Overcoming Crisis with '+α'... Shining Female Leadership in the Retail Industry

Focusing on Building +α Capabilities to Upgrade Core Business A to A+
Capturing Lifestyle Changes... Business Segmentation and New Business Expansion
Performance Savior Based on 'Obsession with Customers'

Female leaders in the distribution industry have been gaining attention in the first half of this year. Those who have taken on the role of heads of their companies are maximizing business capabilities by finding the ‘plus alpha’ details in core businesses, while also leveraging changes in customer lifestyles to segment businesses and expand new ventures. They have introduced informal communication methods to improve organizational efficiency and are standing out in performance improvement based on an ‘obsession with customers.’

Focus on Performance and Target Strengthening... The Mission to Find the ‘One Edge’

In the first half of this year, female CEOs in the distribution industry are devoted to applying the plus alpha of ‘making what they do well even better’ to their companies’ core businesses.

Stabil Eun Ahn, who became co-CEO of 11st at the beginning of the year, is known as one of the best communicators in the industry. At the end of last month, CEO Ahn declared that she would send a monthly ‘CEO letter’ to share customer-centric growth strategies, stating, “No matter how many times we have opportunities to empathize with the company’s direction and exchange opinions, it is never enough.” She has also conducted several workshops for executives and managers, emphasizing an obsession with customers as the first principle of 11st’s leadership. To expand customer experience, she launched new vertical services one after another: Fresh Bapsang (fresh food direct delivery) in February, Ualuxe (luxury goods specialty store) in March, and Republic (refurbished goods specialty store) in April, achieving results. Fresh Bapsang and Ualuxe saw a 33% and 32% increase in purchasing members respectively compared to their launch month in April, and Republic exceeded its goal of listing about 1,500 refurbished products by the end of the year within the first month of launch. Recently, she introduced a method that breaks away from formal work reports and allows one leader to focus solely on one goal without concurrent roles to achieve efficient objectives, gaining internal support.

Lee Sun-jung, born in 1977, who became the first female CEO of CJ Olive Young and the youngest CEO within CJ Group last October, is focusing on expanding Olive Young’s lifestyle business this year. A representative example is ‘W Care,’ launched in November last year. This business focuses on women’s wellness, providing menstrual cycle alerts and customized product recommendations by period to female customers in their 20s and 30s, increasing app visit frequency and strengthening customer loyalty. Leveraging her product planning experience, she is strengthening clean beauty and actively expanding the inner beauty market that pursues inner health and beauty. Thanks to these business activities, Olive Young’s sales in the first quarter of this year recorded 829.1 billion KRW, a 42.3% increase compared to the same period last year.

Kim Hye-joo, who became head of Lotte Members at the end of last year, declared this year as the ‘first year of digital transformation for Lotte Members.’ Utilizing her experience in data analysis across finance, manufacturing, and telecommunications, she proposed ‘integrated membership redesign to strengthen L.Point service competitiveness’ and ‘data-driven new business promotion’ in the first half of this year. This reflects the intention to diversify the business portfolio, which previously relied on membership service fees, into data-driven businesses and to establish a sustainable business system that can adapt to market conditions and external environmental changes. In February, Kim established the Platform Business Division and Loyalty Marketing Division through a regular organizational restructuring and plans to focus Lotte Members’ capabilities on Lotte Group’s data assetization.

First Titles and Savior Roles Amid Performance Decline

In the beauty and food industries, those who started with titles such as ‘first female CEO’ have taken on the heavy responsibility of leading performance improvements despite worsening internal and external management environments. The leading figure is Lee Jung-ae, CEO of LG Household & Health Care. Appointed as LG Group’s first female CEO in last year’s year-end personnel reshuffle, she faced challenging circumstances including the global economic downturn after COVID-19 and China’s lockdowns. CEO Lee is seeking breakthroughs through organizational renewal and strategies to reshape the global market. Since the 2nd of this month, she has accepted voluntary retirements for the first time in the company’s history, targeting employees aged 50 or older in division head or team leader positions with over 7 years in division head roles or over 10 years in team leader roles. To reduce dependence on China, she is strengthening business capabilities in North America, the world’s largest beauty market, while diversifying overseas business into Europe, the Middle East & Africa, ASEAN, and Japan. As a result, North American sales in the first quarter of this year increased by 21% year-on-year to 136.1 billion KRW.

Lee Joo-yeon, CEO of BR Korea, a subsidiary of SPC Group operating Baskin Robbins and Dunkin, was appointed in February as the first female CEO of a major food company. BR Korea recorded its highest-ever operating profit of 79.2 billion KRW in 2021, but last year operating profit fell 57.2% year-on-year to 33.9 billion KRW due to inflation and rising raw material costs. CEO Lee has presented a strategy to secure new growth engines through data- and loyalty-based customer marketing by enhancing product quality and competitiveness and maximizing the company’s strengths in collaborations with various industries such as character licensing. She also plans to strengthen a family-friendly corporate culture by encouraging employees’ parental leave and flexible working hours this year.

Song Mi-sun, CEO of Hana Tour, is known as the first female CEO in the major travel industry. A consulting expert from Boston Consulting Group (BCG), she became head of Hana Tour in 2020, served as co-CEO, and has led the company as sole CEO since the end of last year. Hana Tour returned to profitability in the first quarter of this year with an operating profit of 5.6 billion KRW, marking a turnaround after three years and six months since the third quarter of 2019, emerging from the COVID-19 darkness. The restructuring measures taken after CEO Song’s appointment, including withdrawal from hotel and duty-free businesses and selling the headquarters building to secure liquidity, are evaluated to have been effective. Additionally, the introduction of the premium package product ‘Hana Pack 2.0,’ which avoids unnecessary additional costs such as shopping and guide expenses, and strengthening online channels have drawn positive consumer responses.

Professor Seo Yong-gu of Sookmyung Women’s University’s Department of Business Administration said, “Female CEOs generally manage risks better than male CEOs and do not engage in so-called ‘all-in’ investments in specific sectors.” He added, “In times like now, when the business environment is highly uncertain, crisis response is crucial, so these strengths are well suited.” He also noted, “Women’s purchasing power in the consumer market is growing, and female CEOs, who have a comparative advantage in empathy, should have more opportunities to advance in the front lines of management, including the distribution industry.”

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