10 Major Groups Emphasize 'Customer, Growth, Future' in This Year's New Year's Addresses

CEO Score, Frequency Analysis of Keywords in New Year's Addresses of Top 10 Domestic Groups in 2020

Hyundai Motor Group Vice Chairman Chung Euisun is delivering a New Year's address at the 2020 Hyundai Motor Group Kick-off Ceremony held at Hyundai Motor Company headquarters in Seocho-gu, Seoul, on the 2nd. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Ji-hee] The top 10 domestic conglomerates emphasized the keywords 'customer', 'growth', and 'future' the most in their New Year's messages this year. In contrast, keywords that frequently appeared before, such as 'global', 'market', and 'competition', dropped in ranking.

According to CEO Score, a corporate evaluation site, on the 3rd, an analysis of the frequency of keywords in the 2020 New Year's messages of the top 10 domestic conglomerates showed that 'customer' was mentioned the most, with 56 occurrences. This was followed by ▲growth (42 times) ▲future (28 times) ▲innovation (23 times) ▲capability, value, sustainability (each 21 times).

In particular, 'customer' and 'growth' ranked in the top two again this year, following last year. 'Customer', which ranked first for the first time last year, became the most frequently mentioned keyword for two consecutive years including this year. Over the past 10 years, the keyword 'customer' has appeared in the top 10 only three times: 2010 (3rd), 2015 (3rd), and 2018 (6th).

The emphasis on the keyword 'customer' was largely due to the New Year's message from Koo Kwang-mo, Chairman of LG Group. Since his inauguration, Chairman Koo has stressed the fundamental spirit of 'customer value', mentioning customers 30 times last year and 24 times this year. Excluding LG Group, the number of times 'customer' was mentioned across seven other groups was about 32.

Also, this year, SK Group did not release a group-level New Year's message, and although Hyundai Heavy Industries announced its New Year's message on the 3rd, the number of mentions increased compared to last year (28 times), indicating a heightened corporate awareness of customers.

The second most frequently mentioned keyword, 'growth', was mentioned 41 times last year and 42 times this year. 'Growth' was included in the top three keywords in the New Year's messages of the top 10 groups for 10 consecutive years since 2011. Following that, 'future' jumped from 9th place last year (24 times) to 3rd place this year (28 times).

Conversely, 'global', which ranked 3rd last year, dropped to 9th place, and 'value' and 'market', which ranked 4th and 5th respectively, fell to 5th and 11th places. 'Competition' and 'newness' also dropped from 6th and 7th last year to 12th and 10th this year as their mention counts decreased.

Meanwhile, the top five keywords by group were as follows: Samsung emphasized future (5 times), growth (3 times), securing, first year, generation (each 2 times). Hyundai Motor highlighted innovation (8 times), promotion, newness, technology (each 7 times), and future (6 times). LG placed weight on customer (24 times), mind and value (each 6 times), impression (5 times), and practice (4 times).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.