Park Jung-ho, president of SK Telecom, announced an innovation plan for the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis, saying, "We will break all the old-fashioned formulas and speed up innovation from ICT to corporate culture."
Park made the remarks at a "non-face-to-face town hall" under the theme of "post corona" at Supex Hall in Euljiro's headquarters on June 3.
Only about 20 executives of SKT attended the site, while executives and employees of SK ICT Family participated in the T-phone group call, video call 'one another', PC and mobile streaming, and in-house broadcasting.
"Although we are calling for 'slow-down' as COVID-19 spreads around the world, ICT companies need to change faster than ever to overcome the crisis," CEO Park said. "It is time to break all of the old-fashioned formulas in all areas of business."
"We need to break away from the perspective of calculating competitiveness of mobile telecommunication by monthly sales and number of subscribers," he said. "We will create a new evaluation model that takes into account business characteristics in line with the digital era."
He also expressed his intention to change all new businesses that will be promoted in the future into AI and cloud-based ones. He stressed that even at the expense of immediate losses, new ICT products must be opened to more companies to create new opportunities.
He also proposed the creation of a "junior board" consisting of 2030 employees under the service committee led by Park. The proposal is to listen to the opinions of young employees, who are digital generations, before launching new services through the junior board.
"Consumers in the service are in their 20s or 30s," he said. "Not all decisions are made by the service committee, the junior board should experience it and decide."
He plans to pursue innovation throughout the organizational culture. Previously, SK Telecom was the first major company to introduce telecommuting in the face of COVID-19.
In order to innovate the way employees work, he said he would increase the number of base offices that go to work 10 to 20 minutes away from home instead of the headquarters.
It is expected that commuting time will increase employees' satisfaction with their work, and that it will naturally lead to discussions and new ideas by freely mixing them up regardless of department.
SK Telecom is planning to increase the number of its base offices currently operating in four locations - Seodaemun in Seoul, Bundang in Seongnam and Pangyo in Gyeonggi Province - to 10 in Songpa and Mapo in Seoul within this year.
SK Telecom announced that it will push for O2O marketing platform that connects advantages of online and offline distribution network, expansion of production of original contents, release of contact control solution, and differentiation of video commerce in order to make post-COVID-19 era an opportunity.
"In order to expand its business beyond the mobile telecommunication sector to ICT as a whole, cooperation with major domestic and foreign companies is essential," Park said. "In these circumstances, we must be strong on our own before we can take the lead in change."
