The Korea IT Times’ interview with Lee Sang-hong, President of the Institute for Information & Communications Technology Promotion (IITP)
In June, Lee Sang-hong, a flower lover who even wrote a book titled “The Scent of Flowers, the Scent of Communication, was named President of the newly-created Institute for Information & Communications Technology Promotion (IITP), a government-affiliated organization in charge of coordinating ICT research & development (R&D) projects with the aim of realizing the government’s create economy initiative. Before taking the helm of the IITP, President Lee worked as a researcher at the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) and served as Head of a KT research Institute, CEO of KT Powertel, etc. His superb capability for managing ICT R&D projects has been widely recognized, thus catapulting him to the top position at the IITP. Against this backdrop, the Korea IT Times interviewed Lee Sang-hong,who has been busy leveraging his R&D project management knowhow, acquired through his 30-year career in the private sector, in orchestrating public-sector ICT R&D projects.
“I will nurture the IITPinto the cradle of the S. Korean government’s creative economic initiative by turning the results of R&D projects into businesses and jobs,” President Lee said pledging that he will take full advantage of his managerial knowhow, obtained during his stint in the private sector.
With the inception of the IITP in June, former members of the now-defunct Institute for Information Technology Advancement (IITA), which had played a pivotal role in the management of public ICT R&D projects, have reunited under one roof. The disintegration of the Ministry of Information and Communications of S. Korea, as part of the Public Enterprise Reform Plan, implemented by the Lee Myung-Bak administration, led to the disbandment of the IITA in April 2009, consequently reassigning experts working at the IITA to five different government-affiliated agencies.
Following the dissolution of the IITA, the IITA’s mission to manage public ICT R&D projects was divided among five different agencies: the Korea Communications Agency (KCA), the National IT Promotion Agency of the Republic of Korea (NIPA), the Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA), the Korea Evaluation Institute of Industrial Technology (KEIT) and the Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology (KIAT).
The division of the IITA’s R&D functions resulted in overlapping tasks and work inefficiency. Hence the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MSIP) of S. Korea has recently held a ceremony to celebrate the opening of the IITP at NIPA, located in the city of Daejeon. The IITP is tasked with coordinating the five agencies’ ICT R&D functions, i.e. the establishment of policy, planning, management, technology commercialization.
In other words, the IITP will serve as an overarching agency that manages all the government-led ICT R&D projects. The IITP owes its existence to the ICT Special Act (Special Act on the Promotion of Information and Communications and Revitalization of Convergence), which went into effect in February to pave the way for the integration of public-sector ICT R&D functions, performed by the five different agencies.
President Lee stressed that he would spearhead the creative economy initiative by creating jobs and new markets through the IITP’s support for SMEs’ R&D projects and technology commercialization. He looks to lend full R&D support to SMEs and venture firms, which cannot afford to make R&D investment. He has sunk his teeth into assisting SMEs in technology commercialization and into creating an open market for technologies developed by SMEs, with a view to eventually playing a part in fast tracking the creative economy initiative.
Unsurprisingly, it has turned out that SMEs lag far behind conglomerates in both quantitative and qualitative aspects of R&D projects. According to a report released by the Korea International Trade Association (KITA), though the R&D spending gap between large companies and SMEs has been narrowing since 2005, large companies’ R&D spending is still triple SMEs.’ As of 2011, the average annual R&D spending per conglomerate stood at KRW 34.6 billion, approximately 71 times SMEs’ average annual R&D spending of KRW 500 million.
OECD nations has seen the share of government assistance in corporate R&D spending, which had held at 7% until 2007, continue to increase. Above all, government assistance for R&D projects, related to developing product manufacturing technology, has grown at the highest pace in the government-sponsored R&D sector.
Since Lee took office at the IITP, he has set about an organizational realignment. Since the IITP is staffed with personnel, who used to work at five different agencies (the KCA, NIPA, KOCCA, the KEIT and KIAT), the reinforcement of organizational unity and drawing a clear line between employees’ duty assignments were necessary.
“Since IITP is an organization dedicated to facilitating R&D projects, it is important to create an environment, where R&D personnel can concentrate on their work in a comfortable and creative manner,” President Lee mentioned.
“People who had experienced different corporate cultures and different projects in five different agencies have gathered under one roof. Thus, enhancing unity among IITP employees is significant,” President Lee said. He confidently says that serving as a KT executive for over a decade has prepared him well for the task of forging amicable relationships with employees and boosting organizational unity.
His confidence in his ability for boosting organizational unity comes from his “communication-based management philosophy.” While assuming the position of CEO of KT Powertel, Lee sent email to employees on a regular basis. Every Sunday, he sent KT Powertel employees email mainly about two things: flowers and management.
Furthermore, Lee had asked KT Powertel employees to carry business card with smiley face photos. He says his goal is to create an exciting and rewarding place to work for employees.
Life lessons learnt from observing wild flowers
President Lee is well known for his love of wild flowers. He showed a Korea IT Times reporter thousands of wild flower photos, taken with his smartphone. His favorite is shepherd's-purse. He likes shepherd's-purse because of what it means in the language of flowers. Shepherd's-purse buds before winter sets in and lies low on the ground during windy, chilly winter days. After weathering the winter cold, shepherd's-purse finally blooms in spring. His book “The Scent of Flowers, the Scent of Communication” revolves around his communication-based management philosophy, which he tried to observe by talking about stories related to shepherd's-purse to his employees. He says the way shepherd's-purse prepares for cold winter days has taught him a life lesson that early preparations will make a business flourish.
