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Mother of Female CEOs’ Devoted to Helping Women Entrepreneurs

Mother of Female CEOs’ Devoted to Helping Women Entrepreneurs

Ahn Yoon-jung By Jane Han / Staff Reporter
10-10-2007

At first glance, Ahn Yoon-jung's soft voice and refined gestures may mislead some to undermine her sharp eye for business. But the chief of Sara Corp. modestly smiles and says she has enough charisma to lead 1,700 members of the nation's biggest women's entrepreneur group.

``I sometimes don't even think my natural tendency or style resembles a good entrepreneur because I lack the coldness that a successful business leader needs,'' Ahn, the founder and CEO of one of the country's first fashion companies and chairman of the Korea Women Entrepreneurs Association (KWEA), said in a recent Korea Times interview.
Despite her words, however, Ahn _ who is often nicknamed ``the mother of female CEOs _ has been a pioneer through the early days of women in business leadership and made her mark in the industry.

After founding Ahn Yoon-jung Boutique in 1975, the design expert established Sara Corp. in 1986, becoming renowned for the ladies' wear Ansmode.
The brand quickly grew popular among female shoppers in their 30s-50s for its broad range of designs in various sizes.

``In the early days, sizing was limited to a flat 55 or 66 (American size 6 or 8), which made it difficult for non-average sized women to find their perfect fit,'' said the 60-year-old, as she credited the innovative start to the brand's initial success.

Since then, Ahn has taken her well-matured brand to fashion shows and events worldwide, including Milan, Beijing and Hong Kong.

And after 32 years of running her business, Ahn now focuses much of her time on working with and for other women entrepreneurs.

``The working atmosphere for women has evolved tremendously over the past decades,'' said Ahn, who has been an active member of KWEA for the past 29 years. ``But there is, of course, still a lot of work left to do.''

After being named the group's fifth chairman in January, Ahn actively pursued measures to upgrade management conditions for female entrepreneurs.

She said many of the first generation women CEOs jumped into work without knowing anything, as many of them had to take over the family business after their husband's death or other extenuating situations.

``These women need assistance and help in different ways so that they don't fall behind due to simple lack of knowledge,'' Ahn said, emphasizing that, many times, women CEOs juggle far more tasks than male executives.

``I think multi-tasking comes natural after having to raise kids, manage housework and run a business,'' she said, jokingly adding that women seem to do about three people's worth of work in the office.

One of the main things she is working toward now is to have 5 percent of the government's purchases bought from companies operated by women.

``It might look unfair to some, but sales networks are one of the toughest tasks for women. Even if they may have a great product, what good is it if can't be sold,'' she said. ``I know it won't be easy to pass such a bill, but I'm going to continuously push for it.''

While moving to make various changes, Ahn said young entrepreneur hopefuls should have a clear vision and a business idea in mind before starting anything.

``It might look fancy to run your own business, but there are many obstacles and work ahead that are still tougher for women than men _ even in today's modern day,'' she said, noting that out of the 3,000,000 small and medium-sized businesses nationwide, 1,150,000 are female-operated. ``The number is growing, but the profits aren't, so that cuts the work out for the upcoming lady business leaders.''

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