My Experiences at Global HR Forum 2012

My Insightful Experiences at Global HR Forum 2012

            After a bit worried as to whether I could just come and sign up on site, I could now proclaim myself to be one of the lucky students to study and learn in a country called: Korea. The reason is simple. I may have to pay a few hundreds bucks just to participate in a large-scale international academic event like Global HR Forum in other places or countries. But, I paid not a single Won to participate in this year’s Global FR Forum held at Lotte Hotel Seoul. This is something that—I think—should be worth-noted in the first place.

            For an event that hosted distinguished speakers and prominent experts in varied fields, I think this is something that Korea could be proud of. In its 7^th consecutive years of facilitating such an event, Korea (read: Korean government) has successfully laid a sound foundation to keep its significant existence in the world as a country that nurtures its citizens and future generation with ample ‘ammunition’ to face the ever-changing world.  And for me, as a foreign student, being mingled with other fellow students, participants, and delegates in this event was such an insightful experience worth sharing. This is why Korea should be proud since this country has been eager to keep on learning from the best by inviting scholars from around the globe to come to Korea and share and discuss the current issues in the world. And what’s more? It was all free for all participants which surely benefits students and youngsters in Korea.

            My question was like “How could this be possible?” Then, as I came across the event venue, I came to easily realize the synergy put together by program partners, media partners, and sponsors that made it possible. This page would not be sufficient to name all, but from what I learned; the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology, The Korea Economic Daily , and Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education & Training were behind the success of this event. In supporting roles, a lot of Korean institutions, business, companies were lining up to support this event. What a collaborative project indeed it was.

            One of the objectives of this large-scale event was to increase and create the opportunity for Korea and its younger generation to put themselves on the world map in term of developing human resources in the current world situation through openness and cooperation. I had to agree with this one. The reason was simple. The participants from all layers of community and background in Korea and from other countries could benefit a lot from the speakers who were more than willingly to share their insights, experiences, and knowledge on the issues they were good at. So, we came to see and listen to experts talking about something we were involved and got interested in. 

             As for me, I managed to come on the 2nd day. There were numerous and varied subjects that one could choose to participate in. Since I was interested in creative talent and how it suits the current world economy situation, I participated in two sessions. First, it was a plenary session dealing with a theme on how to harness creative talent for corporate change. The second one was a special session about the global financial crisis and the future of world economy.

            Now let me share what I learned from the first session. It was held at the ballroom so it accommodated a huge number of participants. I looked so popular since two of the speakers were Mr. Pat Gaines, the president of Boeing Korea and Mr. Kim Hyojoon, the president of BMW Group Korea.  It was a long presentation which mainly dealt with the problems companies had to face in selecting, tapping in, and recruiting the talents with ample knowledge and responsibilities. Of all the speakers and disscussants, the one person that left me with a big impression was Mr. Pat Gaines. I knew that he was indeed a person with a forward-leaping view on seeing the problem of harnessing the creative talents. He mentioned that  the turnover rate at his company was more than 50%(?). What a shocking number it was. He mentioned that Boeing had invested a lot amount of money and energy to train and educate their newly employed to be the best in their fields. Still, the turnover rate was relatively high. Instead of looking this phenomenon in a negative way, he asserted that he was proud of it. Surely many were overwhelmed by his view and I was no exception. As we kept listening and understanding his view, it was clear that he was right. He perceived it in a positive way since Boeing was proud to be able to disseminate the well-trained talents to other companies. He saw it as a contribution they made to the society. Interestingly, Boeing even told them to come back anytime should they want to be re-employed at Boeing. This was something that I admired about the way he saw a problem in a positive perspective. This was something that I learned from the first session.

            At the second session that I participated in, two speakers were present: Mr. Richard Jerram, a Chief Economist at Bank of Singapore and Mr. David Fernandez, a Managing Director of JP Morgan-Asia. Frankly speaking, I thought I could get something new from the two speakers, but they mostly described the current situation. I guess it was a bit difficult to predict the future of the global economy—that they themselves also admitted.  At least, the audience could still solicit their opinions on the Q&A sessions. However, here are what I learned from the session. Both speakers interestingly admitted two things: first, the unsustainability of the Western social democratic model; second, the potential for emerging economies to be driven by their own domestic or regional market. All of these were the result of the demographic differences in the West and other part of the world as well as the difficulties faced by Western countries in term of their declining industrial output. On the other hand, developing Asian countries have grown up 50% during 2006 – 2012 alone. Mr. Fernandez asserted the fact that in the 1990s, Asia’s share of economic output was only 14% to the global economy, but in 2012 it has gone up to 30% or one third of the global output. In the midst of the crisis, this is the region that the world should pay attention to. Two last things that I could grasp from their thoughts were inequality and extrapolation. I know what inequality is and the fact that it persistently exists could impede the actual growth. But, I am not quite sure what extrapolation is. They said that this posed a dangerous threat to the world economy. If I could understand it correctly, I guess they mentioned that one should not make wild and hasty prediction of the world economy on the current data although the trending phenomenon exists. Things could change. All in all, both speakers suggested that we should pay more attention on these two notions.  

Those are my thoughts and experiences of attending the Global HR Forum 2012, held on October 23-25, at Lotte Hotel Seoul. Seeing and Experiencing more than what I had expected, I am undoubtedly looking forward for the 2013’s Global HR Forum.