Kinder Management Working for Daishin

She practically became a cancer expert to save her husband, who was dying of cancer.

She searched the Internet and browsed books on cancer day and night with the determination to save her husband.

She did so for three years, but in the end, her husband passed away and left behind three children. She was left in despair.

“It was as if I had dropped a piece of jewelry and it shattered into pieces.”

The despairing wife came to her senses, when she realized that she now had a company to run.

Daishin Securities Chairwoman Lee Uh-ryong (age: 53). On September 24, 2004, the regular housewife of 30 years turned into the chairwoman of a company with 2,000 employees.

On October 26 – two years later – this reporter met with Chairwoman Lee at Daishin Securities headquarters in Yeouido, Seoul.

“I am not much of a public speaker. That’s why I do not frequently give interviews.”

Always love your employees-

Chairwoman Lee’s husband, the deceased Chairman Yang Hye-moon, was the son of Daishin Securities founder Honorary Chairman Yang Jae-bong (age: 81). He became Chairman in 2001, but passed away in 2004 of lung cancer. His son was still in university back then.

“At first, I was terrified of coming to Yeouido. I did not know anything. I came to work at 8:00 a.m. and just studied until 6:00 p.m. for months on end. The employees used to send me letters to cheer me up, and this was helped me a lot.”

The first thing she did as Chairwoman was to raise the monthly salary by 10 percent. What was intended to drum up motivation brought protest.

“The employees questioned the timing of the salary raise. They said that not enough time had passed since the former Chairman’s death and that they needed to brace themselves to keep the company running. It was a big shock. I realized how much our employees love the company.”

Chairwoman Lee made rounds to all 110 branch offices across the country and listened to the demands of the employees. After finding out that the work environment in the countryside is poor, she fixed old workplaces and turned them into pleasant work areas.

“The only thing my father-in-law (Honorary Chairman Yang Jae-bong) told me was, ‘Always love your employees.’ There is no restructuring at our company. We go the course together, even if we die doing it.”

Good friends with Chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun and Advisor Yang Gui-ae-

During the interview, Chairwoman Lee has her hands clasped together on her knee and speaks quietly. If you had a chance to talk to her, you would think you were talking to a neighbor, instead of the chairwoman of a company.

When asked about her business philosophy, she says, “My job is not to ‘order’ the employees, but to ‘reinforce’ them so they can commit their full potential.” She is good friends with Hyundai Group chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun and Taihan Electric Wire advisor Yang Gui-ae. It is just a coincidence that both women were also bereaved of their chairman husbands. The three currently attend the chief executive course at Seoul School of Integrated Sciences and Technologies together.

“I just had a class with Chairwoman Hyun yesterday. We always sit together at school. We travel together and help each other out. Chairwoman Hyun has many worries these days because of the North Korea issue.

We also talked about her children. Yang Hong-seok (age: 25), who is the eldest of two boys and one girl, gradated from the Seoul National University (Department of Business Administration) this August and entered Daishin Securities.

“I am thinking about sending Hong-seok to earn a Master of Business Administration degree after having him work at a branch office. It is the honorary chairman’s way.”

These are some of the greatest achievements of Daishin Securities: the first securities company to enlist on the stock exchange in 1975, the first to install an electric display board in 1979, exceeding a total of 1,000 trillion won in on-line transactions in 2001, and the list goes on.

Daishin Securities has always been the leader of the domestic securities industry. It is only at the fifth, or sixth position at the moment however.

Chairwoman Lee answered to a question about the strategy to enhance the company’s ability, saying, “We have been traditionally strong in retail (business targeting common investors), but we are weak in asset management and investment banking.”

60 percent of all profits come from brokerage fees. Only 12 percent comes from asset management fees and only two percent comes from the investment banking business. The company signed strategic partnerships with Japanese financial companies such as Nikko Cordial Corporation so that it can grow into a world-class financial company.

Chairwoman Lee says, “I will not rest, even if my employees do. I will turn Daishin Securities into a prestigious company. This is what my husband would have wanted.”

ssoo@donga.com