Baek Byung-yeul is a journalist at The Korea Times focused on cultural content, including films and cultural events in South Korea. You can contact him at baekby@koreatimes.co.kr to share your insights.
Top conglomerates emphasize need to engage new businesses in New Year addresses
Chung Euisun, chairman of Hyundai Motor Group, delivers his New Year message to employees through a virtual reality platform, Jan. 3. Courtesy of Hyundai Motor Group
By Baek Byung-yeul
By Baek Byung-yeul
SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won
Owners and CEOs of conglomerates such as Samsung, Hyundai Motor, SK and Shinsegae encouraged their employees to engage new businesses in more rapid and innovative ways to pursue sustainable growth, amid the rapidly changing global business environment due to the prolonged pandemic.
Their New Year addresses contrasts with their 2021 messages that put emphasis on corporate responsibility.
The number of COVID-19 infection cases has increased compared to this time last year, but they stressed their intention to actively pursue new businesses and investments as the world enters year three of the virus crisis.
Chung Euisun, chairman of Hyundai Motor Group, stressed the automotive group “will lay the foundations for becoming a top-tier eco-friendly brand that consumers trust the most and are satisfied with.”
Chung added the group will be able to produce visible results in future businesses such as artificial intelligence (AI), self-driving, robotics and urban air mobility.
Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Han Jong-hee and CEO Kyung Kye-hyun said in their joint New Year address that there should be changes to make Samsung leap forward in 2022.
Stating that Samsung “needs to boldly abandon the old-fashioned business strategies,” they encouraged employees to “create an agile organizational culture where an individual's creativity can be respected and anyone can focus on increasing corporate value.” Samsung SDI CEO Choi Yoon-ho stressed the need to maintain what it calls a super gap in technology to cope with the continued pandemic and supply chain bottlenecks.
SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won delivered his New Year address to employees on Dec. 31 via email. In the message, he stressed that every member of the group “should become a frontier full of challenging spirit to cope with uncertainties created by the COVID-19 pandemic and the climate crisis.”
LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo
LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo was the first among conglomerate owners to make a New Year address on Dec. 20. He called for employees to innovate in their fields. “It is important to continuously create a user experience that could impress consumers. The way we think and work should also be innovated accordingly.”
Owners of Lotte and Shinsegae, rivals in the domestic retail market, gained attention as they both cited ice hockey star Wayne Gretzky's famous quote “You miss 100 percent of the shots you don't take” in their New Year addresses.
Gretzky's quote has been used by many entrepreneurs to emphasize the importance of trying something new.
Stating that “failure is a trace of trying something,” Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin used the quote at the end of his address. Shinsegae Group Vice Chairman Chung Yong-jin also quoted the Great One, adding “no matter how simple it may be, nothing will happen if you don't even try it.”