Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin announced the group’s New Year message for the first time, a departure from the precedent of Lotte Group founder and Chairman-in-command Shin Kyuk-ho’s doing so. Lotte Group Chairman Shin stressed innovation of the group’s corporate culture through management based on transparency and law-abidingness.
In the message released on Jan. 3, Chairman Shin said, “Amid the sagging national and global economies, our group’s dispute over management rights has caused further trouble. We badly need to go for changes and innovation based on thorough soul-searching this year.”
Chairman Shin wants breaking outmoded practices to be the foremost task to address during the year. He told his executives and staff members to discard the conventional way of thinking, and to forego systems and business strategies that do not yield to changes of the times, and to make preparations for anticipatorily responses to change.
“Today, barriers among businesses are breaking down, with unexpected multidisciplinary convergence having tremendous synergetic effects. We have to explore new opportunities with an open mind and keep a flexible way of thinking, as firms in different businesses, not those in the same businesses, could emerge as our rivals,” he said.
Chairman Shin repeated his emphasis on management based on transparency and law-abidingness. “Securing management transparency and law-abiding management are core values that Lotte should cherish,” said Shin, adding the group will redouble efforts to enhance its corporate values through sound management activities and devote itself to being reborn as a company honored by the people. He also called for his executive and staff members to take a humble attitude of innovating a corporate culture, lending an ear to inside and outside voices, and not fearing change.
Next year will be a significant year for Lotte, which will mark the 50th anniversary of its founding, said Chairman Shin, adding that 2016 will be an important year for the group’s preparations for another half-century. “The new history of Lotte will be on the shoulders of Lotte executives and staff members now,” he said. Shin added that he expected them to keep moving forward with the hope and expectations toward a bright future.
Lotte Group dates back to founder Shin’s establishment of Lotte Confectionery in Korea, with 30 million won in capital in 1967 two years after Korea normalized diplomatic ties with Japan.
In the first interview with a vernacular daily since the eruption of a family management feud, Chairman Shin reaffirmed his group’s stressing of management based on transparency, law-abidingness and human resources development. “I understand that we have managed to keep our management rights intact despite the family management feud that occurred last year thanks to governance.” In this regard, he added that his group will appoint one to two outside directors to each of the group’s unlisted subsidiaries.
Chairman Shin is focused on the completion of the ongoing tasks rather than starting new tasks. “If and when the 123-story Lotte World Tower is to be dedicated later this year, we have to pay more attention to financial soundness,” he said.
Regarding Lotte’s losing a license to operate a duty-free outlet at the World Tower, he was critical of the government’s easy-going attitude of issuing a duty-free license with a limited lifespan of five years.
Shin said Korea is a major player in the world in duty-free business, and Korea has a competitive edge. He said, “We’ve made efforts and invested for 25 years to achieve what it is. When the Lotte World Tower is open, some 90 percent of tourists visiting Korea will come to Jamsil like the Taipei 101 sky-scrapper, and the tower has no duty-free shop, it is out of the question, he added.
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Shown here is the 123-story Lotte World Tower, now under construction in Jamsil, Seoul. The skyscraper, which will emerge as a magnet for luring foreign tourists as Taipei 101 skyscraper does, is to be dedicated in late 2016.
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