[Comprehensive] SKT Park Jung-ho Innovates Again... '3rd Year Employee' 32-Year-Old Manager Leads 'Geojem Office'

Request for Mission Change Ideas... Also Asked, "How About Timo?"

[Asia Economy Reporter Seulgina Jo] "I highly appreciate the choice of a path no one has taken before."

Park Jung-ho, CEO of SK Telecom, has once again chosen 'innovation.' He appointed a 32-year-old manager in his third year at the company as the team leader of a CEO-directly supervised organization to lead the 'hub office' work, where employees commute within 10 to 20 minutes from home. This decision was made based on the judgment that breaking the old formulas in line with changing times is necessary to produce better results.

32-Year-Old Manager Appointed as CEO-Direct Team Leader

According to SK Telecom on the 18th, CEO Park shared the vision and progress of the hub office business at a CEO town hall meeting held both online and offline the previous day. Park said, "I want to select personnel more aggressively. We are going to try this time," and personally introduced the project leader (team leader) responsible for expanding the hub office business.

The protagonist is Manager Yoon Tae-ha, born in 1988 (age 32). He was one of the applicants after CEO Park announced plans to expand the hub office in June. Park explained, "I was concerned that the experience of the new team leader, who is in his third year at the company, might be insufficient," but added, "I highly appreciated that he chose a path no one has taken before. I will appoint him as team leader."

Considering that the typical age for promotion to team leader at SK Telecom is after the 40s, this is an unprecedented and bold personnel move. SK Telecom has abolished the previous five-level rank system consisting of staff, assistant manager, manager, deputy general manager, and general manager, unifying titles into manager and team leader. Given that the team handling the hub office work is directly under the CEO, this is regarded as a 'personnel innovation.' Analysts interpret this as reflecting CEO Park’s intention to listen candidly to young employees’ opinions during the business process and support them to demonstrate their capabilities in the work they want to do.

Expansion of Hub Offices... Accelerating Group ESG Management

The hub office is a representative 'office-free' model gaining attention amid the non-face-to-face (untact) situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. It goes beyond the existing flexible work system by combining SK Telecom’s 5G smart office technology under the concept of 'Work Anywhere.'

SK Telecom plans to carry out the hub office expansion project in connection with the existing smart office division. In particular, CEO Park’s policy is not merely to provide office space but to make it the center of work innovation. Currently, SK Telecom operates hub offices in five locations: Euljiro, Seodaemun, Jongno in Seoul, and Pangyo and Bundang in Gyeonggi Province. The plan is to expand this to more than 10 locations in the future.

The hub office is also closely related to the 'ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) management' emphasized by SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won. Park stressed, "The hub office is a business that practices the ESG values, which are the group’s key agenda. If transportation issues are resolved through the hub office, carbon emissions can also be reduced."

He explained, "The hub office is not about building regional headquarters," adding, "We are looking at areas centered around where employees live." Candidate locations for additional openings include Gangnam, Songpa, Ilsan, Mapo, Yeongdeungpo, and Gwanak, which are known to have many SK Telecom employees residing there. In the Gyeonggi area, Goyang and Incheon are also candidates for hub offices.

Meanwhile, CEO Park also mentioned opinions on changing the company name that day. He suggested 'Timo' as a name idea he had considered, saying, "Telecom sounds too stiff. It came from T-Mobile." However, he added, "I heard there is already a game character named Timo," and asked employees to come up with various ideas.

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