SK-GS-HHI leaders leave New Year messages to employees

With the year of 2022 coming up, leaders of major South Korean companies including SK Chairman Chey Tae-won, GS Chairman Huh Tae-soo and HHI Chairman Kwon Oh-gap shared their key messages to lead transformation amid the business environment with growing uncertainties.

SK Chairman Chey on Friday sent a mail titled “To the frontier of a new time” to all SK employees to greet the forthcoming year. Regarding the company’s future flagship businesses such as EV batteries, semiconductors and bio industries, Chey diagnosed that SK is right at the center of a global power struggle with a focus on core fields that can serve as national strategic assets, asking employees to make sure that they do not sit on their past experiences but take creative action based on strategic flexibility. “It is an inevitable job to reduce carbon emissions for our future,” the SK chairman said. “SK will lead low carbon eco-friendly fields based on an innovative business model. The fate of a business is to become a challenger not a champion.” He emphasized that members of SK Group will spend 2022 building the future based on a challenging spirit to become the frontier of a new time.

As a business management principle for the year 2022, Chairman Huh provided GS employees with a new vision of expansion of the business eco system in response to uncertainties in his New Year message. “Uncertainties are growing in the business environment due to the advent of COVID-19 variants, unstable international politics and inflation concerns,” the GS chairman said. “It matters to cooperate with various business partners to take a leap forward in ensuring future growth in a time of fast change and uncertainty.”

Year 2022 marks the 50th anniversary of HHI. Chairman Kwon said in his New Year message that the company’s keyword is value creation based on innovation. “The past 50 years were a time of challenges and growth,” he said. “The next 50 years that start just now will be defined by new values created based on innovation.” To lead the new era, he proposed to make innovations in four directions in business structure, thinking, technology and system.


Do-Young Kwak now@donga.com