Interview with CEO Park Jae-joon of Antock /Photo = Reporter Kim Hui-sun hwijpg@
Antock, where I work, is now in its 9th year since its establishment. After many twists and turns, they determined that the key to survival and growth lies in technology and customers. Internally, they focused on developing artificial intelligence (AI) and big data source technologies, and externally, they focused on building a stable profit model through market development. It may be thought that they focused on the core in order to survive and thrive as a fintech venture company, but in retrospect, I think there wasn't enough concern about the organization itself, which may be the most essential part of the company. Like other startups, Antock also started as a small organization with founding members as the main focus in the early days of the business, so they didn't think deeply about a separate operation plan. We were able to talk fully, and we had a mutual understanding of each other's roles. Organizational management plans were often put off as future work that was safe to think about after achieving sufficient growth. As a result, the business front line is gradually expanding, and technology is becoming more advanced, and the lack of organizational skills to systematically handle this has placed a burden on all employees. In order to achieve continuous growth through technological innovation, it is essential to establish an organization that can support this, and since January of this year, we have been conducting experiments applying the OKR (Objective Key Results, Goals, and Core Results) methodology. The OKR methodology is a concept established by Intel's CEO Andy Grove in 1975 for organizational management, and was later introduced by Google and used as a catalyst for growth. Currently, it has become popular, and in addition to high-tech companies in Silicon Valley, the number of companies that set and manage organizational goals based on OKR is increasing in Korea. The working principle of OKR is simple. Once a company's corporate goals are established, individual department or team goals are set as a way to achieve them, and individual goals are set for each team member so that the team can reach detailed goals again. Through a series of processes, we encourage a natural link between the company's goals and the goals of all members. It also supports the entire organization to focus on core tasks in a more specific way by designing it in a quantitative form that can measure the key results indicators that must be derived to achieve goals. Antock has been setting new goals for each company, team, and person in charge by reflecting OKR ideas, and has continued lengthy discussions with all members since the end of last year. What I learned greatly during this process is that each person has a different understanding and interpretation of the future direction of the company. Naturally, I learned that there may be deviations and misunderstandings among members even where it was assumed that a consensus had been formed. It is proof that efforts are needed to integrate organizations with a single direction, and I feel fortunate to be aware of the importance of managing organizational goals. In fact, implementing an internal organizational management system for ventures and startups is not as easy as it sounds. At the beginning, it is difficult to establish a system due to frequent changes in members, and after that, energy is spent on creating tangible results that are easy to attract investment or develop markets. On the other hand, the organizational system is a challenge that must be refined from within quietly and with a long breath, and it is difficult to expect short-term benefits. For startups with limited time and resources, it can be burdensome because it requires significant investment and determination. However, Google founder Larry Page explains that the company has grown more than 10 times since the introduction of OKR. It doesn't necessarily have to be an OKR methodology. The senior venture founders I sought advice from also revealed that they experienced 3 to 4 times growth after developing and implementing their own organizational goal management process. Possessed technology is important, and business models are important, but it is the members of the organization that eventually develop it and bring it to the market. Organizational and goal management strategies also need to be emphasized more as a key requirement for innovative companies to enter a growth path.[MoneyToday Startup Media Platform Unicorn Factory]Park Jae-joon, CEO of Antock
