K.E.Y. PLATFORM 2017

Overall

  • Title: K.E.Y. PLATFORM 2017
  • Date: 27~28 April, 2017
  • Venue: Conrad Hotel, Seoul (Plenary, Breakout Sessions)
  • Host: MoneyToday Media

Past Events Review

The K.E.Y. PLATFORM Conference, which has attracted attention with differentiated contents as well as presentations by speakers who are rarely seen in Korea, celebrated its fifth anniversary last year. K.E.Y. PLATFORM 2017 presented a future outlook for 2020 and shared success strategies in an age of super-uncertainty under the theme of “PANDEMONIUM 2020: Remastering Korean Heritage.”

In this conference, we walked through the current circumstances, five years after the presentation of the “Global Scenario for 2018” at the first conference, and presented the “Global Scenario for 2020,” which contained survival solutions in the “Pandemonic Age” and proposed a way forward for Korea. We released a scenario for three years into the future because we needed to take smaller strides in forecasting future prospects in order to make timely responses as we have already entered into a time of global paradigm shift.

To develop the 2020 Global Scenario, MoneyToday journalists visited global think tanks including The Heritage Foundation, Brookings Institution, Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE), Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), and Analysys International in China.

Based on the results of this coverage, a total of 70 core signposts were identified for five drivers: 1) geopolitical risks, 2) global economy (fiscal and exchange rate policies), 3) industrial structure, 4) population structure and 5) energy and climate change. We conducted a survey on the likelihood of such a development to take place as well as the extent of its impact and then incorporated the results into the scenario. A total of 150 respondents including CEOs at global leading innovators and university professors participated in the survey.

Upon completion, the scenario was sent to Korean opinion leaders including then presidential candidates Moon Jae-in and Ahn Cheol-soo. President Moon and People’s Party Leader Ahn in particular sent K.E.Y. PLATFORM comments and congratulatory messages, giving their word that, if elected into office, they would refer to the scenario when drawing up and enforcing policy.

The plenary session of the K.E.Y. PLATFORM 2017 Conference started off with Research Manager Anthony Kim from The Heritage Foundation, a think tank representing the Republican Party of the United States. Anthony Kim delivered his outlook on geopolitical risks and the global economy, emphasizing that the U.S. under the leadership of President Donald Trump could be an opportunity for Korea, not a crisis.

Science and Technology Policy Institute (STEPI) Research Fellow Sungjoo Hong took the stage after Anthony Kim to present a plenary report on the digital economy, which she said would give us a new hope, and propose a way forward for Korea based on the history of rises and falls of the countries that once had global hegemony. The last plenary speaker Younghun Jung, professor of Energy Systems Research, Ajou University, emphasized the importance of the energy issue, shedding new light on the incidents caused by climate change.

Former Minister of Employment and Labor Lee Chae-pil who observed the plenary session said, “Judging from the session themes and the issues raised, I felt that it was a very well-prepared event. I think we can find solutions to pull through the crisis facing Korea based on the topics proposed in the conference.” An official from a conglomerate evaluated the future scenario as a “highly credible, backed up by objective indicators,” saying that “it appears to be a well-developed, keywords-focused scenario.”

In the review session following the plenary report presentations, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Executive Director Heenam Choi, Silicon Valley-based venture capitalist Perry Ha, Professor Han Xiandong of China University of Political Science and Law, Professor Flynt Leverett of Penn State School of International Affairs, Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) Research Fellow Sylvain Boyon, and Iske Innovation CEO Paul Iske had heated discussions on the plenary presentations. Executive Director Heenam Choi also delivered a special lecture to share his diagnosis of the global economy for the 100 days after the inauguration of President Trump as well as his outlook on the directions of change in the future.

Breakout sessions followed the plenary and review sessions, under the themes of “next-generation digital finance industry” and “New China: Collaborative opportunities arising from its simultaneous drives for inclusive globalization and structural reform.” There was also a special discussion on the topic of “global economic outlooks in the Trump era and the world’s responses,” which was recorded and aired on Money Today Network (MTN).

On the second day of the conference, “Plug-in and Talk,” a free and comfortable discussion forum unique to K.E.Y. PLATFORM, was held all day. Unlike typical conferences where the audience does nothing but listen, Plug-in and Talk keeps the audience actively engaged in the discussion, sharing their thoughts with Korean and foreign experts and broadening their minds.

About 1,000 people in the audience who participated in the two-day feast of knowledge and insight experienced the future in 2020 ahead of time and left the conference with wisdom for making it through the heavy waves of revolutionary changes.

Session Theme

Global Scenario 2020: Forecasting the future three years from now through scenario planning techniques

In order to create an elaborate outlook on the next three years of pandemonium, which will determine the future of Korea, K.E.Y. PLATFORM has produced a scenario that is likely to unfold before our eyes in 2020 using scenario-planning techniques as its core methodology.

