Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin began the year with an address emphasizing “bold innovation and change” for survival in the face of difficult business conditions.

Shin called on Lotte to focus on improving its core capabilities and advantages by conducting operations focused on on-site supervision rather than depending on the group’s central control tower. 

He said that each of Lotte’s affiliates will have to create a strategy to prepare for coming “mega-trends” including the “4th industrial revolution based on new information technology such as artificial intelligence and virtual reality” as well as the erosion of borders between online and offline channels, and “changing demographics such as the low birth rate and aging (population).”

After a tumultuous year of raids by prosecutors and parliamentary hearings, Shin also said that Lotte would need to realize “law-abiding management based on a healthy corporate philosophy.” 

To be loved and respected by the Korean community, ethical management must be accompanied by corporate social responsibility making the company “grow together with society,” he said.

By Won Ho-jung (hjwon@heraldcorp.com)