Ahn Jong-bae, Chairman of Global Futures Studies Association & Professor of Hansei University
Ahn Jong-bae, Chairman of Global Futures Studies Association & Professor of Hansei University.
Please explain the world change after COVID-19 in one word.
‘The New Renaissance’ With the COVID-19 Pandemic, the world has gone through chaos for a while, and humanism will converge with science and technology.
The new Renaissance, which is emerging, will bring a big revolution of civilization. The 21st century pandemic, COVID-19, weakens science and technology universalism and materialism.
Freedom and equality are valued, and the pursuit of human happiness and life value and acceleration of the 4th Industrial Revolution. The New Renaissance as new civilization revolution will come.
This will be a crisis and an opportunity for the Republic of Korea.
Question: What does the new civilization, the New Renaissance, look like?
Answer: In short, it is the world of ‘Humanism Technology’. It can be said that humanism that respects human freedom and equality, happiness and life value, and the realization of creativity and personality is combined with the acceleration of the 4th Industrial Revolution based on artificial intelligence and digital.
The world of new civilization, in which science, technology, ethics, arts, and culture are converged, can operate very advantageously in Korea.
Koreans have strengths in smart ICT technology and in humanism, such as creativity, morality, and emotion. Korea can lead the New Renaissance by fusion of western technology and oriental humanism.
Q: What will be emerging industries and declining industries after COVID-19 ?
A: In the New Renaissance, the 4th Industrial Revolution of super-intelligence, super-connectivity, and ultra-reality will be accelerated, and humanism that values creativity and spirituality will be strengthened.
Three major keywords of future industry and business that will emerge after COVID-19, are as follows. Untact Presence that enhances presence through non-face-to-face participation.
Smart Platform, a black hole for all businesses. AI Personal, personalized with advanced technology and emotion.
Industries that meet these changes in the future, such as smart education, smart work, smart healthcare, smart bio, smart factories, smart cities, smart contents, smart shops, and smart farms will emerge.
On the other hand, existing types of manufacturing, service and environmental destruction industries that cannot cope with these changes in the future will rapidly be weakened.
Q: How do you think COVID-19 will affect corporate business management in the future?
A: COVID-19 will bring about changes in various areas of business management. Changes in the working environment, including smart work, changes in consumers seeking untouched and personalized emotional experiences, changes in raw material procurement methods and distribution environments, changes in digital-oriented advertising and marketing, and innovative changes in product production processes, etc.
Changes in the all area are predicted, so it is necessary to manage the company to correspond to these changes.
Q: What leadership is needed for top management in the global crisis triggered by COVID-19?
A: After COVID-19, the domestic economic downturn and the global economic recession are expected to continue for the time being.
In addition, the globalization of global 3.0, which is symbolized by the WTO, is weakening. Companies should be prepared for this crisis. However, after the COVID-19, the 4th Industrial Revolution will accelerate and humanism will be strengthened.
This means that new industries and business opportunities will unfold.
First of all, it is important for the CEO of the company to have a “future management” leadership that predicts changes of risks and opportunities that will unfold in the future, and devises and implements future strategies to respond to them.
This enables companies to overcome crises and create opportunities in response to future changes.
Second, emotional communication leadership with employees is important in order to maximize the capabilities of employees and cooperate together to achieve the best results after COVID-19, where humanism is strengthened.
Q: During the COVID-19 incident, Korea’s prevention system of epidemics attracted attention. How do you think Korea’s position in the world will change after that?
A: Korea accurately identifies the movements of the definite diagnosis patient with artificial intelligence and ICT to make them transparent and prevent them from spreading as much as possible. all citizens are taking the lead in social distancing without hoarding with high citizenship and overcoming COVID-19 in a short time.
Moreover, it showed the world's best IT infrastructure and utilization capabilities, where abrupt online education and smart work were conducted without difficulty.
The New Renaissance future society is becoming the core global competitiveness with the 4th Industrial Revolution technology centered on artificial intelligence & ICT and human creativity & ethical humanity.
The Republic of Korea has raised its stature in this regard and will be able to take a leading position in the world after COVID-19.
Q: What do you think COVID-19 will change in the way consumers behave?
A: COVID-19 has the biggest impact on consumer behavior in two ways.
First, the obstacles to psychological and technological adoption were eliminated. Online purchase, smart education, untact lecture, teleconferencing, mobile financing, etc. were introduced and used in person, making it a hands-on experience.
