Hyunrock Han of HYBE JAPAN Looks Back on Company’s Growth, Talks Strategies to Launch &TEAM and More: Billboard Global Power Players Interview
Categoria: Musica
Billboard Japan sat down with Han to hear how he helped grow the company from around 20 employees at the time of his appointment to roughly 300.
Por Billboard | 03/06/2026
In March, Billboard unveiled its 2026 Global Power Players list honoring leaders driving music business success outside the United States. Among the names recognized as this year’s Power Players, Hyunrock Han, representative director and CEO of HYBE JAPAN, was recognized for the first time. To mark the occasion, Billboard Japan sat down with Han to hear how he helped grow the company from around 20 employees at the time of his appointment to roughly 300, about his strategies with &TEAM, an act signed to the label he heads (YX LABELS) and more. First, could you tell us a little about your background? I spent my career in management strategy across a range of industries — finance, manufacturing, trading companies — before joining Big Hit Entertainment (now HYBE) in 2019. At my previous company, MISUMI Group, I was based in Thailand and handling the Asia region when a mutual friend introduced me to Si-Hyuk Bang, the Chairman of HYBE’s Board of Directors and the company’s founder. His business philosophy, his extraordinary creativity, and his character left a deep impression on me. I had no prior experience in the entertainment industry, but felt that I could put my background in strategy and various project experience to good use working under him, so I returned to South Korea in 2019. So you weren’t assigned to Japan from the very beginning. Initially, the plan was to work in Korea for a few years. But about six months after joining, I was asked to go to Japan. I wrestled with the decision, but told them, “The way I manage and operate based on my experience may differ from the conventions of the traditional music industry. In the process of reforming and shaping the organization, there may be friction and pushback. But whatever anyone says, I need you to trust me for three years.” I made my resolve clear and made up my mind to come to Japan. You then became President of Big Hit Solutions Japan (now HYBE JAPAN) in 2020, when the company had fewer than 20 employees. Six years later, you’ve grown to around 300. If someone asked me to do the same thing again, I’m not sure I could. [Laughs] That’s how hard those six years were. When I came to Japan, I had two broad missions. The first was to build an in-house, autonomous solutions organization. The second was to develop original Japanese artists. When I arrived, HYBE was outsourcing virtually all of its operations through business partnerships. Company A handled live production, Company B ran the pop-up stores, Company C produced merchandise, Company D managed the fan club, and so on. But neither data nor institutional knowledge accumulates in-house that way. I restructured everything so that our own staff could handle each area. In my first year, I was conducting interviews with two or three people almost every single day. I didn’t limit myself to candidates with music industry experience and hired specialists in retail operations, merchandising