SK Group plans intensive restructuring to overcome crisis

[Photo by MK DB]

South Korea’s second-largest conglomerate SK Group will change the name of its key CEO meeting next month for the first time in a decade.

The decision comes amid intensive restructuring efforts to overcome the crisis, such as efforts to cut costs, operate a six-day work week for executives, reorganizing affiliates, and seeking mergers and acquisitions.

The efforts were initiated shortly after Chey Chang-won took office as the head of the SUPEX Council, SK Group’s highest advisory group, at the end of last year.

According to industry sources on Tuesday, SK Group will change the name of its Extended Management Meeting, which has been held for ten years since 2015, to Management Strategy Meeting.

Focus has been on this year’s Extended Management Meeting scheduled for next month as there have been numerous rumors about the conglomerate’s business reorganization scenarios.

“Given the symbolic meaning and implications of the Extended Management Meeting, renaming it signifies Chey’s intention to establish strategies from a completely new perspective,” said an SK official.

Furthermore, the name change suggests a focus on discussing more specific and detailed strategies rather than broad and macro-level topics.

Given the mounting talk within and outside the company about reorganizing affiliates and businesses, presenting a clear strategy can be seen as a way to build trust with employees.

There is also an observation that the upcoming meeting could be an opportunity to pause and reset the conglomerate’s direction, rather than to make major decisions, contrary to previous expectations that it would expedite the decision on rebalancing.

”The Extended Management Meeting used to be a place where decisions are made once a major management message is derived,” said an SK affiliate official. “The upcoming meeting, however, may serve as a steering wheel to check the current status of management, establish strategies, and set the direction for rebalancing until the major CEO meeting in the second half of the year.“