"Companies Only Make Money? Let's Change the System to Solve Social Issues"

Chairman Chey Tae-won of the Korea Chamber of Commerce Holds Press Conference
Reiterates Corporate Role in Solving Social Issues
"Companies Should Not Just Be Expected to Be Good, But Encouraged to Profit from Doing Good"

Choi Tae-won, Chairman of SK Group and Chairman of the Korea Foundation for Advanced Studies, delivered an encouragement speech at the overseas study scholarship certificate awarding ceremony held on the 7th at the Grand Walkerhill Hotel in Gwangjin-gu, Seoul. [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Dae-yeol] "Companies solve problems efficiently. However, until now, efficient organizations have only been used to make money. If there is an incentive for these types of companies and organizations to solve problems other than money, we could use these organizations to address social issues as well, and if (companies) gain assets or are newly valued, the role of companies could also change." (Choi Tae-won, Chairman of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, December 22 press briefing)

Chairman Choi's remarks reflect the recognition that the role of companies must also change according to the changing times. While the dictionary definition that companies exist for profit will not change, if companies are assigned different roles in the process of achieving their goals than in the past, it could also help solve social problems.

Capitalism developed largely because profit-seeking was prioritized, but conversely, this has led to various social problems such as environmental and climate change issues and wealth disparity. The discussion of post-capitalism in the West has emerged decades ago because there is a consensus that a system that only assigns traditional roles to companies is unsustainable.

Chairman Chey Tae-won of SK Group is taking a video with his mobile phone of a rescue drone capable of extinguishing fires at disaster sites at the Hyundai Motor booth during the '2021 Hydrogen Mobility+ Show' held last September at KINTEX in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province.
Photo by Kang Jin-hyung, Goyang aymsdream@

Emphasizing the Reorganization of Corporate Roles According to Changing Times
Directly Engaging in Communication to Alleviate Anti-Corporate Sentiment

This is also a principle that Chairman Choi, the head of the third-largest corporate group in Korea and leader of the country's largest economic organization, frequently emphasizes. To summarize roughly, it is about creating a foundation where doing good for a better society can also be profitable.

At the briefing on the 22nd, he said, "For capitalism to develop and grow, it is important whether something is created through this capital, but since capital has only been used to make money, other problems have arisen," adding, "If the system changes to provide incentives for companies to solve social problems, the role of companies could change tremendously."

From the perspective of individual companies, there is fear of sanctions if they fail to meet certain standards on issues such as ESG (environment, social, governance) management, carbon neutrality, and the Serious Accident Punishment Act. This inevitably acts as a burden, but Chairman Choi emphasized that our society must actively create incentives that make compliance beneficial. This is not only the role of the National Assembly or government, which handle legislation, but also a matter for the media representing society and the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry as a corporate organization to consider together.

He said, "Companies do not only create economic value," adding, "Clearly, social value is created within companies, but currently, they are focused only on creating economic value and try to create social value as a byproduct." He continued, "If the system changes to a sustainable model, companies might be able to do well in both or at least one of these," and added, "Capitalism has grown through many mistakes, but problems still exist, and we need to think more about solving these problems."

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