The global financial crisis set off by the collapse of the US subprime mortgage loan market has spread all the way through the investment and commercial finance sectors to impact the real economy, leaving not only corporations and business owners in a big mess, but also households and individuals.
For most people, investing in the stock market started out as a means to save for a rainy day, such as retirement in the not too distant future, by putting aside as much as they can from what is considered already to be a tight salary. The same logic also applies to those who have invested in the various funds that have since shattered into bits and pieces.

With the abrupt plummeting of the total value of their financial investments, many have sarcastically quipped that you are fortunate if you have managed to lose only half the value of your investment portfolio. Even “wild goose daddies,” a term referring to fathers who are separated from their families having been left behind in Korea to earn money while their wives and children live overseas to study or learn English (which there are quite a number of at our company), are feeling the pinch and in distress due to the foreign exchange crisis.

So as we witness the sudden collapse of derivative financial products, which were flawlessly created by financial engineers, I have come to realize that now is a time when the importance of "fundamental" should be emphasized.
In economic terms "fundamental" is used to describe the basic conditions of the national economy and can be looked at as the healthiness and well being of the economy at large. Moreover, this concept can also be applied not only to the economy of a country, but to many other areas as well.

Which brings us to the question: what are the fundamentals of Cheil Worldwide?

Well, a necessary requirement for Cheil Worldwide to exist is the client, and the sufficient condition which allows us to maintain the client is creativity. And of course, the selling of this creativity is the life blood of our business. So then what are the necessary and sufficient conditions for Cheil's business? And how do we manufacture this creativity to sell to the market?

The answer to the above question is human capital.

Our company is a "human capital oriented business" and how successful we are at recruiting talented employees lies at the core of our existence. So naturally, I am more deeply interested in the recruitment of new staff than the financial statements of our company. If I can make an analogy: financial statements are derivative financial products, but a new employee is a fundamental.

During the latest round of interviews to select new staff, I met many young and eager candidates with great aspirations to succeed. Watching their youthful exuberance and boldness, enthusiasm and self confidence, upright state of mind and originality, I had a chance to momentarily escape from the mundane world currently occupied by stock market crashes and soaring foreign exchange rates.

Thus, after two straight days of interviews, and in light of my position as the CEO of this company, I was awoken to a new reality. Before the interviewees became potential candidates to choose from, they were
first "buyers" who influenced the very future of our company as value adding consumers.
Therefore, the issue at hand is not if they are seen as desirable potential employees or not from the company's perspective, but instead, will the company appropriately recognize their value or not.
A company with a system in place to identify human talent - that is the most vital and essential quality of a human capital business!

All this brings to mind a well-known prose by the great Tang Dynasty writer Han Yu, who lamented the fact that the great horses aren't as rare as people believe. Rather it is a case of the owners not recognizing talent when they see talent.

Everyone! The fundamental of Cheil Worldwide is our precious and talented horses (employees).


Nack-Hoi Kim