Chairmen Are Reading Newspapers

Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee Notices Even One Line-Long Articles-

The public relations team of the Samsung Group’s Restructuring Office sends newspaper clippings of 50 to 70 pages in A4 size every morning to Seunggiwon (a reception hall of Samsung Group) located in next to Lee’s house in Hannam-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul.

All Samsung Group-related articles, including even one line-long articles, must be included in the newspaper clippings. Members of the public relations team attach a Post-it on the articles on every page so that Chairman Lee can easily distinguish the size of an article and in what section of newspaper the article was reported.

Chairman Lee reads newspapers thoroughly. When the public relations team did not put an article of a daily newspaper that pointed out the faults of Samsung Electronics products by mistake into the newspaper clippings, Chairman Lee asked, “Why was the article not included in our newspaper clippings?”, which caused an emergency within the staff.

LG Group Chairman Koo Bon-moo is Quite Interested in Editorials and Columns-

Newspaper clippings made by the LG Group are not “off-line” types. After the public relations team of the LG Group selects major articles around at 8:00 a.m. every day and makes a newspaper clipping collection in the form of a PDF file, an image file in newspaper format, it sends the PDF file to about 10 major executives, including Chairman Koo and Vice Chairman Kang Yu-sik, through e-mail.

Economic policies, the current situation of the economic sector, LG-related articles, and editorials and columns are included in the PDF file.

According to Vice President Jeong Sang-guk in charge of LG Group’s public relations, “In particular, when Chairman Koo reads an editorial or column that predicts how the wind over the economy and social issues will blow, he recommends it for reading by senior management by saying, “The content of the column was quite good.”

Hyundai and Kia Motors Chairman Chung Mong-koo Immediately Asks Whenever He Wonders about Something-

Chairman Chung comes to his office at 6:30 a.m. at the latest every day. Staffs of the public relations team of Hyundai and Kia Motors come to their offices at 4:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. in order to prepare newspaper clippings for him by a rota system.

Whenever Chairman Chung wonders about something while reading a newspaper, he immediately asks the related department chiefs. For example, if he wonders about something while reading an article regarding a surge in exchange rate, he immediately orders them to report the reason why the exchange rate is skyrocketing and about measures against it.

SK Corporation Chairman Chey Tae-won Reads a Newspaper While Coming to His Office-

Chairman Chey reads two to three newspapers for 30 minutes while coming to the SK Corporation headquarters building in Seorin-dong, Jongno-gu from his house in Cheongam-dong Yongsan-gu, Seoul.

Chairman Chey stresses the need of “actively dealing with an article” that points out something different from the facts. According to SK Corporation General Director Kwon Oh-yong, “When Chairman Chey read a column in which a professor over-defended foreign capital, he suggested a meeting with the professor to explain the facts, pointing out that the professor’s thoughts were wrong.”

Hanwha Chairman Kim Seung-yeon and POSCO Chairman Lee Ku-taek Also Read Newspapers Carefully-

Right after Chairman Kim read an article during his overseas business trip in 2002 that pitcher Yoon Gyu-jin, who joined the Hanwha Eagles baseball team right after graduating from high school sent 10 million won out of 90 million of his signing money to Jin Jeong-pil, who worked as a coach of his alma mater (Daejeon High School) in order to support the treatment costs for Jin’s leukemia, he promised to pay all of the operation costs for Jin.

Chairman Lee reads newspapers intently. He tends to order measures to actively cope with wrong information. So, if a wrong article is reported in a newspaper, even though an official inquiry or official announcement is not asked for, POSCO often sends “an official announcement denying the news” to the stock market.