Lotte Instills 'Winning Spirit' to Overcome Crisis

Lotte Holds First Corporate Culture Committee Meeting This Year
Explores Ways to Internalize Employees' Winning Spirit
Establishes 488 Action Tasks Through Internal Diagnosis
Efforts to Expand Based on External Experts' Advice

Song Yong-deok, Vice Chairman of Lotte Holdings

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] Lotte is embarking on internalizing the Winning Spirit among its employees to overcome the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) crisis.

On the 12th, Lotte announced that it held the ‘2020 Lotte Corporate Culture Committee Regular Meeting’ at Lotte World Tower located in Jamsil, Seoul. Now in its fifth year, the Lotte Corporate Culture Committee was attended by 12 internal and external members, including co-chairmen Lotte Holdings Vice Chairman Song Yong-deok and Seoul National University Professor Lee Kyung-mook, as well as various external experts and internal executives.

The meeting, held for the first time this year amid the COVID-19 crisis, was organized to seek advice from external experts on ways to instill the Winning Spirit in employees. Lotte focused on fostering the Winning Spirit among employees as a way to overcome difficulties and cope with unprecedented changes.

The Winning Spirit refers to the will of all employees to empathize with the company’s unique values and to maximize their individual capabilities to achieve the best results. At the ‘2020 First Half LOTTE VCM (Value Creation Meeting)’ held last January, Lotte Chairman Shin Dong-bin emphasized that a Winning Culture must be established within the organization to proactively respond to change.

Since March, the Lotte Corporate Culture Committee has conducted an organizational culture diagnosis targeting about 1,600 Lotte employees to analyze factors influencing voluntary performance-creating behaviors among members in order to spread the Winning Spirit within the company.

Based on this, in April, Lotte established the ‘Winning Rules,’ mandatory guidelines for employees tailored to each affiliate’s situation, and set up 488 practical tasks such as ‘introduction of Winning Coaching evaluation items,’ ‘operation of project-based cross-cell organizations,’ and ‘establishment of a Small Success reward system,’ which are being implemented by each affiliate.

External committee members attending the meeting agreed on the necessity of the Winning Spirit and offered diverse opinions on activation measures along with a clear diagnosis of Lotte’s current situation.

Yeo Jong-seok, Chairman of the Community Chest of Korea, advised that “voluntary participation of members is essential for establishing the Winning Spirit, and education for this is important.” Lee Bok-sil, Chairwoman of the Korea Branch of the International Women Directors Association, emphasized respect for the diversity of members, while Song Jae-hee, Chairman of the Korea Small and Medium Venture Trade Association, stressed the need to reform the evaluation system so that it becomes a virtue all members should uphold at the highest level.

Professor Kim Dong-won of Korea University advised regarding the direction of pursuing the Winning Spirit, “It is necessary to induce behavioral changes in employees to become a company that coexists (Win-Win) with partner companies and is loved by customers and society.” Professor Lee Kyung-mook of Seoul National University stated, “It is necessary for all members to set their own goals so that behaviors determining victory or defeat can be activated, and for the company to motivate them by supporting the environment and systems.”

Lotte plans to actively promote the internalization of the Winning Spirit among all employees so that it can be fully rooted as a corporate culture by reflecting the advice of external committee members. To this end, Lotte will strengthen promotion and education for employees and continuously monitor the progress of practical tasks to induce behavioral changes among employees.

Song Yong-deok, Vice Chairman of Lotte Holdings, said, “We will develop the Winning Spirit, which embodies the will to voluntarily set and achieve goals by forming a consensus with employees,” adding, “Based on this, we will strive to become a globally competitive company loved by customers.”

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