SK Group’s Chairman Chey Tae-won, during his speech at the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) annual meeting, stressed the importance of upgrading measurements of social value creation in the governance of companies.
The World Economic Forum, established in 1971, is a non-profit foundation headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. The forum involves the foremost business, political, cultural, and other leaders of society to shape global, regional, and industry agendas.
This year’s panel session, with a theme of “Stakeholder Capitalism in the Asian Century,” was held at the Davos Congress Center, Switzerland.
Chey expressed his belief that the upgrade is not an option but instead an obligation. Companies should change the goals and systems of their corporate management from the interests of shareholders to those of stakeholders.
Comparing it to a company’s performance reflected in financial statements, Chey said firms should measure social values and enhance social performance based on objective and reliable measurement techniques.
He added that capitalism must seek to benefit not only shareholders but also customers, employees, suppliers, communities, and governments.
SK Group developed its standardized measurement model created by SK affiliates since 2018 and those created by social enterprises. The company also formed the not-for-profit Value Balancing Alliance in collaboration with the World Bank, Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, and other global companies to create measurement methods and measured social values that can be accepted worldwide.
He said that to understand social issues better, they should use artificial intelligence and big data, providing more optimized services to each customer. They should identify what the customers care about, thus resolving any social problems.
To display the activities that SK Group promoted for social value creation, the group fashioned the “SK Lounge” for the Davos 2020 Forum.
President and CEO of SK Hynix Lee Seok-hee, SK Telecom President Park Jung-ho, chief of Social Value Committee in SUPEX Council Lee Hyung-hee, and SK Innovation President Kim Jun, also participated in this year’s WEF.
