Run the company without accountability

Owners of large businesses and their families exercise enormous power and authority. It is not an exaggeration to say that they basically make all the important decisions pertaining to their enterprises. And yet, less than 10 percent of them are registered as members of boards of directors.

According to the Fair Trade Commission Thursday, which released a report on the corporate governance of 46 conglomerates based on 1,582 investigative materials, only 535 owners and their family members were registered as board directors, which is 9.15 percent of the total of 5,844.

By business group, Booyoung was the highest with 30.91 percent, followed by SeAh with 29.76 percent and Daesung with 28.07 percent. On the other hand Samsung posted a mere 0.28 percent, Mirae Asset 1.28 percent, LG 1.48 percent and Dongbu 1.91 percent. Only three family members of Yoon Kum-suk, chairman of Woongjin Group which recently filed for court receivership, were on the board among 27 subsidiaries.

Also, there were only 384 companies among 1,413 listed and private companies among the conglomerates which had at least a single person from the owning family on the boards of directors.

Among 137 companies with assets of more than 2 trillion won, 59 did not have the presence of anyone from owning families represented on the boards of directors. These included prominent corporate names like Samsung, Hyundai Heavy Industries, Doosan, LS, Shinsegae, Daelim, Mirae Asset and Taekwang.

The general perception is that owners and their families shy away from getting on the boards of directors to avoid accountability in case things go wrong.