SEOUL, KOREA - In 2003, SK Telecom established a team exclusively for win-win growth for the first time in the domestic communication industry. This team has been making strenuous efforts to build systematic and concrete win-win partnerships. The name of the team has changed from the original Business Relation Team to the Win-Win Cooperation Team, a company spokesman said.
The company's activities for win-win growth are largely divided into three - a program to enhance competitiveness of business partners, creation of a win-win culture, and building of open cooperation relations. To promote the competitive power of its business partners, SK Telecom has been providing executives and staff members of its subcontractors with a variety of educational services to help them attain knowledge and technologies useful at the workplace since 2005.
Along with this, in 2006 SK Telecom opened SK Win-Win Academy for offline education to provide subcontractors with various educational opportunities such as win-win growth monthly seminars for CEOs, win-win growth MDP educational program for middle managers, and classes for new product planning, patent rights, and the development of creative power. In particular, it carried out 12-week win-win growth MBA programs in March and September to help executives and staff members of its subcontractors grow into next-generation leaders.
The MBA program consists of various programs necessary for corporate leaders including organizational culture, leadership, financial management, marketing, and information & communication technology (ICT) processes, the spokesman said. Up until last year, SK Telecom had offered a total of 661 educational programs to some 70,000 executives and staff members of its subcontractors.
Creation of a win-win culture
In addition, the company has placed its priority on the creation of a win-win culture. Related to this, it has been operating the purchase screening committee since 2008 to enhance transparency in signing a contract with subcontractors and deciding the price of their goods.
For the first time in the domestic communication industry, SK Telecom was selected as the leader of the telecom sector of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) for the fourth consecutive year through its sustainable ethics management activities, he said.
SK Telecom is also operating the BR Camp, in which some 500 officials of SK Telecom and its business partners attend every year to exchange information and technology.
In particular, in May it introduced a comprehensive support system for win-win growth, called the "WINC," for the first time in Korea to extend a cash-oriented settlement system to its second subcontractors, in addition to its first subcontractors.
Building of open cooperation relations
SK Telecom is also exerting all-out efforts to build open cooperation relations with its subcontractors. For instance, in June it opened the "T Open Lab," an open space where staff members of subcontractors and individual developers can engage in R&D projects freely with creative ideas without expense burden. In the T Open Lab, individuals and officials of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) propose various technology or business-related ideas both on and offline, whereas SK Telecom offers professional R&D manpower and consulting services to them, the spokesman said.
As a means of new win-win growth, meanwhile, SK Telecom is making a strong push for advancing into the global market with its business partners based on its firm win-win cooperation ecosystem. For instance, it has been actively supporting SMEs' participation in the Mobile World Congress, the world's biggest mobile communication exhibition, every year since 2010.
It extended such supports to Uangel, Telcoware and Feelingk in 2001 and CS and Ubivelox in 2011, he explained. Under the leadership of CEO Sung-min Ha, SK Telecom has been strengthening its challenges and innovation for a sustainable future growth to effectively cope with the rapidly changing ICT ecosystem, the spokesman added.
