3 Telecom CEOs 3 Management Styles

Domestic mobile telecommunications companies have developed greatly due to the internationally acclaimed information technology (IT) level and the consumers sensitive to the latest trends.

But the domestic market is already saturated, and companies face the task to create new services and pioneer the overseas market. That is why the competition is fierce to discover the Blue Ocean (noncompetitive market).

The leadership of the CEOs that are leading the mobile telecommunications industry is certainly an important factor for the success of the company.

3 CEOs in the telecommunications industry, SK Telecom president Kim Shin-bae (52), KTF president Cho Yeong-joo (50), and Jeong Il-jae (47) each display their unique leadership characteristics and work for the future of the company.

A Mellow Leader Makes a Creative Team-

By gathering the assessment of the companies, Kim is ‘soft on the outside but strong on the inside’, Cho is a ‘benign and considerate’, and Jeong is ‘a boss type researcher’.

Reflecting the young and creative characteristics of the telecommunications industry, their leadership may be mellow, but differences also abound.

SK Telecom’s president Kim values the harmonization of technology and management. By listening to the opinions of the employees, he is highly popular, and he recently introduced a radical human resource policy that eliminated ranks. A man of finance, simple management is not permitted, and he assesses people in marketing as ‘personnel fighting in the front lines’.

Having passed the national examination on technology, KTF president Cho worked briefly in the government and moved to the telecommunications field, and worked broadly in the wire and wireless telecommunications field for 24 years. His calm manner and his warmth in remembering even the employees’ birthdays have earned him the nickname “Cho the Considerate.”

Deeply religious, he is expected to sing gospels in karaoke, but his favorite song these days is Yoon Do-hyun’s ‘Love Two’. Though he does not put on shows, he wore a bow tie and played the saxophone during a recent office event and created a sensation.

Stepping up to his position in July, LG Telecom’s president Jeong has a doctorate degree for business, and worked as the head of the management consulting center of LG Economic Institute. Though it may seem that he is weak in the telecommunications field, while placed as vice president at LG Co., he had planned a management strategy for the ‘3 coms’ of the LG Group, LG Telecom, LG Dacom, and LG Powercom. These days he visits call centers and gains practical experience.

An employee of LG Telecom said, “I was surprised with Jeong’s rallying by saying ‘let’s work together’, whereas the former president Nam Yong, a ‘field operation general type’ would have been firing off orders in a situation like this,’ and added, “while he seems soft, he also has a boss-like quality, and he seems to be a CEO that works well to integrate the team.”

Survival possible only by discovering the ‘Blue Ocean’-

Recently Kim’s interest lies in the globalization and integration trends of the telecommunications market. They have recently held an executive meeting in San Francisco, U.S., to discuss the pioneering of a new market.

A source from SK Telecom stated, “It is still early to predict the outcome of the ‘Helio’ project that was launched in the United States since May, but the progress is more disappointing than expected,” and added, “Regardless of its strong performance in the domestic market, it is not easy to introduce a foreign brand in the overseas market.” SK Telecom faces the task to target the premium telecommunications market overseas and heighten usage of the wireless data service replete with a variety of contents in the domestic market.

KTF is putting its all in the High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA), a 3.5 generation telecommunications that was launched in June. The service, which enables camera phone conversations, is planned to move ahead of SK Telecom’s equivalent by extending the service nationwide by next March. It plans to target the new market by moving into first place, something that it failed to do with the 2G CDMA service.

Recently Cho became a board member of the European 3G telecommunications association, GSMA, and is expanding his influence internationally, and served as a keynote speaker at the ‘3GSM Asia’ held in Singapore on October 18, announcing the HSDPA service of his company.

As of October, LG Telecom has 6.9 million subscribers, a weak number compared to SK Telecom (20 million subscribers), and KTF (12.7 million subscribers), but they are diligently working to attract new members with their cheaper price rate and customer service.

Next year the ‘comprehensive service’ that allows different telecommunications services to be marketed together will be allowed, and cooperation between the companies will become more important. Jeong is entrusted with the task to create a synergy effect with LG Group’s ‘3 Coms’.

kimsunmi@donga.com mikemoon@donga.com