Earlier in 2013, the Global Scenario for 2018 was developed using the same methodology and presented at the fist K.E.Y. PLATFORM conference. In this scenario, we presented our forecasts on changes in global dynamics and economic conditions including the recovery of the U.S. economy, a partial failure of Abenomics and the weakening of solidarity among the EU countries as well as transformations in the industrial structure such as the advent of the digital economy.

At the fifth K.E.Y. PLATFORM conference in 2017, an upgraded version of the scenario will be presented: “Global Scenario for 2020.”

To identify developments that are likely to take place over the next three years, we first conducted pre-survey indepth interviews with 100 experts in various fields in and out of Korea over about six months. This interview was featured in MoneyToday’s New Year Series of Cover Stories in 2017 under the title of “Pandemonium 2020.”

K.E.Y. PLATFORM selected geopolitical environment global economy (fiscal and exchange rate policies) Industrial and population structures, and energy and climate change as core drivers. In addition to this, 70 core signposts were selected after further in-depth discussions with the experts. Our joint research process with the top American think tank, The Heritage Foundation, has added insights at the global level.

To ensure that we will be able to produce a meaningful and elaborate scenario, K.E.Y. PLATFORM conducted an in-depth survey with 150 global economic and management experts. We asked them questions on 70 signposts, such as: Will a dispute break out between the U.S. and China surrounding the South China Sea? How greatly will the U.S. fiscal deficit expand? How much of human labor will AI replace? How fast will the transition from coal to gas be accelerated? We asked for answers on the likelihood of such a development to take place as well as the extent of its impact.

How have the experts leading the global economy predicted the future three years out? The answer to this question will be presented to you through on-site presentations and an in-depth report at the “K.E.Y. PLATFORM 2017” conference.

Remastering Korean Heritage: Upgrading “principles” to ensure sustainable development for Korea

K.E.Y. PLATFORM has developed strategic alternatives as well as specific and elaborate countermeasures based on a scenario that was produced through in-depth interviews with 100 experts in and out of Korea and a survey with 150 global experts.

Countermeasures were developed by the MoneyToday K.E.Y. PLATFORM Advisory Panel, which was newly created this time. We worked with 55 policy experts from the government, political parties, think tanks, survey organizations and law firms to come up with response strategies as well as specific policy and innovative ideas. A comprehensive report on outlooks and counterstrategies will be presented on site at the plenary session of the K.E.Y. PLATFORM conference.

We worked together with Korean and foreign experts to find the foundation of innovation for Korea. In the process, we learned that we were looking outside to find what we were sitting on. We already have great legacies with us. The experts shared and emphasized the opinion that Korea could ride through the waves of a crisis as long as the Koreans abide by the principles embedded in their heritage and implement them promptly and strongly.

K.E.Y. PLATFORM 2017 intends to “remaster” the heritage. Korea has the underlying strength that it takes to achieve democratic advances as well as economic and industrial development at the same time, and it has successfully achieved both. K.E.Y. PLATFORM plans to upgrade the master (original) of this underlying strength to a new level. We will remaster the Korean systems and strategies in a new format that fits the era of the digital economy.

We are paying a big price for having breached the principles in many political and economic fields for the past years. “Sticking to principles” is the spirit of the times again. Indeed, we are living in a world of pandemonium. Nevertheless, the Korean economy should seek to go beyond simply surviving to achieve further development and growth.

We hope that you will be with us at the place where we will seek new principles and implementation methodologies on the basis of our great heritage.

PLENARY SESSION

The recovery of the U.S. economy, a partial failure of Abenomics, the weakening of solidarity among the EU countries, and the advent of the digital economy… These are the reality of the world as we witness it today.

Four years ago in 2013, MoneyToday Media’s K.E.Y. PLATFORM presented “Global Scenario for 2018 ” which contained its outlook on the future, was presented at the plenary meeting of the First K.E.Y. PLATFORM Conference. At that time, we forecast how the future five years out would look using scenario planning techniques including in-depth interviews with 100 experts in and out of Korea and the votes of 100 global hedge fund managers on core signposts. Today, most of our forecasts have been turning into reality.

In 2014, K.E.Y. PLATFORM called for the disruption of existing business models to prepare for the future, which was verified by the global scenario (K.E.Y. PLATFORM 2014). In the following year, it proposed to change the corporate structure to focus on exploration and experimentation by turning the company into an ambidextrous organization (K.E.Y. PLATFORM 2015). Last year, it presented a methodology to expand the arena of innovation implementation at a global level (K.E.Y. PLATFORM 2016).

After careful consideration, we have decided to show you a new upgraded scenario at the plenary session of the Fifth K.E.Y. PLATFORM Conference in 2017. The reason is that so many things have changed faster than expected since 2013. In addition to this, we are headed towards more trying times as Korea as a nation and the Korean economy have been putting off structural reforms.

