Hyokon Zhiang

Current

Founder at Artpoli
Founder at Innomove

Past

Manager at Bain & Company
Associate at A.T. Kearney
Associate at STAR TV

Product planner at CJ Corporation

see less...

1 more...

Education

Northwestern University - Kellogg School of Management
Seoul National University

Connections

164 connections

Industry

Internet

Websites

Hyokon Zhiang’s Summary

Hyokon has rich and successful innovation experiences. He was the key contributor to developing the first Korean online insurance businesses and introducing advertising business models for a major bookstore online and offline.

Hyokon is currently building Artpoli.com, an online art community and marketplace. Artpoli's motto is "Art for All."

Hyokon Zhiang’s Specialties:

Innovation, small business, entrepreneurship, crowd sourcing, new business creation, venture building

Hyokon Zhiang’s Experience

Founder

Artpoli

(Internet industry)

May 2007 — Present (2 years 3 months)

Artpoli is an online art marketplace and community.
Founder

Innomove

(Think Tanks industry)

September 2004 — Present (4 years 11 months)

I started Innomove in 2004, with the goal of innovating innovation. I believed, and still believe, that innovation can be made more productive.

Until the summer of 2007, we have focused on innovation consulting. We give innovation ideas to clients. Some of our ideas have been executed. One is P2P e-learning marketplace, and another is expanded advertising model for a bookstore.

From the fall of 2007, we shifted focus to innovation development, which we call Innomove Lab. We have been working on http://rankrz.com, http://paragraphr.com, and some others.

We may sometimes publish our ideas related to innovation. One such example is Mass Niche (http://www.paragraphr.com/pages/show/11), my writing in process.
Manager

Bain & Company

(Privately Held; 1001-5000 employees; Management Consulting industry)

2000 — 2004 (4 years)

I designed the business model for the first online insuarance in Korea. It has now over 400 million USD in premium revenue and is still growing fast.

I also was the lead project manager for the change management for a life insurance company for over 2 years, which was the biggest ever project for Bain Seoul. We started a new business, effectively the first online life insurance biz unit in Korea, as well as strengthening the existing core. In the process, my question of "why is this so difficult?" led me to find 'Innovator's Dilemma' by Clayton Christensen, which approved much of my real experiences and hypotheses.

I was voted as the first recipient of the Best Coach Award of Bain Seoul. I left Bain to devote on innovation, which I realized through my experiences is very different from corporate strategy. I learned a lot at Bain and met great people. Bain's loyalty economics is the simplest yet most powerful strategy concept.
Associate

A.T. Kearney

(Privately Held; 1001-5000 employees; Management Consulting industry)

1995 — 2000 (5 years)

I joined A.T. Kearney's Seoul Office as the 6th consultant, while it still did not have an office and worked out of a hotel room.

After MBA, I worked on mostly telecom projects. I worked in Portugal and Poland, as well as in Korea. It was a construction period for broadband networks. I actually worked on costing cables, pipes, and (Yes!) digging.
Associate

STAR TV

(Privately Held; 201-500 employees; Broadcast Media industry)

1998 — 1998 (less than a year)

I was a summer associate and worked on satellite TV joint venture projects in Hong Kong, Indonesia, and Korea. Though I was in the TV business, I have never worked with any actor or actress. I only did usual business development stuff, financial and strategic analysis.

I was very impressed with the culture of Star TV, which could be that of News Corp, the parent company. It was no bull shit and fat free, though too too much in some areas. The program scheduling for the entire Asia was done by about 2-3 peolpe.
Product planner

CJ Corporation

(Public Company; Food & Beverages industry)

1990 — 1995 (5 years)

I started in accounting department, but after enlistment (Jan 1991-March 1993), I came to marketing. People at Samsung, of which CJ was stil a part, thought accounting was the mainstream path for the top management, but I wanted to do somthing that can more directly affect the consumers.

One noteworthy work in this period was developing Sol-eui-noon (meaning Pine Bud). It was developed as a health drink for new generation. Until then, the health drinks were regarded as 'only for old people'. It became a steady seller, and there hs been few if any me-too products so far. This was my first experience in innovation.

Hyokon Zhiang’s Education

Northwestern University - Kellogg School of Management

MBA , Business, Finance, Operation , 1997 — 1999

I graduated as the top finance student. I was, and am still, very honored to be chosen by the finance factulty who I learned from a lot. I liked derivatives so much that I almost joined Enron. I did not because my parents in Korea were having some difficult time, which was somewhat related with Asian Financial crisis to which derivatives played a part.
Seoul National University

BA , Economics , 1986 — 1990