"New Future, Not an Extension of the Past" Shin Dong-bin, Lotte Chairman, Calls for Bold Innovation

Lotte held an ESG management declaration ceremony at the '2021 Second Half Lotte VCM' held at Lotte World Tower in Songpa-gu, Seoul on the 1st. From left: Lee Young-gu, Head of Lotte Group Food BU; Lee Dong-woo, CEO of Lotte Holdings; Song Yong-deok, CEO of Lotte Holdings; Shin Dong-bin, Chairman of Lotte; Kang Hee-tae, Head of Distribution BU; Kim Kyo-hyun, Head of Chemical BU; and Lee Bong-cheol, Head of Hotel & Service BU, are posing for a commemorative photo. Photo by Lotte Holdings.

At the Second Half-Year Executive Meeting (VCM) on the 1st,
Emphasized Proposing New Lifestyles to Customers and Finding Answers On-Site
"Securing Key Talent Determines Business Success or Failure; We Must Create an Organizational Culture That Does Not Fear Failure"
Avoid Showy ESG Management... Urged Accurate Understanding and Execution

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Yuri] Shin Dong-bin, Chairman of Lotte Group, urged boldly discarding past successes and adopting a proactive and enterprising attitude to achieve goals.

At the second half VCM (Value Creation Meeting) held on the 1st, Chairman Shin stated, "The new future is not a continuation of the past," calling for future-oriented investments and bold innovation.

Chairman Shin said, "Although performance is improving, I believe that I and the CEOs must take the lead even more in driving change and innovation." He emphasized the advancement of the group’s business portfolio, urging, "Make efforts to discover new businesses and strengthen the competitiveness of core businesses, and prioritize high value-added businesses over quantitatively significant ones."

Chairman Shin highlighted the importance of the CEO role, ordering ▲ active investment from a future perspective ▲ securing key talent and establishing a fair personnel system ▲ innovating organizational culture to maintain competitiveness in a changing environment.

He said, "CEOs are responsible not only for the present but also for the future of the company," adding, "It is necessary to reflect on whether investments in facilities, research and development (R&D), branding, IT, and other areas to secure long-term competitiveness have been neglected."

He also emphasized creating customer value through on-site management. He asked whether they are directly listening to customer voices, using products and services to carry out improvement activities, and how much they communicate with on-site employees, stating, "We must propose new lifestyles to customers by developing meaningful products and services." He continued, "Please remember that the answers can always be found from the customer's perspective, on the site where customers are."

He further said, "Securing and nurturing key talent is the most important mission of CEOs," and urged creating a company that key talent wants to join. Chairman Shin stated, "In the current situation where past success methods are of no help, the success or failure of our business depends on securing key talent who can think creatively and carry out tasks." He added, "What is worse than failure is hiding failure, and worse than that is doing nothing and thus having no failure at all," promising, "We will change the personnel system so that those who actively challenge themselves can be highly evaluated even if they fail."

Regarding ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) management, he also discouraged 'showy' approaches and emphasized that awareness must be changed from CEOs to all employees so that ESG factors can be applied to all decision-making processes. He urged each company to establish directions and actively implement them.

Chairman Shin stressed, "ESG management must be built on the foundation of financial soundness, and there must be no misunderstandings about the basic concept of ESG management, such as neglecting performance, or activities that cause doubts about its sincerity."

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