Vice Chairman Jeong Yong-Jin, is Shinsegae Group greetings like this?

In line with the SSG Landers KBO league’s combined victory, Shinsegae Group’s 19 affiliates recently held a ‘sweet sale’ at once. Starting with E-Mart, Shinsegae Department Store, Duty Free Shop, Starbucks, Chosun Hotel & Resort, E-Mart Everyday, E-Mart 24, SSG.com, W Concept, G Market, and Shinsegae Live Shorting were held as large-scale events both online and offline.

With the greatest discount ever, E-Mart was so crowded that it was said that the checkout line had circled the entire store. Yongjin Jeong, owner of SSG Landers and vice chairman of Shinsegae, is the largest shareholder with an 18.56% stake in E-Mart (as of September 30, 2022).

These subsidiaries have achieved successful results by carrying out various marketing campaigns using SSG Landers during the season. It was literally a ‘home run’ from the acquisition of the baseball team to the integrated championship and the parent company’s distribution marketing.

None of them were missing anything. But suddenly, the news of the voluntary resignation of SSG Landers baseball team leader 스포츠토토 Seon-gyu Ryu was delivered. From the days of SK Wyverns to SK, the predecessor of SK in 2001, there is no reason to voluntarily resign from general manager Seon-gyu Ryu, who has led SSG to leap to the top this year by going through key positions such as public relations, operation, and strategic planning. He was even more incomprehensible because he had only recently met with a reporter to talk about his expectations for the next season.

Owner Jeong Yong-jin appointed a new general manager as if he had waited. The newly appointed general manager Kim Seong-yong was recruited as the head of the R&D center of SSG Landers Futures (second team) in November of last year after serving as a high school baseball coach for 24 years. One year after joining the SSG club, the person who led the improvement of the skills of the 2nd team players sat in the general manager position that encompasses the entire club.

Is it possible for a company to do something like this? At least, it seems impossible for Shinsegae affiliates. Shinsegae Group used the best talent from the inside, and put forward a professional manager when recruiting from outside.

First of all, Chosun Hotel & Resort, Shinsegae DF (duty free shop), Shinsegae I&C (Starbucks), and Emart Everyday selected internal talent as leaders. Han Chae-yang, vice president and CEO of Chosun Hotels & Resorts, joined the Shinsegae Group in 2006 as a manager in the management support office and went through planning management and strategy offices before becoming CEO of Chosun Hotels & Resorts in 2019. Shinsegae DF CEO Shinsegae DF also started as managing director in Gwangju Shinsegae in 2012, went on to become the CEO in 2020 after going through Gangnam branch manager, strategy manager, and sales manager.

Son Jung-hyun, CEO of Shinsegae I&C, also stepped in as managing director in charge of Shinsegae I&C’s support in 2015, and was promoted to managing director and managing director in the IT division and has been working as CEO since 2020. Kim Seong-young, CEO of E-Mart Everyday, started in the Planning Office of Shinsegae Department Store in 1996 and was promoted repeatedly to the planning team manager, team leader, general manager, and assistant managing director. Leading Everyday.

Comparing this, it is in the same context as SSG Landers general manager Ryu Seon-gyu. It is a trend that prefers people who have a good understanding of the industry trend, are familiar with internal circumstances, and have achieved results.

Of course, there are cases where external personnel are recruited, such as the new general manager Kim Seong-yong. Kang Hee-seok, CEO of E-Mart and SSG.com, is a case in point. But if there is a difference, everyone has a reason to convince. CEO Kang Hee-seok graduated from the Department of Law at Seoul National University, passed the Public Administration High School Examination, and worked as a secretary at the Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries until 2005. In this process, he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School Graduate School of Business Administration, and then worked as a management consulting expert at Bain & Company Korea Inc for about 14 years before being hired as CEO of E-Mart in 2019.

In the case of the new general manager Kim Seong-yong, he has no experience in the professional baseball KBO league. He may have been a top-notch leader in baseball, but he’s far from worthy of being the general manager of the previous year’s professional baseball championship team. This is the reason why fans are fiercely protesting.

Would Jung Yong-jin, the owner, have signed such a greeting if he had been a Shinsegae Group company? Then, what kind of existence is a professional baseball team in the perception of owner Jeong Yong-jin?

The previously disbanded women’s basketball team, Shinsegae Cool Cat, might be a hint. The Shinsegae Coolcat Women’s Basketball Team was officially founded in 1998 when it acquired the Pacific Chemical Women’s Basketball Team in 1997. Just as SSG Landers recruited Choo Shin-soo, Shinsegae Coolcats recruited Korean women’s basketball legend Jeong Seon-min and immediately emerged as a championship candidate, and like SSG Landers, won the league championship in 1999, the year after its foundation. Since then, it has solidified its position as an emerging prestigious school.

However, after that, it started to decline, and since 2002, it has not advanced to the championship play once. In April 2012, the group announced the disbandment. It has been just two years since Jeong Yong-jin was appointed as vice chairman of the Shinsegae Group. At the time, a representative of the women’s basketball team confessed that they were notified of the disbandment through a single fax.

At the time, Shinsegae Coolcat explained the reason, saying, “I felt the limitations of running a league centered on the financial team.” Among the seven clubs in the Korean Professional Volleyball V-League men’s division, five clubs are financial teams: Hyundai Capital, Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance, KB Insurance, Woori Card, and OK Financial Group. Korean Air is the only airline, and Korea Electric Power is the only public company in the male division.

SSG Landers also had a similar initial move to Shinsegae Cool Cat. I will shout that it is different from that time, but if the controversy continues like the change of leader this time, a picture will be drawn of what future will unfold in the future.

According to Marketing is Survival (authors Jo Seo-hwan and Choo Seong-yeop), the reason why it is difficult to create a 100-year brand in Korea is because there is no leader’s philosophy on brand management, the lack of a brand portfolio, and eventually people. It remains to be seen whether SSG Landers will continue its path as a baseball team with history and tradition.