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The Korea Herald
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THE INVESTOR
March 29, 2024

The Boardroom

Hard work pays off: Kolmar Korea chief

  • PUBLISHED :October 06, 2016 - 17:35
  • UPDATED :October 06, 2016 - 17:39
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[THE INVESTOR] Yoon Dong-han, CEO of Kolmar Korea, a beauty and pharmaceuticals company, urged Korean people to work hard to get what they want in life.

“You can‘t choose to be born with a ‘golden spoon’ but you can turn your spoon color to shining gold by hard work,” said the 60-year-old at a speech to middle and high school heads last month in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province.


Kolmar Korea Chairman Yoon Dong-han / The Herald Business



In “Hell Joseon,” a sarcastic term for modern Korea, people often complain that only a few people born with golden spoons, a rich family background and top school diplomas can get the dream jobs, while “dirt spoons” suffering poverty and poor school degrees are thwarted in competing with the rich competitors.

Even decades ago when such a concept didn’t yet exist, Yoon could have been categorized as a “dirt spoon.”

Yoon‘s early life was a whirl of misfortunes. He was born to a poor family and, while aspiring to be a journalist, instead studied business. He later got a job at a state-run agricultural cooperative Nonghyup, which may have been the first success for Yoon.

However, his nearly unknown alma mater alienated him from an opportunity given by the company to study abroad.

No matter how smart he was to take hands-on roles at work, his colleagues from top schools in Seoul were picked to study in-depth in advanced countries.

Yoon could have hung on to the job to live a stable life, but he wasn’t satisfied being cut off from the bigger world just because of his less desirable diploma.

He quit the “job granted by God” to train himself in entrepreneurship at a new place, Daewoong Pharmaceuticals, then a small drugmaker.

For 15 years at Daewoong, Yoon boosted his career and reached a vice president role. He was even offered the CEO position from a Swiss pharmaceuticals firm in 1989. However, the ambitious man rejected the offer and quit his job at Daewoong to start his own business. That was the start of Kolmar Korea in 1990.

Yoon‘s business has grown huge, supplying products to cosmetics giant AmorePacific and Estee Lauder. Kolmar Korea’s revenue touched its highest level at 1 trillion won ($900 million) last year. The proprietor himself owns 367 billion won by stock assets.

Yoon attributed his success to his principle of not being disoriented, but “foolishly taking a thousand slow steps to the goal.”

By Song Ji-won/The Korea Herald (jiwon.song@heraldcorp.com)

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