CJ Chairman Lee Jae-hyun is explaining the 2023 mid-term vision to employees through the company broadcast on the morning of the 3rd. CJ announced a growth strategy centered on the four future growth engines (C.P.W.S.) and is promoting organizational culture and personnel innovation to foster top talent.
[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] Lee Jae-hyun, Chairman of CJ Group, unveiled the mid-term vision for the 'third leap' on the 3rd. The core of the mid-term vision, centered on the four growth engines of 'Culture, Platform, Wellness, and Sustainability,' is digital expansion based on artificial intelligence (AI). The plan is to invest nearly half of the total 10 trillion won investment over three years, approximately 4.3 trillion won, in digital transformation to strengthen future innovative growth.
Over 10 Trillion Won Investment by 2023
CJ will accelerate the global and digital expansion of existing businesses centered on culture and platform. Additionally, CJ plans to promote future innovative growth through new businesses based on ESG (Environment, Social, Governance), reflecting CJ's philosophy of wellness and sustainability ? that is, well-being for all, fairness, prohibition of power abuse, and mutual growth.
To support innovative growth centered on the four engines, CJ will invest more than 10 trillion won in total by 2023. In particular, it plans to invest a total of 4.3 trillion won over three years in intangible assets such as brands, future-oriented innovative technologies, AI and big data, and talent acquisition, as well as AI-centered digital transformation. This move aligns with the trend of corporate investments shifting from tangible facilities to intangible assets. More than 5 trillion won will also be invested over three years in existing businesses such as research and development (R&D), logistics infrastructure, and content. This is the largest scale of investment in history.
Four Growth Engines: Culture, Platform, Wellness, Sustainability
Among the four growth engines, CJ has identified the globalization of content provided by CJ as a key task in the culture sector. CJ CheilJedang will focus on nurturing global strategic products such as dumplings, chicken, and K-sauces centered on the global Korean food brand ‘Bibigo.’ CJ ENM’s entertainment division is promoting the establishment of genre-specialized multi-studios following Studio Dragon, aiming to target the global market based on this foundation.
In the platform sector, CJ will accelerate customer-centric management based on data and focus on expanding its digital territory. The strategy is to foster a super platform that builds CJ’s unique ecosystem in the long term. The online video service (OTT) ‘TVING’ aims to surpass 8 million subscribers by 2023 and will strengthen original content competitiveness in partnership with companies such as Naver and JTBC. It also plans to expand services to key countries in Asia and the Americas to continue the ‘K-content’ wave.
CJ Logistics plans to strengthen its position as a ‘core partner’ in the domestic e-commerce industry based on its technological capabilities. Based on logistics technology represented by TES (Technology, Engineering, Systems & Solutions), it will expand fulfillment services and lead the new last-mile delivery (LMD) market. Additionally, CJ ENM’s commerce division will enhance live commerce capabilities to evolve into a vertical lifestyle platform, and CJ Olive Young will solidify its status as a global K-beauty specialized platform.
Building on the strengthening of CJ CheilJedang’s existing health functional food business portfolio, the wellness business will also expand. Recently acquiring the microbiome company ‘ChunLab,’ CJ CheilJedang is pushing into the bio contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) sector and expanding red bio focused on therapeutics. In the sustainability sector, fostering new businesses based on innovative technologies such as eco-friendly materials, new materials, and future foods is key. CJ CheilJedang plans to complete and start full-scale production this year at its dedicated marine biodegradable plastic (PHA) plant in Indonesia. It also plans global investments to secure technology in alternative and cultured meat fields.
Organizational Culture Innovation for Developing Top Talent
CJ is undertaking human resources and organizational innovation to provide a ‘self-directed immersion’ environment where talent is selected regardless of age, tenure, or rank, and employees can design their own working time and career paths. This organizational culture innovation is a part that Chairman Lee emphasized as “the core that makes everything possible is talent.”
Major CJ affiliates have already partially introduced hub offices and telecommuting systems to create a work environment based on employee autonomy, and plan to expand these across the group for employees to utilize. Beyond simple flexible working hours, the working time system will be expanded to a selective working hours system where employees design their daily working hours as long as they meet the ‘minimum working hours per day or week’ principle, considering job characteristics.
CJ is also pushing for institutional improvements to change the criteria for talent selection from seniority to ability and will. ‘Job posting’ and ‘project/TF contest systems’ will be implemented to allow employees to challenge various businesses within the group without restrictions on affiliated companies or job roles. Furthermore, independent organizations such as CIC and in-house ventures will be activated to provide opportunities for members to take on new business challenges.
On this day, CJ presented the management slogan reflecting future- and talent-centered growth direction as ‘Creating a New Future Together, LIVE NEW.’ Chairman Lee stated, “Our new goal is to always make our daily lives healthy and enjoyable, make the lives of people worldwide interesting and beautiful, and make the Earth sustainable.”
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
