검색결과 총 5건
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Lessons in Leadership from the Classics | Chapter 4: Nvidia
The Patience and the Ascent of Jensen Huang How the Alleyways of Korea and the Floors of Semiconductor Factories Forged the Aesthetics of 古枯孤高 [Economy Daily] At the beating heart of the civilizational upheaval we call artificial intelligence stands one company and one man: Nvidia and Jensen Huang. The world measures them in market capitalization and market share. But the deeper truth of great leadership outlasts any number. It is the power of time, long and unhurried. It is the discipline of subtraction. It is the courage of solitude. And it is, finally, the dignity that comes only from having endured. In the vocabulary of East Asian philosophy, these four qualities compress into a single phrase: 古枯孤高 — ancient (古), austere (枯), solitary (孤), elevated (高). Nvidia's rise is not the story of a stock that spiked overnight. It is the story of these four characters slowly calcifying into the bones of one man and the culture of one company, across thirty years of painstaking accumulation. 古 — The Ancient: Time as the First Discipline Every great enterprise, if it is truly great, eventually earns its face — but only through time. Jensen Huang had been walking this earth as a businessman long before the world knew his name. His relationship with Korea begins here, and it begins on foot. According to domestic industry accounts from that era, Huang made repeated visits to Yongsan Electronics Market in Seoul in the late 1990s and early 2000s — when Nvidia was still an obscure startup struggling to be taken seriously. He came not as a visiting dignitary but as a salesman: explaining graphics cards to shop owners, persuading assemblers, winning trust one transaction at a time. Huang himself has said his connection to Korea dates to 1996. He has spoken of how South Korea's explosion of high-speed internet, its PC-bang culture, and the nationwide fever for StarCraft formed a critical foundation for Nvidia's early growth. Korea, in those years, was the world's most electrified laboratory for digital culture — and the heat of its gaming rooms, the sharpness of its consumers, the velocity with which it embraced new technology, all of it nourished a company that had not yet found its footing. This detail matters enormously. The histories of great corporations are often rewritten to begin in gleaming boardrooms or on famous stages. But Jensen Huang's formation happened in narrow storefronts, surrounded by towers of component boxes, in a market where customers were price-sensitive and performance-obsessed and utterly unimpressed by brand mythology. In Yongsan, he did not sell a brand. He sold credibility. He sold product knowledge. He sold the felt experience of superior performance. The I Ching offers an image for this season of a man's life: 潛龍勿用 — "the hidden dragon does not yet act." The dragon submerged beneath the water has not yet ascended to the sky, but it is already gathering strength, already orienting itself toward its direction. Korea was that submerged time for Jensen Huang. It was where the dragon went quiet and grew. 枯 — The Austere: The Discipline of Withholding Austerity is not poverty. It is restraint. And few companies in the history of Silicon Valley have practiced restraint as rigorously or as consequentially as Nvidia. While its competitors raced to win the surface war — chasing specification numbers, upgrading the cosmetics of their products, playing to the gallery of consumer benchmarks — Huang kept his organization's attention trained on something less visible and far more consequential: the underlying architecture of computation, the logic of parallel processing, the infrastructure that would eventually become the indispensable engine of artificial intelligence. This is the aesthetic the Chinese literati call 枯淡 — a beauty that comes not from ornament but from essence. The Diamond Sutra puts it this way: 凡所有相 皆是虛妄 — "all that has form is ultimately illusion." In business terms: what catches the eye rarely determines a company's fate. What determines fate is the capability that cannot be seen. Nvidia understood this early. That is why the Nvidia of today rests not on the appearance of its products but on the depth of its software ecosystem, its developer base, and the intellectual architecture that competitors cannot easily replicate. This philosophy of austerity extends to Huang's understanding of human character. Speaking at Stanford, he told students that the most important trait for success is not intelligence but resilience — and went further, saying, "I hope you will have the experience of suffering and hardship." It is a startling thing to say, and deliberately so. His point is unambiguous: greatness is not the product of cleverness alone. Character is forged not in comfort but in friction. Huang speaks from experience. He has publicly described being bullied in an American boarding school as a boy, washing dishes and cleaning bathrooms at minimum wage. His philosophy of hardship is not rhetoric. It is autobiography. Most organizations today speak to their people endlessly about well-being and are afraid to speak about tempering. But Jensen Huang did not flinch from the uncomfortable truth: growth always requires some degree of resistance and endurance. He knows this in his body. 