Learning how to make speedy decisions

Yoo Jae-wook, the CEO of Nemo Partners, poses for photos in front of the consulting firm’s office. / Courtesy of Yoo Jae-wook

Nemo Partners CEO talks about studying at Harvard Business School

By Kim Da-ye

Yoo Jae-wook, the CEO of Nemo Partners, graduated from Harvard Business School (HBS) in 2000 and founded the leading Korean consulting firm with three other members the same year. Nemo now has some 250 consultants and operates seven overseas offices.

Before getting his MBA, Yoo worked at Monitor Company, a now-defunct multinational consulting firm, for five years. He has an undergraduate degree in business administration from Seoul National University.

The CEO has served in the HBS alumni association in Korea for many years, which has given him an insight into the past and present of HBS. In an interview with Business Focus, Yoo shares a candid view on studying at the world’s most sought-after U.S. business school and doing an MBA in general.

Q You started studying at Harvard in 1998, and that is more than a decade ago. How did you prepare for admission to the school? Has the admission process changed much?

A I believe the key to preparing an application to business school hasn’t really changed.

You have to sell yourself to the school, so it’s important to decide what your selling points are. Business schools want to find those with a high potential to have their pay rise significantly or be socially influential after graduation and help raise their market value during their studies. Find alumni of the schools you are applying to and ask them what kinds of people the schools are looking for. And then tailor your selling points to them.

You should approach the application process from a business perspective, not an academic one. You don’t market how hard you are going to study at the school. By presenting your personal background, experiences and skill set, you should make it clear that once you join the Harvard community, you will contribute to other students’ learning experiences and have a career vision to succeed and contribute to the HBS alumni association.

Harvard Business School accepts two or three native Koreans a year. Caucasian-Americans probably have the hardest time to get in while Asian women find it relatively easier because they are a minority. There are many more Korean-Americans than native Koreans, so you should let the school know that you are unique.

Employees from Samsung Electronics or Hyundai Motor nowadays have a better chance of getting into HBS than those from McKinsey or Goldman Sachs because there is already a large pool of applicants from investment banks and consultancies. Those from Samsung or Hyundai can contribute to the class by sharing the Korean way of doing business.

Q Then is an essay the most important part of the application?

A A good academic record is, of course, a basic requirement. You have to show in your application a balance in your academic accomplishments, achievements at work and leadership potential. Show a balance in the recommendation letters as well. For example, one can get letters from a professor, a colleague and someone from an NGO.

Before doing an MBA, I worked at a foreign consulting firm and most of my colleagues were foreigners. I am a native Korean who had never lived abroad before doing an MBA, so my colleagues helped me a lot in preparing applications.

Q What was special about the teaching at Harvard?

A Firstly, the school repeatedly pushes you to make a decision within a limited period of time with limited information. You will be constantly put in a situation of making an executive decision as a leader.

Secondly, grading is on a curve. Even if everyone in the class get more than 90, a 10 percent of the students at the bottom of the curve will get the lowest grade, which can lead to flunking out. You get to notice that some leave the school during the term and some return after a break. In one extreme case, a student came to HBS under sponsorship from his employer, but flunked out. The employer didn’t take him back.

Q What were the challenges?

A Class participation accounts for half of the grade. In order to present ideas in class, students have to raise their hands and the professor will randomly choose people. Once you have a chance, you want to present well. It has to be the right content in the right context with the right timing.

Honestly speaking, I felt that the level of class discussions wasn’t that high. Perhaps because foreign students didn’t read the “Romance of the Three Kingdoms,” they were kind of naive. Asian students had a depth in their thoughts. If it were not for the language barrier, presenting in class wouldn’t be so difficult.

In addition, even if you aren’t fluent in English, coming from a different culture can help. For instance, Middle Eastern students can contribute to the class by sharing knowledge about how to sell goods in Islamic societies.

Q Were there any professors or classes you liked a lot?

A Nitin Nohria, the current dean of HBS, taught the leadership class, which was very impressive. Harvard aims at preparing their students to become general managers, and the dean’s class taught us how leaders make decisions according to context and principles.

At Harvard, lectures are evaluated by students and those with too many bad reviews can be replaced. Every professor taught so well that you aren’t aware how time flies. All professors are leading experts in their fields, and they attend important events around the world such as the Davos Forum, meeting political and business leaders. Apart from their academic accomplishments, they are also socially influential and financially successful.

Q You were one of the founding members of Nemo Partners. How has an MBA helped your career?

A I benefited a lot from the brand value of Harvard. People usually have a favorable perception of Harvard, and that opens the door that otherwise wouldn’t. They have the belief that they can trust the Harvard graduates.

Furthermore, you constantly learn how to make speedy decisions. Many people do not easily make up their minds although thinking for another day wouldn’t make much difference.

Q If HBS accepts two or three native Koreans a year, isn’t the alumni network here too small?

A We have some 200 HBS alumni in Korea. As Korea’s national power increases, many Korean- Americans are returning to the country. In addition, some large Korean corporations hire foreign MBA graduates who also join the alumni network here.

Q As a CEO of a consulting firm, you must be hiring many MBA graduates. What do you hope to see more of from MBA graduates?

A The answer applies specifically to Korean graduates. I want to see more entrepreneurship from them. Many foreign students including the Chinese start their own businesses after graduation, but there are hardly any entrepreneurs among Korean graduates. I believe that is due to the way their parents raised them. They have been told to settle safely in a government or in a large corporation.

Q What is your advice for those applying to business schools?

A Investment banks paid handsomely in the past, but they are now ruthlessly laying off bankers and cutting pays. And consulting fees have remained stagnant, affecting the salaries of consultants. All in all, the salary bubbles in IBs and consulting firms are bursting. (Yoo had a summer internship at the M&A division of Goldman Sach’s Hong Kong office.)

With the options of high-paying jobs at foreign firms gone, MBA students now hope for large Korean corporations that have gone global. But Korean firms may prefer hiring locally rather than scouting MBA graduates.

Business school graduates are nowadays left with two choices — working for a corporation and starting your own business. Doing an MBAcosts 100 to 200 million won, so you have to think thoroughly “why” in the long term.

For the first choice, an ideal case would be that your company sends you to an executive program as training support. But if you quit a company, spend your own money for doing an MBA, work for another firm after graduation but want to come back to the previous employer, the company may not welcome you back because they might prefer those who have shown their loyalty by staying and building their careers there.

For the second choice, there is increasingly less disadvantage for people without much of an academic background in launching new enterprises. For instance, I want to set up a game company, and how will an MBA help me?

In the past, people worked at an investment bank, studied an MBA and set up their own private equity. It’s an old story that you can make money at private equity.

After all, if you want to do an MBA, you should do it at a school with a high brand value.

Q But still what is the unchanging benefit of getting an MBA?

A The global network of the talented from all over the world.