Making A Real
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3pm, 4pm, and my 5:30pm meeting became 6:30pm. So it’s often from one meeting to the next. Then, I would say that three to four out of the five days in the week, I have an event in the evening, dinner meetings, or some functions I need to attend. Then I go home and start reading and responding to my emails. That would normally go on until 2 to 4 am or something like that. How are you holding up? So far I’m ok! I don’t know where I get the energy, but I think I get a high, actually, I know I get a high with the buzz from all the work. But I’m not a 30-something anymore, so on weekends I try to have at least one day when I can catch up on my sleep. It’s hard to keep that up and not have it affect your health. There’s so much to be done. That’s my challenge! Can you tell us about your philosophy of leadership and how that applies to the position of President, CEO, and Dean? I think having a clear sense of direction and purpose is very important. I think my leadership style is a shared and participatory one, rather than top-down. I always try to motivate and engage people. I stress transparency and always try to build trust with my team. I tend to say what I have on my mind, and I like being straight with people. Having lived in five different countries all over the world, I’ve picked up different styles in different places. I think sometimes that can make it harder for people to guess where I am coming from. Would you say it’s an amalgamation of all the experiences you’ve had living in different parts of the world? Yes, probably and most likely. I’ve lived in five different countries, so it’s probably a collection of all the good things that I learned and have worked for me. What are your core values and how do they shape your leadership style? The most important thing for me in terms of how I live and do my work is to treat others the way I also wish to be treated. I think that’s really important, and I think that’s probably one area that I sometimes feel a bit uncomfortable about, being in the Philippines and Asia, because many Asian societies tend to be a lot more hierarchical. There is a very clear distinction, say, between faculty and staff, or employer and employee, and the boss and subordinates, and all these titles that people use, such as “sir” or “ma’am”. Sometimes that’s uncomfortable and that is why I insist people call me by my name because I want people to see me as a person
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rather than a person with a title. In my view, titles can hinder collaborative working relationships. And build walls… Yes. When you start a sentence with Prof. Kang or Dean Kang or Pres. Kang or boss, I think that already to a degree restricts what can follow afterwards. To me, it sets the tone. Maybe it’s just me, but I feel when you call me Jikyeong, as opposed to President Kang, we’re now on a more equal footing. Ever since I arrived at AIM, I have always said to our staff, in particular, to challenge me and not to feel afraid to disagree with me. I even said, if everybody always agrees with me, they might consider themselves redundant. I now have many incidents of how even staff at the lowest band will speak up, and I don’t believe that could have happened if I was just Dean Kang or President Kang. So is that the culture you want to establish at AIM? I’m trying. It must have taken Janelle (Jikyeong’s assistant when she was the dean) two weeks to call me Jikyeong! Initially, she used to avoid calling my name because she was not used to it. But now, almost everybody calls me Jikyeong very easily, except a few who still struggle, no matter how much I try to convince them! Tell us what successes you’ve had working with diverse populations, including students and colleagues. I’ve been to 60-plus different countries. It always gives me something to talk about because I’ve been to different places, seen a lot of things, and met many different people. It often gives me something to connect with people: their country, their people, their culture, their food, and so on. But also because instead of having a rather sheltered life, which could have easily been the case if I’d stayed in Korea, all those things I’ve experienced over the years have taught me a lesson that everybody deserves a chance, maybe even a second chance. And it’s not always the case that just because you work hard it means you can accomplish everything all the time. There is a little bit of luck involved, and a little bit of being in the right place at the right time as well. My being exposed to diverse cultures and diverse environments has given me an easier way to connect with people, I guess. Given your multitude of responsibilities as President, CEO, and Dean, how do you manage your time and establish priorities? Right now, for me, the most important thing is to establish financial stability in the institute. We’re a very tiny organization when it comes to the size of the business school. We don’t have an undergraduate program, and none of our programs are big enough, so we need to find a way to stabilize our revenues. We need to have a healthy balance sheet. But to become a viable management school, whether you have a thousand or a hundred students, you