孤 — The Solitary: The Courage of the Unfashionable Conviction Solitude, properly understood, is not the condition of being alone. It is the willingness to choose a road that others have not taken — and to walk it long enough to find out whether you were right. Nvidia was, for a very long time, a company that received no particular applause. It was known as a graphics chip company, and in that category, it was formidable. But inside that public identity, Huang carried a private and lonely conviction: that the dominant paradigm of computing would shift — that the age of the general-purpose CPU would eventually yield to an age of accelerated computing. Markets demand the present moment. Leaders sometimes have to absorb today's contempt in exchange for tomorrow's vindication. Only those who sustain that solitude earn the right to the rewards of early arrival. The Analects of Confucius puts it plainly: 德不孤 必有隣 — "virtue is never truly alone; it will always find its neighbors." What appears solitary and eccentric at the beginning eventually draws its community. And in the story of Nvidia and Korea, this movement from isolation to alliance is almost perfectly illustrated. The partnership between Huang and South Korea has long since outgrown its origins in retail sales. SK Hynix began collaborating with Nvidia on High Bandwidth Memory in the uncertain early days of that technology — a bet made before the outcome was clear. That relationship has since deepened into something that resembles co-development more than supply chain. Nvidia has been advancing large-scale AI chip supply and infrastructure cooperation with the Korean government, Samsung, the SK Group, Hyundai Motor Group, and Naver. The lonely salesman who once walked the aisles of Yongsan is now at the table with the leaders of Korean industry and government, shaping the architecture of the nation's AI future. The solitary vigil became a strategic alliance. What was once walked alone is now walked together. 高 — The Elevated: Altitude as Accountability Elevation is not merely position. It is character — the capacity to see farther and to hold responsibility longer than others can or will. The Doctrine of the Mean speaks of 至誠無息 — "true sincerity never rests." This is, unexpectedly, one of the most precise descriptions of how Jensen Huang has run his company. He did not build Nvidia on a passing fashion. He crossed product failures, market cynicism, supply chain crises, and geopolitical headwinds, and climbed — slowly, deliberately, one foothold at a time — to the position the company occupies today. This is not a mountain ascended in a season. This is a summit reached in decades. Here, again, Korea re-enters the story. However regal the title "emperor of the AI era" may sound, the circuitry running through that crown is substantially Korean. Korea began as the consumption frontier — the PC-bang, the gaming market, the early adopter culture that gave Nvidia its first mass foothold. It has since become the strategic frontier: the partner in HBM and advanced memory, the co-architect of AI factories and digital transformation. Between the image of Jensen Huang persuading shop owners in Yongsan and the image of Jensen Huang discussing AI infrastructure with the heads of Korea's largest conglomerates, there runs a very long river. But the river is unbroken. What he first saw in Korea was not merely a sales opportunity. He saw a society with an extraordinary capacity for fast technical comprehension, for organizing technology into industry, for connecting the work of the mind to the work of the factory floor. That insight lives inside every partnership he has built here since. A Reckoning for Korean Business What, then, should Korean business leaders take from this? The lesson is not complicated, though it is demanding. Innovation does not arise from eloquent mission statements. It arises from time endured, from the discipline to discard the inessential, from the independence to pursue an unpopular answer, and from the accountability that eventually transforms all of it into something worthy of the word dignity. Jensen Huang's career is not a story of a man who happened to catch the AI wave at the right moment. It is a story of sediment — of years and decades of experience, discipline, and conviction accumulating until they were precisely aligned with the door that history opened. Which asks certain questions of Korean business. Do we still carry the original instinct of those years when we wrestled with the market on the ground floor — when we had no reputation to trade on, only our knowledge and our reliability? Do we have the austere courage to strip away what is not essential? Do we have the nerve to choose the lonely right answer over the popular wrong one? Management, at its best, is completed in the love of people, in the respect for the work done in the field, and in the refusal to defy the logic of time and nature. The tree that grows too fast is hollow at its core. The success that comes too easily has shallow roots. Nvidia — Jensen Huang's Nvidia — took the opposite path. It stood like an ancient tree, silent and unhurried, enduring the winds and the droughts, growing upward alone toward the high place it had decided, long ago, to reach. His success, for that reason, is not a flash of light. It is light that stays. That is the lesson of 古枯孤高. Only those who have endured long enough ascend high enough. Only those who have passed through austerity reach genuine depth. Only those who have borne solitude long enough find themselves, one day, at the center of their age. Jensen Huang's Korean story is one essential thread in that larger narrative. Today's glory is conceived in yesterday's alleyways. Even the history of the world's most powerful technology company is completed, in the end, only on the accumulated sweat and trust of human beings. He is demonstrating that, quietly, every day. The author is a contributing columnist covering business philosophy, technology, and economic history.
