Preparing for the future of service innovation in North Korea
As covered in our 2020 annual report, unprecedented travel restrictions shifted all of Choson Exchange’s programmes online. This initial challenge had many components: understanding what could and could not be taught online, continuing communication with our DPRK partners through the global pandemic and conceptualizing even how to run an online programme - one of the first of its kind - inside North Korea.
Since our first in-country workshops over a decade ago, we have striven to develop a sustainable operating model no matter the situation. Global and local factors relating to the DPRK can change quickly, requiring us to utilize our networks and our operational expertise gained over past years to pivot swiftly. Despite the pandemic, we have remained successful in providing workshops of value to the next generation of entrepreneurs inside and outside the DPRK.
We are pleased to announce that we have recently finished a second iteration of our Project ChangeMakers (PCM) programme, consisting of 6 web conference lessons delivered via video link to Korean students inside the DPRK and overseas. We coordinated with a network of experts from across the globe, working with the EU Business School in Geneva to design a curriculum focused on service innovation in hotel management, design thinking, customer service and branding for tourism and other industries. Upon completion of the course, students were awarded a certificate issued by the EU Business School.
Students for this course applied through our network following our successful first iteration of Project Changemakers (“PCM 1”) in 2020. While PCM 1 was attended solely by DPRK students currently living outside of North Korea, PCM 2 was additionally extended to university lecturers who joined by video link from Pyongyang.
Singapore-based lecturers facilitating an interactive example of design thinking: how would our participants design the ideal breakfast for a customer? DPRK participants are joining via video link.
The key goal of this programme, as with our in-country workshops prior, is to encourage innovation and economic experimentation for North Koreans through knowledge exchange. Choson Exchange worked with our in-country partners to devise a compelling and relevant curriculum centred around North Korea’s service industry. Despite the current hiatus in all travel to North Korea, we received feedback that these lessons and continued knowledge exchange in the service sector are receiving increased attention inside the country.
Based on Choson Exchange’s previous experience in providing training and knowledge exchange to tourism policymakers in North Korea’s Kangwon province (documented at kangwonkorea.com), we designed our syllabus to link to our previous outreach efforts in Kangwon and the Wonsan Tourism Zone. Course content therein covered key aspects under a broad “service innovation” banner, consisting of lectures from experienced industry leaders joining via web link from Singapore and Europe.
In order to serve our goal of educating SME businesses and developing foundations for future entrepreneurs in North Korea, the course content stretched from the architectural, to the creative and even legal considerations for establishing new businesses. The high incidence of SMEs in the service sector is also a natural occurrence in North Korea - generating an important opportunity for many looking to develop firsthand experience in entrepreneurship. North Korean students readily engaged lecturers with questions such as what distance a coastal hotel should be located from the sea for a planned resort, or how to negotiate owner-operator contracts in a hotel chain franchising agreement. The level of question detail and engagement meant we were able to infer that lessons covering service innovation in the tourism sector were of particular want for participants.
Ugo Ikpeazu of ONResearch lecturing on customer segmentation. Ugo introduced service sector theory and applications such as Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
Examples and lessons were drawn mainly from the hotel and service industry, but have equal opportunity to be applied across other areas covered including finance, interior design, marketing and culinary services.
This programme has provided an important channel for ongoing dialogue, discussion and knowledge exchange between the DPRK and the world during a prolonged period of disconnection. We were especially pleased to welcome (and see/hear) professors from Pyongyang universities via live video link - one of the first opportunities of this kind for both parties.
Due to prevailing and continuous travel restrictions, North Korean students have struggled to find two-way knowledge exchange with outside partners. Choson Exchange also worked with our various stakeholders to record, edit and make all lectures available for use in North Korea by future students. Coordinated and distributed by our DPRK partners, we have built the course material into an online library full of relevant reference material for current and future students.
Following the success of our two iterations so far, we hope our third iteration in Q3 this year will continue to drive innovation and enable better lives for the North Korean people. We hope to see you back in Pyongyang with us soon enough!
We would to thank partners who have helped us in this process including the EU Business School, DPR Koreans willing to innovate, Konrad Adenauer Siftung and many others.