# On Chuseok day, in front of the TV, my high school nephew, who was watching the Asian Games women's basketball semifinal, said something to 2000's forward Lee Hae-ran, who was born in the 2000s, running down the court and digging into the goal. โThat player looks like Kim Yeon-kyung. I guess people who look like that are good at sports.โ
At first glance, they seemed similar in appearance. However, the image reflected in the teenager's eyes would not only refer to the player's facial features themselves. The 'confident expression and aura' of her stretching out her long limbs and running through the forest filled with Chinese tall players, roaring for the court to leave after scoring a goal, and hugging her teammates is what made us see Kim Yeon-kyung on the screen.
In our society, โKim Yeon-kyungโ is an icon of the century. It has become a symbol of not only superhuman abilities, but also unstoppable energy without fear of making mistakes, resilience to pat colleagues on the back when a crisis arises, and an attitude that leads to victory.
Korean women's basketball, which had been hidden behind the hot syndrome of women's volleyball for a long time, created a dramatic drama at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.
Deficiency is a crisis, but it has the power to fuel a new engine. The young women's basketball team won the Asian Games gold medal for the first time in 12 years by defeating China and Japan despite being at an absolute disadvantage without national treasure center Park Ji-soo and WNBA guard Park Ji-hyun.
The fatal deficiency of two people turned into a creative deficiency and acted as a powerful trigger to change the entire constitution.
He made up for the lack of height with a full-court press that took him one step further, space creation like a cogwheel, and transitions like lightning. Rookies born in the 2000s, including Lee Hae-ran, who 'resembles Kim Yeon-kyung', Heo Ye-eun, and Lee So-hee, did not pay attention to their seniors. They eliminated the bitterness and rigid top-down behavior that had weighed down Korean sports, and dominated the court with horizontal vitality, shaking off mistakes with high-fives and preparing for the next game with a smile. The flexible โsystemโ and โpsychological safetyโ strengthened the organization without the hero.
On the other hand, women's volleyball went through the throes of a generational change after Kim Yeon-kyung's retirement, and only finished with no medals (4th place) for the second consecutive time.
Over the past few years, while Korean women's volleyball was enjoying a splendid heyday with Kim Yeon-kyung at the forefront, a dark shadow was also cast. These are structural defects within the organization, stagnation in nurturing promising talent, delay in introducing modern tactics, and a complacent operating system. The national team's fall after Kim Yeon-kyung's retirement proved how fragile the 'hero-centered ecosystem' that relies on one genius is.
# A true generational change is not limited to a physical generational change that simply replaces a representative figure with younger blood.
The essence is to establish a sophisticated decision-making process that runs smoothly like a cogwheel, even without a brilliant genius, and to build a horizontal culture where subordinates can apply 100% of their capabilities without worrying about what their superiors think.
The โkids who resemble Kim Yeon-kyungโ seen on the court are not clones of the hero. It is a next-generation system that embodies the confidence left behind by heroes and creates a new game in its own way. They showed in this game that what determines victory or defeat is tactical flexibility and an organizational culture that does not give in to being intimidated.
Off the court, what about the countless organizations struggling with stagnating growth and generational change?
Especially in a knowledge and information society where the environment is rapidly changing and market uncertainty has increased, betting on one person's intuition and decision can be fatal.
The stronger the charisma of an imperial leader, the more the members of the organization become unable to say a word and become passive followers of orders, and the moment the leader is replaced or makes a mistake in judgment, the entire organization may be shaken or fall into a vacuum.
Have we laid out a plan or maintained a good system so that the next generation can run to their heart's content without being intimidated? Just as basketball's potential was hidden behind the flashy lighting that volleyball enjoyed, what kind of physical improvement is taking place behind the surface indicators? If an organization can answer this question, its true capabilities begin now.
