From food to entertainment & media
CJ Group Chairman Lee Jay-hyun, right, speaks to new employees during a company orientation session. Every year, the chairman participates in the orientation and attends the “Only One Camp,” an annual orientation trip for new hires.Provided by the company
In August 1953, Samsung launched a sugar company named Cheiljedang. Cheiljedang in Korean means “the best sugar company,” with cheil meaning best and jedang meaning sugar company.
One of the first big business ventures by the Samsung Group, now Korea’s largest conglomerate, Cheiljedang blossomed, and in 1996, it separated from the group completely and renamed itself CJ, short for Cheiljedang.
Today CJ Cheiljedang is Korea’s leading food manufacturer. And though it’s still the No. 1 core business for the CJ Group, the group has grown in scale to include other lucrative subsidiaries, such as CJ Entertainment and CJ Home Shopping.
At present, it has 63 Korean subsidiaries under its wings, most of them focused on food, biotechnology, shopping and the entertainment industry (including its movie theater franchise, CJ CGV).
Although it started out with a modest 2.2 trillion won in sales in its first year after spinning off from Samsung, the CJ Group now stands as Korea’s 14th-biggest private conglomerate with estimated sales last year of around 12.4 trillion won ($8.2 billion).
And at the center of this business giant stand two men: chairmen Lee Jay-hyun and Sohn Kyung-shik.
Lee is the son of Lee Maeng-hee, Samsung group founder Lee Byung-chull’s eldest son. Lee Jay-hyun is the founder’s eldest grandson and the nephew of former Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee. Sohn is Lee Maeng-hee’s brother-in-law and thus Lee Jae-hyun’s uncle.
Sohn has a reputation as the “relief pitcher” at the group, giving Lee firm, steady support in times of crisis. He is one of the few people Lee goes to for unbiased advice on company operations.
He is also chairman of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry and visits CJ headquarters as often as two to three times a week.
Lee, 49, has guided the group with a decidedly novel style of business management. After CJ was spun off from the Samsung Group, Lee Jay-hyun, who started at Cheiljedang in 1985, jumped into company operations quickly.
Lee Jay-hyun (49)
CJ Group Chairman
Bachelor’s in law, Korea University
He stood out in many ways, as he was young and educated completely in Korea. (He graduated from Korea University with a bachelor’s in law.)
CJ’s innovative corporate culture is his doing. In 1999, Lee instituted a “casual dress” system by which employees can choose to wear semi-casual clothes to work (except when meeting clients). Also unique to CJ is their “nim” policy: All CJ employees call each other nim (a Korean honorific), liberating them from the complex web of seniority and position-based appellations common at other conglomerates.
With Lee’s efforts, CJ has become one of the top companies chosen by fresh college graduates every year. He is known for his casual, face-to-face interactions with employees, and he even goes hiking on Mount Namsan with them.
Along with Lee, his sister, Lee Mie-kyung, the group’s vice chairwoman, is the driving force behind CJ’s entertainment and media units. The entertainment and media division, with film producer and distributor CJ Entertainment at its core, takes in around 14.3 percent of the group’s sales. Although CJ Entertainment does not account for a large portion of the group’s earnings, the company is crucial to CJ’s efforts to branch out from food manufacturing.
Unlike other daughters of jaebeol families, who usually end up in charge of the group’s social welfare projects or art galleries, the vice chairwoman is hands-on in leading the group’s entertainment unit and is active in expanding overseas.
She first took an interest in film and media when she attended Harvard for a master’s degree in East Asian studies. In 1995, she became one of the main shareholders of U.S. film company DreamWorks SKG.
In 1998, Lee helped launch Korea’s biggest multiplex theater franchise, CJ CGV, together with media companies Golden Harvest, based in Hong Kong, and Village Roadshow Limited, based in Australia.
Ha Dae-joong, CEO of CJ Corp. and former head of CJ CGV, was appointed to his position early this year. He is known throughout the group as the “entertainment guru,” acknowledged for his accomplishments in opening the company’s first multiplex theater in Gwangjin District, Seoul in 1998.
Kim Jin-soo, CEO of CJ Cheiljedang, is one of the top marketing strategists at the group. He worked his way up through the ranks, beginning his career in 1977 in Cheiljedang’s marketing division. Kim is responsible for helping CJ Cheiljedang become the No. 1 company in the local seasoning powder industry. The Miwon brand by Daesang formerly had a monopoly on the industry, but CJ’s Dasida brand is now the firm leader with an 80-percent market share.
Although Kim left Cheiljedang to become the Korea branch head of S.C. Johnson, a global household cleaning supplies manufacturer, in 1996, he came back to CJ in 1999.
The CJ Group’s food and food services units make up around 44 percent of the group’s sales, with CJ Cheiljedang the leader with around 30 percent of the group’s sales. Along with sugar and flour products, the company sells locally beloved processed food brands including Dasida and Hatban brand cooked rice.
Sohn Kyung-shik (70)
CJ Group Chairman
Bachelor’s in law,Seoul National University
MBA, Oklahoma State University
The group’s food materials distribution business is handled by CJ Fresh Way, which is led by CEO Lee Chang-keun. He has been involved in the local food industry for over two decades and headed the overseas marketing division at local food company Pulmuone before coming to CJ.
Kang Seok-hee, CEO of CJ CGV, was recently appointed to this position after being CEO of CJ Media, the group’s broadcasting company. In his former position he was known for his efforts to differentiate CJ Media from other local broadcasting companies.
By Cho Jae-eun Staff Reporter [jainnie@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
To write comments, please log in to one of the accounts.
Standards Board Policy (0/250자)