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Yonsei News

[YONSEI NEWS] “To become an enterpriser that saves lives”

연세대학교 홍보팀 / news@yonsei.ac.kr
2011-03-02

“I hope to develop business leadership and serve the community.” Song Ho-won is a graduate of Yonsei Medical College who is to enter an MBA program at Stanford University. Among the 390 students admitted to the MBA programs of Stanford this year, there are only 4 who have just finished undergraduate and Mr. Song is one of them. He is the founder of FREEMED, a social enterprise which provides community with medical services. His reason for studying abroad for an MBA over being a doctor is “to cultivate leadership and grow into an enterprise.” Last year, Mr. Song was introduced in the Yonsei Newsletter as an exemplar of the ‘high speed generation’, namely those who enjoy challenges. One of his challenges was establishing FREEMED, but he says, “It was a good idea, but there had to be more to it--money.” He had founded FREEMED for financial reasons. From his experience in a medical voluntary organization, Mr. Song realized that money was an essential factor to maintain the organization. He said, “To cover medicine costs, we needed a way to generate profit.” Mr. Song had worked as intern at a famous consulting company in order to make money and continued medical volunteering. His answer to this problem was establishing FREEMED, which earns the money for medicine costs from the sales of self-produced T-shirts and bags. For the past 2 years, around 1,500 people have received help from FREEMED—which has grown into a sound social enterprise. Meanwhile, Mr. Song not only faces more troubles, but is also conceived with a dream to be a great enterpriser—more profit models will help and save more people. He said, “As FREEMED gets bigger, I feel that having discussions with people becomes tougher.” He added that the essence of business leadership is finding the best approach through problem analysis and communication. Mr. Song’s dream is to become a venture enterpriser in the field of medical science—to develop new markets, make new jobs, and return profit to society, especially to those who need medical assistance. “It’s not a scalpel that saves lives—it is the people. I hope to become an enterpriser who saves lives.”