[Today Focus] YG’s 2015 Bright under YANG HYUN SUK’s Leadership
[아시아투데이 김영진 기자] “I think I have always been excited about my life. What’s the most important is whether you have the vision for the goal of your life. If you have the vision, you are always excited about your life.”
YANG HYUN SUK, the head of YG Entertainment (“YG”) that is the label of leading K-pop singers such as PSY, BIGBANG, 2NE1, WINNER, etc., said in SBS “Healing Camp” aired in December last year that the secret of his success is his “vision”.
In “Healing Camp”, YANG said that when you have a vision for your life, you are always excited about the life. He picked “Am I excited now?” as the key-word for his success and said, “I think I have always been excited about my life. What is the most important is whether you have the vision for the goal of your life”. His also gave words of advice to the youth, saying, “You have to clearly think about what you really are”. That was a very meaningful advice from a successful leader of our times.
Even though K-pop, the center of the Korean Wave, has recently been somewhat depressed, K-pop fans have high expectations for this year, as BIGBANG is known to be coming back this year. The news of the comeback of BIGBANG, YG’s leading artist who is so popular in and out of Korea, is exciting music fans. PSY who has become a “world-star” with “Gangnam Style” is to release a new album this year, and YG’s new boy group iKON will make an official debut this year, too.
PSY, BIGBANG, new boy group WINNER, and other YG artists who were created by the hands of YANG HYUN SUK have all achieved a great success. Year 2014 was especially remarkable for YG, with big success of BIGBANG member TAEYANG who released “EYES, NOSE, LIPS”, WINNER who debuted with “empty”, AKMU who showed fresh and charming performance of “200%”, and EPIK HIGH who proved their still-big influence in the music scene with “BORN HATER”.
The success of YG artists has led to growth of the company. In last October, YG set an outstanding record of achieving the biggest amount of market capitalization among entertainment companies, in three years since the company went public. Plus, YG is in the 24th place among more than 1,000 companies enlisted in KOSDAQ. YANG also has the biggest value of stocks among entertainers.
In addition, YG has recently launched casual fashion brand NONA9ON in cooperation with SAMSUNG Cheil industries, and signed an MOU with China’s leading IT company Tencent for a strategic business partnership.
As such, YANG has made YG a very successful company and to give back to society, he has been sharing with neighbors in need. He established non-profit foundation “Muju YG Foundation” in last May, to help children and teenagers in need. He donated 1 billion won of his personal wealth to the foundation. “YG Foundation” will support medical treatment, rehabilitation, and education of children and teenagers from low-income families and broken families.
YANG has also been appearing in all seasons of SBS “I Love Sunday – K-Pop Star” since 2011. He appears in “K-Pop Star” as a judge representing YG. With his intuition that comes from his experience of making YG the top entertainment company in Korea, YANG has been selecting contestants who have potential to be stars, rather than finding out ready-made stars. As a result, he has discovered talented musicians such as LEE HI and AKMU.
It seems the success of YANG HYUN SUK, who turned himself from “the icon of culture” into “Midas’ touch” now, will never end. It is hard to wait to see what kind of bigger success he will achieve this year.
2015. 1. 15.
