GS chairman says group needs to make changes

GS Group Chairman Huh Chang-soo said at the company’s strategy meeting over the weekend in Chuncheon, Gangwon, that GS should come up with innovative ways to keep it functioning for 100 years to come.

The GS CEO Strategy Meeting focused on sustainable growth, using other long-lasting companies as examples that GS could follow.

“We should accept the sober reality that everything will die out unless it constantly changes,” Huh said.

The chairman’s remarks were related to the management and financial difficulties that GS faces, even a decade after it separated from LG Group.

GS Group posted operating loss of 71 billion won in the second quarter due to sluggish business at its affiliate GS Caltex.

GS Retail, one of its main affiliates, is also having a hard time expanding its convenience store business, as the government has instituted policies focused on protecting small mom-and-pop stores.

“The management environment is constantly shifting, as customers’ needs change rapidly and new business models emerge,” Huh said.

“In order for GS Group to become a leading company that will continue business for more than 100 years, we must predict the management environment and create business opportunities that will lead the market by fully utilizing the core knowledge that we have.”

The chairman emphasized changing GS’s corporate culture as a main factor for innovative management.

“Many long-life companies put continuous effort into establishing a healthy corporate culture along with a strong financial performance,” he said.

“It is important that we create a corporate culture that will encourage employees to express their creativity and promote teamwork based on openness and flexibility.”

The meeting was attended by 60 executives of GS Group including Vice Chairman Suh Kyung-suk, President and CEO of GS Retail Hur Seung-jo, Vice Chairman and CEO of GS Caltex Huh Jin-soo, Vice Chairman and CEO of GS Energy Rha Wan-bae and CEO of GS Engineering and Construction Hur Myung-soo.

BY KIM JUNG-YOON [kjy@joongang.co.kr]