Planting 'Digital DNA'... Shinhan Financial Group Chairman Jo Yong-byeong Leads Innovation

'Digilog Meeting' with Affiliate CEOs Held for 10 Hours Over Four Days
Focused on Workforce, Culture, Ecosystem, and Technology for Advanced Digitalization

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Haeyoung] As Shin Yong-byeong, Chairman of Shinhan Financial Group, launched his second term, he is accelerating the integration of 'digital DNA' within the group. Amid the blurring boundaries between finance and technology, the plan is to embed digital DNA into technology, personnel, and organizational culture beyond mere survival, providing consumers with new financial experiences and creating new business opportunities for group companies, thereby driving financial innovation.

According to Shinhan Financial on the 25th, Chairman Cho held a 'Digilog (a portmanteau of digital and analog) forum' via video conference with the CEOs of affiliates over four days from the 21st to the 24th. The meeting lasted a total of 10 hours, from 9:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. each day.

A Shinhan Financial official stated, "To secure momentum for digital transformation for the group's sustainable growth, we created a platform for discussion involving everyone from group CEOs to frontline sales staff," adding, "Discussions covered various measures including securing human resources for digital initiatives, building a flexible organizational culture, establishing a Shinhan-centered digital ecosystem, and acquiring new technologies."

The main agenda items of this forum were ▲ digital leadership ▲ building human capabilities and organizational culture to promote digital transformation ▲ establishing a Shinhan-centered digital ecosystem and preparing partnership and investment plans to discover unicorns ▲ securing new technology capabilities and discovering new business opportunities. Various discussions were held to promote digital transformation at the One-Shinhan level and to discuss concrete implementation plans.

Chairman Cho’s marathon 10-hour meetings with affiliate CEOs are interpreted as a strong will to actively embed digital DNA into the organization and proactively build digital businesses in a situation where the convergence of finance and IT is becoming active. It also reflects an intention to strengthen digital strategies for the post-COVID-19 era, as 'untact' (contactless) has emerged since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Chairman Cho has been actively promoting digital transformation. In September last year, he established Shinhan AI, the first AI-specialized subsidiary in the financial sector, and launched trust and wrap products applying AI algorithms earlier this year. The plan is to offer consumers more diverse services through AI-based investment advisory services.

He also introduced the 'Digital Guardian System,' a system that selects future core digital technologies and appoints subsidiary CEOs as guardians of each technology to lead the business. Chairman Cho ordered CEOs to collaborate in discovering new business models and assessing business feasibility in digital core technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), big data, blockchain, cloud, and healthcare. During this Digilog forum, discussions were held on operational plans and roadmaps for efficiently managing the digital core technology guardian system.

A financial industry insider said, "Chairman Cho continuously demands change by emphasizing digital transformation not only in personnel and technology but also in organizational culture and CEO leadership," adding, "In the relatively conservative financial sector, which is slow to respond to change, attention is focused on what results Chairman Cho will show as he emphasizes digital transformation efforts and communication at the group company level."

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