It is difficult to predict the direction that policies of U.S. President Donald Trump will take. There is a growing fear of the disintegration of the European Union due to the rising concern over “Nexit” (the Netherlands voting out of the EU) in the wake of Brexit. In the meantime, industrial structures and paradigms are completely changing as the world enters the digital economy.

Many people call this fear and uncertainty a crisis. However, K.E.Y. PLATFORM has become convinced through its in-depth coverage and research on the frontlines of global innovation that this crisis can be turned into an opportunity.

President Trump was a businessman with decades of a shrewd business mentality ingrained in his mind. Therefore, despite his call for “America First,” we believe that we can make practical negotiations with the President. Korea can become a main player in the era of the digital economy if it can add creativity to its IT infrastructure and manufacturing capabilities.

At the site of the K.E.Y. PLATFORM 2017 plenary session, we will look ahead into the next three years through the “Global Scenario for 2020” and try to find opportunities for Korea. It is meaningless to try to look ahead at five years out or ten years out in a world where change is accelerating. We will find an opportunity for another take-off by precisely forecasting the next three years, which we believe will be one of the biggest inflection points in modern Korean history.

The Heritage Foundation, a top U.S. think tank that can read President Trump’s policies the best, and Sejong Future Strategy Research Forum, a group of top Korean intellectuals, will join the plenary session of K.E.Y. PLATFORM 2017. During the session, we will propose ways of overcoming the crisis in the “Pandemonic Age” and finding new opportunities.

Breakout Sessions

◇ Finance

Transformation of financial services in a hyper-connected world: the need for trust, transparency and shared value creation

The field of global financial services is not free from disruptive innovation in the service sector triggered by hyper-connectedness. IoT and AI have been establishing themselves as the innovation engines for the digital economy and breaking down the value chain of financial services that generate highly utilized data. To maintain their competitive edges, the incumbent financial service leaders are trying desperately with their experiments to converge new technologies and services. The financial service market is turning into an arena of mixed martial arts with the global top-most investment bank Goldman Sachs introducing an AI-based investment consulting service and competing directly with FinTech companies in the online loan market.

Global financial service industry experts are paying attention to the year 2017 as global technology-based financial service startups who have been thriving on payment settlement solutions, data analysis and financial software are expanding into the realm of platforms with their blockchain and new credit rating models. In response, traditional powers who have been observing their experiments closely are now rising to fight back in order to maintain their status through M&As and joint ventures with technology companies.

Against this backdrop, K.E.Y. PLATFORM 2017 will invite experts from leading countries in the field of financial services including the EU and the U.S. and listen to their insights on the direction of qualitative shifts of the financial service industry based on hyper-connectedness. In this session, we will have time to share the new opportunities that global innovative financial service providers are aiming at.

◇ China

New China │ Collaborative opportunities will arise from its simultaneous drives for inclusive globalization and structural reform

In the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting 2017, the WEF Secretariat assigned the “Five-Star Red Flag” a pole next to the WEF flag flying on the center pole at the Davos Congress Center in Davos, Switzerland for the first time in its annual meetings. The reason is that Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed Davos’s message in his keynote speech: Davos has been calling for market opening based on multilateral agreements.

The United States under the Trump Administration wants a new trade order supported by bilateral agreements. On the other hand, China is expected to go beyond its status as the biggest trade competitor for the U.S. and to test its strength against the U.S. as an alternative leader of the “globalization” camp. The dark clouds over the global economy do not seem to be dissipating anytime soon, with the U.S. wanting to restructure the existing world order and the EU facing the rising debts of the Italian government in the wake of the Brexit vote. Though China still needs to concentrate on structural reforms against risks in real estate and financial services, there are high expectations at home and abroad that China will give the global economy a breathing space from the chronic economic depression by boosting consumption.

To maintain its growth momentum, the Chinese leadership is also expected to encourage the transition to a digital-based innovative economy while shaking off oversupply in the public sector. At the same time, they are expected to strengthen China’s status as a global leader by spreading China’s new standards mainly through companies considered as good models for the digital-based innovative economy.Korea and China are having temporary difficulties in terms of economic exchanges due to differences in opinion on diplomatic and security issues. Considering China’s policy paradigm that pursues globalization based on the digitization of its economy, however, collaborative opportunities will soon be restored – more strongly than ever before. For this reason, K.E.Y. PLATFORM 2017 has invited politics and economy experts representing China and innovative entrepreneurs leading the digital economy. As we listen to their thoughts on the direction of “Inclusive Globalization” and their innovative ideas, which may grow to be global standards, we intend to find collaborative opportunities for win-win partnership.

