[K Population Strategy] 'Talent First' CJ CheilJedang... Female CEO is 'Uncharted Territory'

CJ CheilJedang Leads Domestic Companies in Recruitment and Organizational Culture
From New Graduate Hiring to Addressing as '○○-nim', the First
Expansion of Female and Young Executive Advancement

CJ CheilJedang, which started in 1953 as Cheil Jedang Industrial Co., Ltd., began as a comprehensive food company producing sugar and flour and is the founding company of the CJ Group, encompassing four major businesses: food, biotechnology, distribution, and entertainment. Building on the founding philosophy of the late Chairman Lee Byung-chul, the company's management philosophy for over 70 years has been 'Talent First (人才第一).' It attracted industry attention by introducing several pioneering systems in Korea based on principles of fair personnel management and performance-based definite rewards.

CJ Talent Institute [Photo by CJ]

A representative example is the open recruitment (public hiring) first attempted by a Korean company. In 1957, when recruitment based on regional or school ties was common, CheilJedang implemented open recruitment for new employees in its food and textile/trade divisions with the aim of selecting talented individuals regardless of academic or regional connections. Over 2,000 applicants applied, and after written tests (English, essay, general knowledge) and interviews, 27 candidates were selected. The process included three months of on-the-job training, starting with tasks such as carrying sugar bags and learning various workplace duties. This became a model for many companies' recruitment processes.

CheilJedang was also the first private company to establish promotion criteria. In 1966, it set promotion and advancement regulations for Grade 4 employees, equivalent to junior staff. In the 1960s, it was the first in the food industry to change the 12-hour two-shift system, which was considered standard, to an 8-hour three-shift system.

After 10 companies under CheilJedang separated from Samsung Group in 1997 and started anew as CJ Group, experimentation continued. In 1999, with the aim of building a young and future-oriented organizational culture, CJ Group was the first large Korean company to introduce a dress code relaxation policy. The following year, it changed the way employees were addressed by replacing all job titles with the suffix 'nim' after their names, a first in Korea.

CJ CheilJedang, the first major domestic company to implement a casual dress code in 1999, shows employees leaving the company lobby in casual attire.
[Photo by CJ CheilJedang]

Additionally, in 2012, the group introduced the 'Fast Track' system, allowing employees to become executives within 10 years of joining. From 2022, the six executive ranks?President, Senior Executive Vice President, Executive Vice President, Vice President, Managing Director, and Deputy Managing Director?were unified into a single rank called 'Management Leader.' CJ was the first among major companies to operate executives below the president level under a single rank.

Earlier, CJ Group Chairman Lee Jae-hyun declared, "Anyone can become a leader regardless of age, tenure, or rank if they have the capability and will, and especially, I will create a culture where the new generation can break the mold and freely take on new challenges." Reflecting this, the personnel system was changed so that those who deliver results and have broader responsibilities receive greater rewards and can be appointed to key positions such as division heads or CEOs regardless of seniority.

Since the implementation of these systems, the proportion of young employees and women in managerial positions has increased. According to CJ CheilJedang, the number of executives under 30 at domestic subsidiaries rose from 3 in 2021 to 10 last year, and executives aged 30 to 50 increased from 2,460 to 2,823. The proportion of women in managerial roles also rose from 17.1% to 21.4% during the same period. There are also steady cases of appointing 30s and 40s to management leader positions.

However, CJ CheilJedang has yet to have a female CEO. Even when expanding the scope to the entire group, female CEOs remain rare, with only a few, such as Kim Jung-ah, former CEO of CJ Entertainment who took the title in 2009, and Lee Sun-jung, CEO of CJ Olive Young, who became the youngest female CEO in the group in 2022. An industry insider said, "Except for some members of the owner family, it is very rare for food conglomerates to appoint female CEOs," but added, "As the food industry becomes increasingly trend-sensitive and collaboration with other industries becomes more active, there may be more cases of young leaders who stand out being given important roles."