SK gets one up on prosecutors
By Oh Young-jin
It was a case of two parties, one trying to outsmart the other with a clear winner.
On Thursday, prosecutors announced its decision to indict SK Chairman Chey Tae-won without physical detention for alleged irregularities involving his futures investments.
Hours earlier, Korea’s third-largest conglomerate announced its investment plan, the biggest in its history, amounting to 19 trillion won.
Who was the winner between prosecutors and SK?
The answer was plain to see in Friday’s newspapers.
Chosun Ilbo, the largest vernacular daily, went down the middle. Chey’s indictment was covered with a two-column article, while SK’s investment plan had one three-column article in its economic section highlighting its hiring objectives and another five-column article regarding investment details.
Hankyung, an influential economic daily, had one story on the front page dealing with SK’s business plan as the main headline with its chairman’s indictment as a sub-headline. Inside, a banner article praised Chey’s bold action with a sidebar underscoring the lack of credibility in the prosecutors’ case.
The Korea Times had the story in five columns on its second business page, the main headline showing SK going head to head with prosecutors by disclosing its plan just before the prosecutors’ announcement.
If SK’s announcement was preplanned and there is a high possibility of that, it wouldn’t deviate from the crisis management chapter of the public relations textbook — burying an unfavorable piece with a bigger story, good or bad. In SK’s case, the unfavorable story was Chey’s indictment, while a counter-story was its investment plan, which hit farther with the mass media at a time when everybody’s top priority is the economy and the job situation.
SK showed signs of waiting to ambush the prosecutors in this cloak-and-dagger affair. Earlier this week, it boldly issued a press release foretelling its plan to help alleviate youth joblessness but didn’t say when the real McCoy was coming.
SK’s PR team did a good job for its boss to the point that the prosecutors were irked by the general tone of reports that favored SK, forcing them to give reporters a briefing rebutting some reports point by point.
The prosecutors’ action came after a steady stream of reports that the prosecutors’ investigation into Chey’s irregularities held the conglomerate hostage, not being able to fix its plan for 2012.
Before that, SK’s news release about the possibility that SK couldn’t complete its Hynix purchase deal because of the prosecutors’ investigations. Hynix was the biggest acquisition deal last year with SK selected as the primary bidder after years of being on the market. The breakup of this deal was a card SK might have well wanted to resort to.
SK’s victory, however, was also owed to the prosecutors’ own image — often being subservient to those in power at a given period and strong in front of the weak and weak under the strong. They can’t blame the public for feeling alienated from the maid of power.
Technically, the prosecutors also took too long to announce its decision against Chey. With his younger brother already under arrest, speculation was prevalent that Chey would not be thrown in jail.
By all indications, SK opted for no indictment of its boss, who has tried successfully tried to improve his image as a born-again, competent and honest manager.
With the latest decision, Chey may have to work on his image-building all over again, while fighting to overcome the prosecutors’ indictment.