2026-04-22 11:57:23
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캐딜락 '더 뉴 에스컬레이드' 판매, 벤츠 전기 SUV EQE 350+ 출시 外
[이코노믹데일리] 캐딜락이 SUV ‘2026 더 뉴 에스컬레이드’를 국내에 공개하고 본격적인 판매에 돌입한다. 뉴 에스컬레이드는 최고출력 426마력, 최대토크 63.6kg·m를 발휘하는 6.2L V8 가솔린 엔진과 10단 자동변속기를 탑재했다. 여기에 초당 1000회 노면을 분석하는 마그네틱 라이드 컨트롤 4.0과 어댑티브 에어 라이드 서스펜션이 결합됐다. 또한 GM의 핸즈프리 주행 보조 시스템 ‘슈퍼크루즈’, ‘TMAP(티맵) 커넥티드 서비스’, 그리고 ‘교통 표지판 인식’ 기능을 새롭게 더해 주행 편의성과 안전성을 높였다. 슈퍼크루즈는 국내 약 2만3000km의 고속도로에서 스티어링 휠 조작 없이 주행과 자동 차선 변경을 지원하는 핸즈프리 운전자 보조 시스템이다. 고정밀 도로 정보 데이터와 다중 센서(카메라·레이더·GPS) 융합 기술을 바탕으로 도로 곡률이나 공사 구간 등 복잡한 주행 환경에서도 차량을 안전하게 제어하는 데 도움을 준다. 더 뉴 에스컬레이드는 일반형과 휠베이스 연장형인 ESV 두 가지 모델로 출시된다. 판매 가격(개별소비세 3.5% 기준)은 일반형 1억6807만원, ESV 1억 9007만원이다. ◆벤츠 코리아, 전기 SUV EQE 350+ 국내 출시…1회 충전 467km 주행 메르세데스-벤츠 코리아가 비즈니스 전기 SUV 모델 ‘메르세데스-벤츠 EQE SUV’의 신규 트림인 ‘EQE 350+ SUV’를 국내 시장에 출시했다. EQE SUV는 메르세데스-벤츠의 전기차 전용 아키텍처인 EVA2를 기반으로 개발된 모델이다. 넉넉한 주행거리, 실용성을 갖춘 실내 공간, 안정적이고 편안한 주행 성능, 다양한 편의 사양을 고루 갖췄다. 이번 신규 차종은 기존 라인업에서 사륜 구동 모델이었던 ‘EQE 350 4MATIC SUV’를 대체하는 후륜 구동 모델이다. 이번 트림 개편을 통해 26년식 EQE SUV는 높은 효율성과 긴 주행거리를 제공하는 후륜 구동 모델 △EQE 350+ SUV, 강력한 퍼포먼스를 갖춘 사륜 구동 모델 △EQE 500 4MATIC SUV 등 총 2개로 운영된다. EQE 350+ SUV는 국내 인증 기준 1회 충전 주행 거리 467km로 EQE SUV 라인업 가운데 가장 긴 주행 거리를 제공한다. 판매 가격은 부가세 포함 및 개소세 인하분 반영 기준 1억600만원이다. ◆ 만트럭, 앱 ‘정비 예약·사고 견적’ 기능 통합…가입자 1600명 돌파 만트럭버스코리아(만트럭)의 고객 서비스 전용 애플리케이션(앱) ‘MyMAN Korea’가 출시 7개월 만에 누적 가입자 1600명을 돌파했다. 해당 앱은 차량 정비 예약, 사고 견적 상담, 차량 기능 안내까지 트럭 운행에 필요한 주요 서비스를 한데 모은 모바일 플랫폼이다. 서비스 예약은 전국 22개 만트럭 공식 서비스센터를 대상으로 지원된다. 고객이 앱을 통해 희망하는 날짜와 시간, 정비 항목을 선택하면 해당 서비스센터에 실시간으로 공유돼 자동 확정된다. 이후 담당자가 고객에게 직접 연락해 원활한 정비를 위한 최종 준비 사항을 안내하는 방식으로 운영된다. 또한 사고 수리 견적 기능을 통해 고객은 손상 부위를 촬영해 사진을 전송하면 센터로부터 원격 상담을 받을 수 있다.