◇ Special sessions

Challenges for the political leadership to pull through the “pandemonic age”

Political leadership has emerged as a hot issue once again with the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States. Korea is also in a desperate situation when it must remaster its political leadership. Political leadership can be said to be the biggest of all the uncertainties that we have right now.

We have invited a political leader for a special lecture. He is from a Northern European country that has overcome tough changes in the global environment and domestic conflicts by implementing consensus and coordination, the proper functions of politics, and consequently has established itself as a truly advanced country.

Korea needs to seek and implement a new direction promptly and strongly as the interests of people from all walks of life at home and abroad are in sharper conflicts than ever before. This special session will cover a set of lessons for Korea to take under these circumstances.

Leading a decisive action on restructuring, increasing practical welfare benefits and achieving social consensus, among other things, are all up to the political leadership. In this session, we will be introduced with specific models of advanced political leadership for Koreans who are living in a society where generational conflicts, labor and management conflicts, and the polarization of conflicts between social classes are tangled up under the sluggish economy.

PLUG-IN & TALK

“Plug-in & Talk” is a special one-day session unique to K.E.Y. PLATFORM that takes place on the second day of the Conference. Korean and foreign experts in various fields engage in “interactive talk” with the audience. Entrepreneurs, experts, researchers and policy leaders who are rarely seen at conferences in Korea take the stage and share realistic, practical, original and emotional ideas.

Last year, participants in this session showed how global innovators in the U.S., China and Europe developed (Create Algorithms), expanded (Scale Up) and standardized (Ensure Universality) smarter solutions to create new values. This year, we will have an interactive talk about the direction of changes in core drivers, which are the essential factors that must be looked into to develop a global scenario on the future in such areas as industry, population and energy in a global market that is being transformed rapidly into a digital economy. We will continue to talk about ideas to create opportunities considering the direction of the changes.

On the industrial front, we will have time to think about how cutting-edge ICT including artificial intelligence and big data will meet and digitize the manufacturing industry across the entire process and how they will create new values and business models.

We will also try to forecast changes in demand due to changes in population structure and find new opportunities and markets. In the age of low birth and population aging, consumer needs cannot be satisfied with the existing uniform production system. New types of demand from different types of consumers will be created, such as demand customized by the elderly, retirees and children.

Energy can be re-defined as the driving force for sustainable generation. As we enter the digital economy, new markets are opening up in the energy sector, such as electric cars, eco-friendly renewable energy and batteries for various types of digital devices.

Plug-in & Talk is more of an interactive talk show than a one-way presentation or a typical debate. For better communication between speaker and audience, discussants, in addition to a moderator, will be stationed at different corners of the stage and assigned at moments considered necessary to inject life and energy into the talk. This session will inspire those who are stuck in the ruts of their daily routines and duties with fresh ideas and deep insight.

WORKING PROCESS

MoneyToday Media played all its cards that it has accumulated over more than 20 years since its foundation to create the “Global Scenario for 2020” Our coverage capabilities and networks as well as the planning and analysis knowhow accumulated through the hosting of four K.E.Y. PLATFORM conferences were employed to create the scenario, which will be presented at the “K.E.Y. PLATFORM 2017

A task force was set up with journalists who have extensive coverage experiences and expertise in scenario planning. In September 2016, the team started interviewing Korean and foreign experts in various fields on topics related to the times with greater uncertainty. We have identified drivers that will have great impact on the future of Korea.

The following five factors were selected as core drivers: Geopolitical risk, global economy in the Trump age, changes in population structure, entry into the digital economy, and climate change and energy. These five drivers were covered in depth earlier this year in a new-year feature series titled ”Pandemonium 2020,” which was planned jointly with the Sejong Future Strategy Research Forum.

While working on the new-year series, the Taskforce members also visited major research institutes, universities and companies around the world including The Heritage Foundation, Brookings Institution, Peterson Institute for International Economics, Harvard University, Keio University, Corning and Fuji Xerox.

On the basis of the views and insights of experts in and out of Korea gathered this way, we completed probable scenarios for the future. With these scenarios, the taskforce conducted a survey with 300 experts in various fields in the U.S., China and Europe to select the scenario that is the most likely to take place.

This is how “Global Scenario for 2020” was born.

K.E.Y. PLATFORM did not stop here. We took one step further and met with 50 experts including the directors of government-funded research institutes and university professors to find strategies to respond to the times of great uncertainty.

We have tried and achieved a lot so far, but this is only the first half of the game.

MoneyToday Media plans to deliver the “Global Scenario for 2020” and its response strategies to opinion leaders in various walks of life including Korean political leaders. We also plan to distribute them to institutions and press in and out of Korea where we have a network to share the troubling prospects of the future and gather wisdom to pull through them.

We hope that you will check out the vision of the future and readiness strategies that MoneyToday has worked hard to verify at the K.E.Y. PLATFORM 2017