Currently, Korea is busy with political campaigns for the 2012 presidential election coming up in a few months. Among many reasons to why this year’s election is receiving much attention, a major one is candidate Ahn Cheol-soo’s decision to run for the presidency. Many people speculate Ahn would attract a large degree of support from those disaffected with mainstream political parties due to corruption and continuous policy failures. While there are diverse viewpoints about this candidate, the book called ‘CEO Ahn Cheol-Soo, Competition with Spirit’ provides a new way to approach him. This book, published in 2001, may not focus on the political aspects of Ahn Cheol-Soo, but still portrays well what kind of ‘person’ or ‘leader’ he is.
The book mainly consists of information about the ‘Ahnlab’ corporation, Ahn Cheol-Soo’s opinion about business and sustainability of an enterprise, and Ahn Cheol-Soo’s personal core values. In the beginning, the book is mostly professional, dealing with some technological decisions Ahn made when running his corporation. However, the book moves on to Ahn’s thoughts and principles as a leader. Throughout the book, the key value he keeps on emphasizing is responsibility, including responsibility as a CEO, co-worker, producer and more. For example, he remarked “I did not think my decision would make us better off. Instead, I bestowed myself the principle that if I do not follow my decision, we will not survive in the future.” This comment showed the strict standard and commitment he applies to himself in terms of decision.
This book also suggests the principles in terms of self-management. He comments that in the world where ‘speed’ is emphasized, there must be deep consideration for the ‘fundamentals.’ In fact, the whole book is based on the concept of fundamentals. How should a leader not look for shortcuts but follow his own faiths and impose them on the enterprise? How should a leader trust the workers? All of his claims show how he imposes the fundamentals on himself and manages himself based on those principles.
In the arena circles, there are continuous controversies over this independent candidate. Some citizens are surprised by his sudden decision to participate in politics. However, excluding all subjective viewpoints about Ahn, this book would be a source from which we can make a rather objective assessment of him.