2026-02-24 15:47:21
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107조 해양산업, 컨트롤타워 '전무'…"KRISO 재정비·통합 거버넌스 마련해야"
[이코노믹데일리] 해운·조선·항만 산업이 한 해에 만들어내는 경제 규모가 107조원에 달하지만, 이를 하나로 묶어 전략을 조율할 '해양 패권 컨트롤타워'가 부처·지역별로 흩어져 있는 문제가 도마위에 올랐다. 산업 비중에 비해 정책·기술·R&D(연구개발) 체계가 지나치게 분절돼있다는 지적이다. 2일 여의도 국회의원회관에서 열린 '신(新) 해양패권 스마트해양기술 세미나'에서 김진 KRISO 부소장은 해운·조선·항만 산업을 "반도체·자동차에 버금가는 외화·부가가치 산업"이라고 규정했다. 그는 "세 산업의 연간 총산출은 107조원, 수출액은 88조원으로 수출 비중만 82.9%"라며 "국가 경제의 생명선이지만 정책은 분절돼있다"고 목소리를 높였다. 해양수산부의 부산 이전과 북극항로 개척으로 부울경(부산·울산·경남)을 중심으로 조선·해양플랜트·항만을 아우르는 해양산업 혁신 클러스터가 재편되는 가운데 핵심 연구기관인 선박해양플랜트연구소(KRISO)의 역할을 새로 설계해야 한다는 주문도 나왔다. 김진 부소장은 "해양 패권 경쟁은 선박 건조만의 문제가 아니라 친환경·디지털·안보·공급망 계획이 동시에 요구되는 종합전략"이라며 "100조원이 넘는 규모의 산업에 걸맞는 통합 컨트롤타워 구축과 해양산업 혁신 클러스터 재편이 시급하다"고 설명했다. 양승우 과학기술정책연구원(STEPI) 위원도 "해운·조선·항만은 하나의 산업 생태계"라며 "조선은 산업통상자원부, 해운·항만과 KRISO는 해양수산부, 기술·R&D는 과학기술정보통신부 소관으로 흩어져 있어 전략을 한 곳에서 묶어내기 어렵다"고 말했다. 이어 그는 KRISO의 여건도 열악하다고 밝혔다. "연 예산 1300억원, 연구 인력 330명 규모에 불과해 연구자 1인당 3억~4억원 규모의 과제를 떠안는 구조"라며 "해양공학 선도기관인 노르웨이 심테프(SINTEF)나 선박·해양기술 국가연구기관인 중국 CSSRC(중국선박연구센터) 등 글로벌 연구기관과 비교하면 인력·예산이 5분의 1~10분의 1 수준"이라고 말했다. 더불어 "디지털 전환·녹색 전환·북극항로·해양안보 등 국가가 요구하는 임무가 확대되는 만큼 전략적 지원이 필요하다"고도 강조했다. 양승우 위원은 국내 조선·해양 기술력이 주요국 대비 뒤처져 있다고 지적했다. 양 위원은 "친환경 선박 기술은 EU(유럽연합)보다 2.2년, 자율운항·스마트십 기술은 1.6년, 해양 디지털 전환 기술은 미국보다 약 1.2년 늦다"며 "산업별로 흩어진 R&D 거버넌스를 하나로 묶지 않으면 기술 격차가 더 벌어질 것"이라고 우려했다. 국내 조선업이 엔진(MAN·독일), 통신·계측(Siemens·독일), 항해장비(Kongsberg·노르웨이), LNG(액화천연가스) 운반선 탱크 기술(GTT·프랑스) 등 해외 기술 의존도가 높은 구조라는 점도 문제로 언급됐다. 양 위원은 "핵심 기술을 국산화하고 조선·해운·항만을 통합 전략산업으로 끌어올리려면 R&D 체계를 재편해야 한다"고 말했다. 공간적 불일치도 문제로 꼽혔다. 부울경에는 조선소(야드)·항만·MRO·배후단지가 결합된 클러스터가 자리 잡고 있지만, 국가 해양기술 연구 핵심 기관인 KRISO는 대전에 본부를 두고 있다. 양 위원은 "해수부 부산 이전과 북극항로 개척으로 해양산업 클러스터가 부울경 중심으로 강화되는 만큼 KRISO의 입지·기능·법적 위상도 함께 재정비해야 한다"고 제안했다. 김 부소장은 "북극항로용 선박을 직접 설계·상용화한 국가는 없다"며 "KRISO는 캐나다·핀란드·러시아 외에는 전 세계적으로 드문 빙해수조를 보유해 북극항로 기술 선점의 전략적 기반을 갖고 있다"고 강조했다. 양 위원 역시 "KRISO가 조선·해운·항만을 뒷받침하는 전략 연구기관으로 자리 잡으려면 원천기술, 국제표준(IMO·ISO) 대응, 스마트 해운·스마트 항만까지 역할 범위를 넓힌 통합 거버넌스가 필요하다"고 말했다.
2025-12-02 17:58:54