[New Year's Message] Dongchul Lee, President of KB Kookmin Card, "Let's Prepare for a New Decade with Innovation and Challenge"

The Next 10 Years: A Critical Time to Break Stereotypes and Surpass Industry Limits

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki Ha-young] Lee Dong-cheol, CEO of KB Kookmin Card, urged continuous innovation and challenge, asking to create a new decade for KB Kookmin Card.

In his New Year's address on the 1st, CEO Lee said, "The upcoming new decade will be a critical time to engage in a do-or-die battle due to advances in science and technology and the market entry of new competitors such as big tech," emphasizing, "We must break fixed ideas and transcend the limits of the industry to embed true customer value and happiness within the essence of growth, not just simple external growth."

He then presented four management goals to make this year a foundation-laying year to widen the gap with numerous competitors: ▲ Strengthening core business competitiveness to solidify profit and growth foundations ▲ Playing a leading role in building KB Financial Group's 'Number One Financial Platform' ▲ Accelerating organizational operation and work style transformation for rapid digitalization implementation ▲ Expanding the foundation for sustainable management through customer-centric management and establishment of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG).

First, to strengthen core business competitiveness and solidify profit and growth foundations, he emphasized that a solid core business is essential for a successful transition to future finance.

To this end, they plan to find growth solutions by providing differentiated customer experiences through business refinement in payment and card finance areas. Representative examples include hyper-personalized marketing and advanced customer management systems, and creating new customer experiences based on innovation in customers, products, and channels.

Additionally, they plan to build a balanced profit portfolio by advancing business models in new business sectors such as processing agency services and global markets. For this, they will stabilize and realize full-scale profits in newly entered regions like Thailand and Indonesia, maintain profit growth by expanding processing agency service customers, and diversify installment finance businesses for used cars such as leasing and long-term rental cars, thereby solidifying profit and growth foundations.

Regarding the construction of KB Financial Group's number one financial platform, based on achievements such as the launch of KB Pay, upgrades to Liiv Mate, and preliminary approval for the MyData business, he emphasized that the card company must play a leading role in evolving into a comprehensive financial platform expandable from remittance and payment to customized personal asset management by developing various digital technology capabilities such as cloud, open API, and authentication solutions.

Also, to accelerate organizational operation and work style transformation for rapid digitalization implementation, they plan to evolve into an organization that executes speedily and persistently in organization and work style to present differentiated customer value unique to KB Kookmin Card suitable for the digital era.

Finally, regarding expanding the foundation for sustainable management through customer-centric management and ESG establishment, CEO Lee urged focusing more on customers, keeping in mind that "the more we communicate with customers, the clearer and easier it becomes to decide what needs to be done."

Quoting from the Analects, "If you do not advance, you will retreat," CEO Lee said, "If we continue relentless innovation and challenges, we can become a more beloved and successful company than now," emphasizing, "Let us steadfastly and unwaveringly, like a white ox, create the new decade of KB Kookmin Card together."

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