My Proud Friend as a CEO & Founder of a Company.
"Rho! I established a company named ARTECH LAB last year and we made a huge profit in this year. Let's meet someday soon so that I can treat you a nice dinner as a celebration." As soon as I picked up my phone, my friend said these words. His name is Lee Hyeon-ha. We used to hang out with each other but we have not been able to get together these days because of the busy University life. I always hoped to socialize with him and he was just the same. So, we made an appointment and we met in Wangsimni, where many nice restaurants and cafes located.
He came to meet me in a fancy suit. White shirt, red tie and nave colored suit were pretty harmonious. Because he often chose to wear a tracksuit, I was pretty surprised. So, I jokingly said, "Dear my friend, I'm not a girl. You don't need to wear that kind of nice suit to meet me." He laughed and answered "No way! I wore a suit because I had a contract right before I met you. I had not enough time to change my clothes. You know, it's a bit embarrassing!" He said he just signed a contract for a video show in Samsung's products presentation show. And soon, I found that his appearance was not the only thing that has been changed. He was a boy who always being led by others, but now, he became a CEO who leads a company. The CEO led me to a café.
At the Café, I start to interview him. I started with questions about his company. Based on his story, the name of the company he founded is ARTECH LAB, and it is a media art business company. His company has made many video shows for corporations, such as Nature republic and Estee Lauder. Both were well-known cosmetic brands in Korea. Because I thought his company is just a start-up company, the clients he named made me surprised. Then he showed me the media arts that his company produced. Even though I have lack of knowledge about the media art thing, colorful and powerful visual image was enough to make me astonished. Also, they were well organized and well-made video.
I asked him a next question. "Why and how did you establish the company?" He started with the assistance to business starters of his University. At first, he was planning a consulting company because that's what his major was. But he thought that the entry barrier was too high and most importantly, that was not what he was interested in. He said "It was hard for me to write a detailed memorandum to my University because no enthusiasm about consulting blocked me from producing creative ideas. When struggling with the proposal for the memorandum, I got an unexpected proposal from my friends who I worked with me before."
He introduced every one of his friends. He started with the characteristics they have, ended up with their specialties. He explained that his friends had a sophisticated technique to create a high quality media art, but they struggled to gather clients. So, they were looking for a man who has a management skill at that time. "That proposal was exactly what I've waited for," he added. So he took their proposal without any hesitation, and changed the whole content of his memorandum. Finally, he won first place in the University's contest and won a support fund as a prize. That's how and why he founded the company.
Finally, I inquired a question about a blueprint that he had in mind for future. It took several minutes to get an answer. After much consideration, he started to talk. "Because our company begins to become larger and larger, we have a plan to change our company into a corporation. But we are not in a hurry. That transformation will be happened once our company built up fine refutation in the media art field. And pretty soon, we will hire more engineers and technicians to make the quality of the productions higher. It is only a blueprint but I hope we could make it."
I finished my interview at this point. I realized that the little and shy boy became a vigorous entrepreneur who had a transparent vision for the future. I felt really proud of what he has done. I hope the ambitious CEO named Lee Hyeon-ha will achieve success ever after, and I strongly believe that the entrepreneurship he has will help him to become a successful CEO.
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