"The Era of Great Transformation, Challenge and Act" ... New Year's Motto of Distribution Industry Leaders

Amid the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic and the digital transformation, retail leaders unanimously called for bold challenges and execution for innovation as the key theme for the new year 2022. Both Shin Dong-bin, Chairman of Lotte Group, and Chung Yong-jin, Vice Chairman of Shinsegae Group, referenced ice hockey player Wayne Gretzky's quote, "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take," urging their employees not to fear failure and to persistently practice even if they fail.

"Learn from failure and keep challenging"

In his New Year's address on the 3rd, Shin Dong-bin, Chairman of Lotte Group, said, "Although uncertainty continues, it is now time to create a foundation for a greater leap beyond business normalization." Quoting Wayne Gretzky's famous saying, he added, "Failure is a trace of having tried something, and I hope a creative challenge culture that does not fear failure will be established."

To this end, he called for openness that warmly embraces any talent. Chairman Shin emphasized, "In a converged environment, a thorough performance-oriented culture must be established so that the best talents can demonstrate their capabilities regardless of seniority, gender, regional ties, or educational background," adding, "Diversity is our competitiveness and will be the source of energy for challenges."

He also stressed that fast and accurate execution must accompany new challenges. He explained that the recent personnel changes, which abolished the Business Unit (BU) system and introduced the Headquarters (HQ) system, were intended to speed up decision-making and strengthen execution. He further promised future-oriented investments and the practice of ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) activities, saying, "Investment must go hand in hand for employees' courageous challenges to succeed."

Declaring the inaugural year of 'Digital Pivoting' with offline as an axis

Chung Yong-jin, Vice Chairman of Shinsegae Group, called for 'digital pivoting,' preparing and creating future businesses based on digital as one axis, while using offline capabilities and assets as another axis to become winners in the 'digital transformation era.'

He said, "As things that were only possible offline are shifting to digital, we must now run to the digital time and space where customers are," proposing the establishment of the 'Shinsegae Universe,' where all aspects of customers' online and offline daily lives can be resolved at Shinsegae.

Vice Chairman Chung also emphasized the need to strengthen 'data-driven decision-making' capabilities, saying, "The era of doing business based solely on intuition and feelings is over. We must gather customer data and experiences to serve as the basis for decision-making." To build such capabilities, he added, "We must nurture excellent internal talents and actively accept external talents with strengths we lack, along with their cultures, embracing diversity."

Since even the best plans are useless without action, he also urged, "Even if you fail, keep practicing consistently."

Core values for the new year: 'Discovery' and 'Connection'

Chung Ji-sun, Chairman of Hyundai Department Store Group, said, "Let us write the growth story contained in 'Vision 2030' together through efforts of 'discovery,' creating and finding new values that meet customers' changed demands, and 'connection,' increasing the sum of values through internal and external cooperation." Last year, marking its 50th anniversary, Hyundai Department Store Group presented Vision 2030 as a future blueprint, aiming to grow sales to the 40 trillion won level by 2030 through new investments, mergers and acquisitions, and new business ventures.

He mentioned, "With the expansion of Big Blur, where boundaries between industries and business types are fading, the industrial paradigm is rapidly changing. The consumption trend changes led by the MZ generation (Millennials + Generation Z), combined with the pandemic, have made constant uncertainty even more certain." He continued, "Rather than shooting precisely at the same target, growth opportunities can be created when efforts accumulate to shoot at targets no one has seen before," urging efforts to find the changed demands of new consumer agents.

Chairman Chung particularly quoted Peter Drucker, known as the founder of modern management, who said, "Plans are just good intentions unless immediately followed by hard work," and reiterated, "This year, let us quickly read changes, seize growth opportunities, and actively execute."

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