crucial for its attempts to go global.
``We are close to announcing positive results from our global cloud computing efforts,’’ Lee told reporters at a recent industry forum in Seoul.
``Cloud computing will provide KT with its next major business model beside the traditional fixed-line and mobile communications businesses. The interest in our cloud computing aspirations has been evident from companies here and abroad.’’
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