Korean Tech Powerhouses Naver and Kakao Now Both Have Female CEOs
This is an interesting to see how both CEOs perform leading two of Korea’s biggest IT brands:
Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon, left, and Kakao CEO nominee Chung Shin-a / Courtesy of each company
Naver and Kakao, Korea’s two major internet companies, are in a female leadership contest after the latter recently nominated Chung Shin-a, chief of the group’s venture capital unit, as CEO, according to industry officials and experts.
Naver, operator of Korea’s most used internet portal service, and Kakao, which owns the most popular mobile chat app KakaoTalk, are both to be run by female CEOs.
Of note, is how these two CEOs will lead the internet giants in the AI era, they said.
The appointment of women as CEOs in a rapidly changing IT industry is explained by their expertise in the sector, they said. Also, by appointing women as new leaders, the companies can expect to refresh their image.
“What is expected from female CEOs is not only their expertise but that they can scrutinize the business more thoroughly as women,” Kim Dae-jong, a professor of business administration at Sejong University, said.
Korea Times
You can read more at the link.
If they succeed, which is hoped, will their success be judged as based on their XX DNA? If they fail, will it be judged as because the males sabotaged them?
Actively seeking specific genders or suntans brings grave insult to people of all genders and suntans — by ignoring the hard work and long hours that are required to advance. It can appear as if the only qualification that matter is physical appearance; and, in fact, that women or POC can only advance by winning the virtue-signalling lottery.
I am glad to see Korea shatter the glass ceiling and install women CEOs in Yahoo and Hewlett-Packard… er… I mean Naver and Kakao.
Unless those photos are the decade before last’s story, just looking at their age suggests diversity hires.
Korea seems not to have caught the Woke & Stupid mindvirus that installs attractive younger women where older experienced men need to be… so I smell something else.
This could be a case where both those companies know there are some difficult times ahead so let’s put some young broad in place to mismanage it so we never have to hear any “but why don’t you have women in power” nonsense.
AI is revolutionizing every workflow and, as we have seen with the Internet, established companies frequently fail to adapt and are replaced by hungry new companies.
While the “deep state” of Naver and Kakao are working on AI independent of the CEO, if they fail in that market, they can blame her and move on.
Any company that mentions race, gender, orientation, etc., in their hiring should be ridiculed. They are focusing on the wrong thing.
Though a press announcement that has a good vibe as a shareholder:
“We are proud to introduce John Smith, our new straight white middle-age male CEO with years of experience, a good track record of successful projects, no ridiculous destractions from building corporate value, and a member of the demographic with a solid 500 years of being the driving force behind developing western civilization. Wish him luck as he makes a color and gender-blind assessment of employee value and beats out the competition that has lost its way.”