“I had to become a member, so I did. During the service, I even tried shouting ‘Hallelujah’ along with everyone.”
Na Myung-seok, Chairman of the Korea Franchise Industry Association (also chairman of Wellbeing Food, the operator of the chicken franchise Jadam Chicken), recalled an incident in which he spent several days undercover at the Dammi Mission, a group that had predicted the “Rapture,” while working as a photojournalist for Chosa Journal in 1992. Kim Hoon, then a social affairs editor and now a writer, suggested they go together to take photos, and when the department head ordered him to go, he complied. He said, “I had been undercover for less than ten days, but since I was told to meet the deadline, I took the shots first.” There were almost no direct photographs of the Dammi Mission scene at the time. He was a rare photojournalist who broke news through his images.
Chairman Na joined Chosa Journal as a founding member during his second semester of his fourth year of university and worked in the field for nearly 10 years. His dream was to become a documentary writer for American publications such as Time, Newsweek, and National Geographic. He showed a copy of the Chosa Journal cover featuring one of his photos. It was a photo of former President Chun Doo-hwan and his wife. “It felt bad, but they called me ‘Your Excellency’ once,” he said. “After going through so much hardship, I don’t know if hearing that made me feel good, but in a flash of less than a second, I looked at the camera with such a bright expression. There probably isn’t another photo of me with that kind of look.”
The 1997 foreign exchange crisis arrived. “I like taking dynamic photos, but the world became quiet,” he said. “If I didn’t quit now, it felt like I would do this for the rest of my life.” After a three-month tug-of-war with his department head, he submitted his resignation. He subsequently established himself in the advertising and publishing photography fields, and entered the franchise industry by launching the monthly magazine “Startup & Franchise” in 2000. After directly operating an F&B brand, he closed the business due to unpaid fees from franchisees and emigrated to Canada. While running a Korean grocery store in a peripheral commercial area, he returned to Korea and founded Jadam Chicken in 2011.
Although he said that while franchising is difficult, doing business was easy, his decision to take on the role of association chairman was “half voluntary, half compelled.” A significant number of past chairmen were classmates from the first cohort of the Yonsei University Franchise CEO Program in 2002. What moved him during his deliberation was a single remark from former Chairman Jung Hyeon-sik. “He said that since I had been in the franchise industry for about 30 years, wouldn’t it be meaningful to serve for three years, like paying tithes? I wasn’t even a church member, but those words really resonated with me,” he recalled. “I said, ‘Understood, I will serve for three years,’ and took the position.” He laughed, adding, “When I actually took over, I realized I was the only one among my classmates who became chairman after turning 60.”
◇Biography △Born in 1965 △Department of Photography, Chung-Ang University △Reporter, Chosa Journal △Publisher, monthly <Startup & Franchise> △Senior Vice Chairman, Poultry Division Committee Chair, and Delivery App Response TF Committee Chair, Korea Franchise Industry Association △(Current) Chairman, Wellbeing Food (Jadam Chicken) △(Current) 9th Chairman, Korea Franchise Industry Association
in LIVING
