CJ Eliminates 'President and Executive Director' Titles... Consolidates Executive Ranks into Single 'Management Leader' Position

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] CJ will unify its six executive ranks?President, Executive Vice President, Vice President, Vice President Equivalent, Managing Director, and Managing Director Equivalent?into a single rank called ‘Management Leader’ starting next year.

CJ announced on the 23rd that the executive rank restructuring plan was approved by the holding company and each affiliate’s board of directors and will be applied to the current executive personnel appointments, taking effect from January next year.

The reason CJ is attempting this bold move to unify executive ranks is due to the urgent need to overcome the difficulty of fully leveraging talented individuals’ capabilities under the existing seniority- and rank-based system, which makes it hard to survive in global competition.

Among existing large conglomerates that did not start as ventures or startups, there have been cases of reducing executive ranks to two or three levels, but CJ is the first to operate all executives below the president level under a single rank.

The treatment, compensation, and positions of the single rank ‘Management Leader (Executive)’ will be determined solely based on roles and performance. Executives who deliver results and have broader responsibilities will receive greater rewards and be promoted to key positions more quickly. Regardless of tenure, this creates a foundation for early advancement to division head or CEO roles, establishing a system for early selection and development of capable leaders.

CJ pioneered corporate HR innovation by introducing the honorific ‘nim’ in 2000 to establish a horizontal communication culture and later, in 2012, implemented a ‘fast track’ system allowing employees to become executives within 10 years of joining.

With this change, CJ plans to use titles such as CEO, Division Head, Director, and Manager as external designations for executives starting next year. Internally, the ‘nim’ culture of addressing colleagues by name instead of rank will continue unchanged.

Until now, vehicles, office space, secretaries, and drivers were uniformly provided according to rank, but going forward, support will be based on position and role. Company cars, which were previously assigned by rank, will now be freely chosen within a set budget according to the nature of work and personal preference.

CJ will implement executive rank unification as a leading measure to improve talent development systems and will subsequently simplify the rank structures for general employees according to each affiliate’s circumstances.

CJ CheilJedang has reduced its employee ranks from seven levels to three?‘Associate-Specialist-Professional’?focused on members’ expertise, leadership, and roles, eliminating minimum service years required for promotion. CJ CGV and CJ Foodville also restructured their rank systems from seven to four levels to encourage rapid growth of young talent. CJ ENM and CJ Logistics plan to introduce simplified new rank systems starting next year.

CJ’s rank restructuring aims to respond agilely to rapidly changing industry trends and global competition. CJ sees the institutional foundation for realizing the ‘fair growth opportunities’ desired by the MZ generation?who will lead future growth?as reducing promotion steps and building a performance- and role-oriented HR and organizational culture.

A CJ representative said, “As the group’s workforce is becoming increasingly younger, HR systems and organizational culture need to be operated in ways that suit the characteristics of the members.” As of the end of 2021, the MZ generation (born after 1980) accounted for 75% of CJ Group’s workforce, up 10 percentage points from 65% in 2017, with the proportion of those born in the 1990s rising sharply by about 15 percentage points from 22.1% to 37.3%.

In early November, when CJ presented its innovation growth strategy centered on four future growth engines?C.P.W.S. (Culture, Platform, Wellness, Sustainability)?it also emphasized the importance of talent.

At that time, Chairman Lee Jae-hyun stated, “The most urgent and critical need is top talent and an innovative organizational culture,” adding, “Anyone can become a leader regardless of age, tenure, or rank if they have capability and willpower. In particular, we will create a culture where new generations can break the mold and freely take on new challenges.”

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