Many alumni made their way back to the YSB Building on the last Wednesdays of April and June to take advantage of the YSB A/S lectures, a series of talks specifically designed to aid alumni in personal development as lifelong learners.

》 The 28^th Lecture: Professor B. Kyu Kim, “Designing Senses: Branding Strategy Based on Customer Experience”

Professor B. Kyu Kim of Marketing at YSB began the lecture with a question: “Will we survive the next 10 years of a fast-changing business environment?” Professor Kim pointed out that Korean firms are still lingering in their old ways of conducting business despite a business environment that is changing like never before with the introduction of artificial intelligence and the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

“We should keep in mind that customers value experience,” he said, arguing that we need brand positioning that uses the daily experiences of customers in today’s market that is characterized by an overflow of brands, upward leveling of quality, and easy access to relevant information. He shared best practices and highlighted the importance in effective branding of designing to appeal to customers’ senses through such attributes as weight, sound, and height.

》 The 29^th Lecture: Sam Youl Lee, “Strategy for Diversity and Innovation”

Professor Sam Youl Lee of Public Administration spoke in June on how organizations can recruit creative people to work for them and become innovative in an age of creativity. He began by defining what is meant by creativity. He said that just as there is diversity in a man, there is diversity in an organization when individuals with different characteristics come together. He said that various levels of bodies, including organizations, firms, regions, and nations, are made up of diverse individuals, but recent studies focus on cities as the largest competitive bodies of analysis.

“Innovation within an organization derives from individuals in the organization and diversity serves as a magnet to attract talented individuals,” Professor Lee said. “In order to keep diversity alive in an organization, we must continue to ask whether strangers can stay in the organization as strangers and express their thoughts.”