Chey Tae-won, chairman of SK Group, addresses U.S. officials and partners during SK Night event in Washington., D.C., Sept. 21, 2022. Courtesy of SK Group

By Baek Byung-yeul

Chey Tae-won, chairman of SK Group, delivered a New Year's message to his employees, urging them to address climate change and other issues affecting the world, the group said Sunday. SK said Chey sent the message via email to every employee of the group.

"Companies that are able to present solutions to problems such as climate change, disease and poverty will be favored by people in the future," Chey wrote in his message.

He also expressed his gratitude to employees who faced numerous challenges last year due to changes in both internal and external business environments.

"Relationships are now important to companies and how many 'real fans' support me and what network I belong to are my values," he said adding that the competitiveness of a company will be decided by the size, depth and trust of its relationships with others.

To expand the relational scope, the chairman emphasized the importance of having proper data. "We need to look back on how much we know about our stakeholders and think about what to do based on that data," he said.

Stressing that the most important task for him is "the happiness of the employees," Chey vowed the group "will continue to create a system that will increase opportunities to approach the members and develop happiness together and reflect the voices of the members in management in the New Year."

Doosan Group Chairman Park Jeong-won, left, and Hyosung Group Chairman Cho Hyun-joon

Other chaebol owners also delivered their New Year's messages. Park Jeong-won, chairman of Doosan Group, urged employees to be more active in the face of many challenges the group will face this year.

"We expect a tougher business environment, but let's be confident because we are well prepared in order to take presence in future high growth potential businesses," he said adding "we should be more active and raise challenges."

Hyosung Group Chairman Cho Hyun-joon said, "We need to go beyond listening to customer's voices and move on to customer immersion management" to better understand the needs of the group's customers this year.