Through this, they learned how to use and convenience. after COVID-19 So-called untact consumption will co-exist with offline consumption.
Second, while keeping social distancing, we felt more our thirst and importance for personal freedom and personal experience. Due to this, consumer action that emphasizes personalized experiences after COVID-19 is expected to be further strengthened.
Q: Could the pandemic be an opportunity to raise interest in global environmental issues?
A: You will recognize that the root cause of COVID-19 is the destruction of natural ecosystems due to environmental damage. With COVID-19, human activity was reduced, and we felt that the Earth is becoming clean. The virus epidemic is likely to persist even after COVID-19.
In response to this, it is necessary to inform that global efforts should be made to overcome climate change through expansion of eco-friendly and new renewable energy, development of eco-friendly products, and protection of environmental ecosystems along with the development of medical bio. And this interest will be enhanced.
Q: What changes do teleworking experience make?
A: Through teleworking from COVID-19, we became aware of the interest and need for smart work. After that, it is necessary to conduct national efforts with companies to increase the establishment and effectiveness of smart work.
Q: How does untact experience change?
A: With COVID-19, we realized that through untact activities such as untact education, untact shopping, and untact performance, we can reduce the risk of infection and have a convenient life in some aspects without major obstacles.
Here, the untact video, VR, and future holograms will be applied in various ways in life as it realizes an Untact Presence that does seem to be together without face to face.
Q: What do you think of the prospect that COVID-19 will influence the polarization of wealth?
A: The future society will accelerate the 4th Industrial Revolution after COVID-19. This is accompanied by transformative changes in industry, business and jobs.
By responding to these changes, the gap between those who take the opportunity and those who don't can increase. Therefore, there is a possibility that the polarization of wealth will become worse in the future.
Q: What to do with the lack of jobs due to COVID-19?
A: After COVID-19, the 4th Industrial Revolution will accelerate. This will result in the disappearance of many existing jobs.
To cope with this, it is necessary to strongly promote the smart new deal economy to create new jobs and create a venture start-up boom by promoting smart new startups.
To this end, smart future creative education for enhancing future capabilities and creating new jobs should be tailored to both current workers and job seekers.
In addition, university education should be transformed into a future type, and future talents should be nurtured through innovative transformation to increase youth jobs.
Q: What are some suggestions for Korea’s future development in the post-COVID-19 era?
A: Low birth is expected to accelerate further due to postponement of marriage and avoidance of childbirth after COVID-19. To this end, it is necessary to expand the marriage incentives and childbirth celebrations significantly as a policy of responding to low birth rate, which is experienced by the actual target.
And in the political arena, the government’s private control will be strengthened and the Nation Assembly will try to retain its privileges. but its social influence will continue to weaken.
Accordingly, it is necessary to promote smart governance and discuss smart direct democracy, where people monitor the government and the parliament of the National Assembly to protect their freedom and human rights together, and participate in direct political decision-making.
Also, the tinkering welfare policy is expected to spread competitively, and it is necessary to enact the Framework Act on National Future to prevent it and to formulate a policy for the future development of the country.
Q: What role can futures studies play in overcoming COVID-19?
A: The Republic of Korea should wisely overcome COVID-19 and make it an opportunity for smart transformation so that Korea can lead the era of future transformation and strive for future development.
In order for the Republic of Korea to overcome the COVID-19 crisis and successfully respond to future changes, it is necessary to implement “Cha Cha Cha” strategy gradually through the diffusion of futures studies.
First Cha strategy is a “Change” that predicts future changes.
The second Cha is a “Challenge” to devise a future strategy to realize a desirable future.
Third Cha is a “Chance” that makes crisis and change an opportunity. By gradually learning strategies through futures studies, it is necessary to plan and implement future response strategies.
* Those who prepare for the future lead success
Ahn Jong-bae, Chairman of Global Futures Studies Association. Ph.D
After graduating from Seoul National University in 1985, he graduated from the Graduate School of Yonsei University and Graduate School of Kyunggi University, majoring in communication studies at graduate school of Michigan State University.
Currently, he is the chairman of the Global Futures Studies Association, and chairman of the Future Creative Campus, the chairman of the Clean Contents Movement, and the chairman of the Committee of the National Assembly Future Policy Research Society.
His books include ‘Principle of Futures Studies’, ‘The 4th Industrial Revolution Master Plan’, and ‘Korea Future Education Report’.
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