SBS Biz

■ The Leaders : GenesisBBQ CEO Yoon Hong-kun

[ KOREA REPORT 는 대한민국 첫번째 글로벌 미디어 채널 SBS CNBC가 한국의 최첨단 기술 소개, 최고의 리더 인터뷰 등 역동적인 대한민국의 참모습을 세계 경제를 움직이는 최고의 경제 채널 CNBC의 글로벌 네트워크를 통해 전달하는 프로그램입니다. ]

Welcome back to Korea Report. I'm sure you all know the American fried chicken brand, KFC. Well, here in Korea its biggest rival is BBQ. Actually, BBQ is KFC's major rival in dozens of other countries right now. This home-grown brand is the first to tap into overseas markets. Today... we'll be speaking with Mr. Yoon Hong-kun... the CEO of Genesis Group... which runs the BBQ Chicken... to learn about his success.

Genesis is one of the most well-known restaurant chains in Korea. Founded in 1995 the company has grown 80-fold since its launch, earning the reputation as the world's fastest growing restaurant franchise. At the moment the group is operating more than 3-thousand-700 restaurants in 56 countries including China, Japan and the US... and is looking to add more. The key to its success... is BBQ Chicken... the current market leader in Korea.

■ Interview

A] As you can see, all the chicken here are different in size and shape. Just like these figurines, I think it's important to keep the essence while quickly adapting to changes when doing business. Collecting chicken figures often helps me get inspiration.

A] My mother dreamed of a dancing chicken when she had me. So if I didn't start this business I might have ended up being a dancer. If I was 30 years younger I would have become a top B-boy. K-pop idols would be kneeling before me. Believe me, I'm really good at dancing. Anyways, I think I'm using that talent in the chicken business now. Come to think of it, my life is closely related to chicken. After I graduated college I started my career at a food seasoning company where I worked at its feedstuff department. That's where my relationship with livestock animals began. Several years later, I was promoted to sales director of the company's new fried chicken franchise business. Since then, my life has been all about chicken. Later, after I started my own business, I bought the franchise, thinking I could make this chicken business big in Korea and spread it around the world. That's the beginning of BBQ Chicken.

A] Back then, the chicken market was completed saturated. Lots of small brands were competing against each other. In my neighborhoood we had 20 to 30 beer pubs selling fried chicken. So it looked like the market was overflowing. But I saw it differently. Chicken as you know, is loved by everyone. But these pubs were filled with men smoking and drinking. They were not family-friendly. They were losing major customers: women and children. So I began adopting quality service and standard taste like you see at the KFC and McDonald's. While benchmarking these global brands, I also tried to make sure that our customers were served with Korean-style attachment. Another feature of my different strategy was to start home-delivery services in residential areas. And it hit the jackpot. I was able to create a new "blue ocean" in what used to be called a "red ocean."

A] As you know, McDonald's rides on the back of the United States. Its global success is due to the fact that it's an American brand, whereas BBQ has no support from its home country. But still we were able to tap into 56 countries. Starting from scratch we now have 45-thousand customers. The number of our restaurants has topped 1-thousand in Korea alone. As you know, Korea is a small country. But we have more than a thousand restaurants. Consider other countries with bigger population such as the US, China and India. It took us four years to open a thousand in Korea. We have nine years to go until our first target year 20-20. Do you think it would be difficult for us to open a thousand restaurants in each of the 56 countries? By 20-20, we'll be operating at least 56-thousand franchises worldwide. McDonald's currently runs 32-thousand. I'm confident that BBQ will be in the lead. Moneywise, I'm looking at an annual revenue of 70 trillion won... which is about a little over 60 billion dollars.

A] To be successful in overseas markets you need to fully understand the local custom and culture as well as the preference of the people. So if I'm not there BBQ would not be competitive. We have the language and cultural barriers, so it's not easy to promote our brand which comes from a small country. I have to travel to all 56 countries before a new restaurant opens, when it opens and after it opens to discuss marketing strategies. So for each restaurant in 56 regions, I have to visit at least three times. Two weeks a month is not enough. I cannot visit all of them. But I'm trying to make sure that I do my best to localize and familiarize BBQ with the locals. For example our Chinese branches work to cater to the local taste by adding grilled chicken and chicken stew, which our Chinese customers like. So satisfying people wherever they are is our top marketing policy.

A] We're doing good. For example, when we entered the US in 2007, the food review magazine "Food Critics" analyzed our menu and said "not KFC, not Popeyes. Korean BBQ is absolutely delicious." They loved our taste and system. Korea's traditional food is different in that it uses a lot of seasoning whereas other dishes tend to focus more on bringing out the original taste of the main ingredient. Korean food is a mix of various ingredients. This is what people love. We're starting to see efforts to globalize Korean food nowadays. And I'm sure about the success.

A] When to talk about Korean food, you tend to think only traditional ones. But that's not true. Any food developed and made by Koreans is a Korean food. Take sushi for instance. In the past, Sushi was not a traditional Japanese dish. It was developed with ingredients that came from China and Korea. Sushi became a representative Japanese dish after years of developing it into a culture and spreading it worldwide. Likewise, Korea has been using chicken as a main ingredient for so long. Traditional boiled chicken, hot and spicy chicken and chicken soup with ginseng are all good examples. Using the ingredient and mixing it with other cultures, we now have them fried, smoked and seasoned with hot spices. In fact, the seasoned spicy chicken is a mega hit item that can be found only in Korea. These are what we bring out to other countries. So I'm proud to say, our chicken is a Korean food.

A] We're supporting our franchises by teaching them our know-how on how to satisfy customers and how best they can raise their profits. We've developed a Korean-style franchise system in which we hold regular members' meetings and run a central business committee. So we have a communication channel that you don't see in other restaurant chains. The same system was also successful in China and in the US. This is what I studied and ultimately earned me a Ph.D.

A] I think Korea's chicken franchise market still has a long way to go. It needs to grow at least four-fold from where it stands right now. Some people say I turned to overseas because the domestic market was saturated. This is not true. I was targeting the world from the start. At the moment, I want to see my company become the global leader so I'm not thinking about anything else.

A] Our target year is 2020 so we have about 10 years. KFC and McDonald's became the world's number one in 50 years. By 2020, we'll be 25 years old. I want to see Genesis BBQ reaching the top in just half the time it took the current global giants. I personally think Samsung Electronics alone will not keep Korea in the lead for the next decade. We need to have world number ones in all sectors. In the restaurant franchise sector, I'm confident BBQ will be the one.

A] Thank you.