Homeplus, New CEO Lee Je-hoon Officially Inaugurated... First Move Focuses on 'Field and Employees'

Lee Je-hoon, the new president of Homeplus (right), is arriving at the Homeplus Special Mokdong branch in Yangcheon-gu, Seoul on the 10th to listen to on-site feedback.

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Chun-han] Homeplus announced that newly appointed CEO Lee Jae-hoon officially took office on the 10th. His first move was to focus on the field and the people (employees). Instead of starting his first day at the head office office, he chose to begin his work by visiting store sites and directly meeting store employees to hear their voices from the field.

On the day of his inauguration, Lee postponed the ceremony by one day and visited the Homeplus Special Mokdong store, the first Homeplus Special warehouse-style discount store in Seoul and the only large-scale Homeplus store in the Seoul area with a female store manager. This is the first time a newly appointed CEO at Homeplus has visited the field before his own office on the first day. To avoid causing inconvenience to store staff such as excessive protocol or major cleaning when news of his visit spread, he made a surprise visit to the Mokdong store without prior notice.

Lee said, “Today is my first day at work, and when I made eye contact and greeted the people here in the field, I could feel deep pride and affection for the store in the sparkling eyes of the employees.” He added, “Gathering that passionate energy to take on meaningful challenges together, I believe we can build a strong company that can win against any competition.” He continued, “The heroes of the Homeplus success story, which once led the Korean retail industry, were the employees,” and added, “I will take the lead in listening to and collecting ideas that come from your experiences and concerns.”

Lee also explained his vision and management plans for Homeplus to the employees. He presented a vision to ▲revive offline competitiveness by continuously creating reasons for customers to visit Homeplus, ▲strengthen the online business to create the most preferred shopping environment for customers, ▲build a company supported by customers through ESG management fulfilling corporate social responsibility, and ▲make Homeplus a happy company where employees, the first customers of Homeplus, are happy.

Lee said, “The foundation that made Homeplus a powerhouse in retail and the core competitiveness that determines its new future lies in the field, the point of contact with customers.” He added, “From now on, I will constantly ask myself and all of you whether what we are doing is truly for the customers and the field, look through the customers’ eyes, act accordingly, and find answers from the customers’ perspective.”

Meanwhile, Lee’s inauguration ceremony is scheduled to be held in a simple manner on the 11th. It will be an ‘untact inauguration ceremony’ where Lee will briefly record his inauguration remarks on video from his office and send it to employees via email.