As the 2002 FIFA World Cup came to an end, South Korean President Kim Dae-jung presided over a meeting of economy-related Cabinet ministers and business leaders. The aim was to capture the mood of the World Cup that had been hosted in Korea (and Japan) and turn it to the country's advantage. The communique from the meeting announced that there were lessons that Korea needed to learn from the so-called "Hiddink" style of leadership. Guus Hiddink is the Dutchman who, as senior coach of the national football team, guided South Korea to fourth place in that World Cup, defeating such footballing giants as Spain and Italy en route. Park Byong-won, the director-general of the economic policy bureau at the Ministry of Finance and Economy at that time, believed lessons from the success on-the-field of the national football team could be applied far and wide throughout the different branches of Korean society. "We'd better apply the Hiddink-style leadership to the operation of the government as well as corporations," he said.
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