Chey Tae-won, chairman of SK Group, said, "Only when we do operation improvement (O/I) well can we stack artificial intelligence (AI) on top of it," and added, "Through this process, we will be able to solve the problems we have wrestled with, one by one."
According to SK Group on the 9th, Chairman Chey stated accordingly in the closing speech of the "2025 CEO Seminar," held at the SKMS Research Institute in Icheon, Gyeonggi, on the 6th–8th.
The CEO Seminar, along with the June management strategy meeting and the August Icheon Forum, is one of SK Group's three major annual events. Chairman Chey, SK SUPEX Council chair Choi Chang-won, Senior Vice Chairman Choi Jae-won of SK, and other owner family members, as well as each affiliate's chief executive officers (CEOs), all gather to discuss business themes that cut across the entire group.
At the meeting, more than 60 participants—including Chairman Chey, Senior Vice Chairman Choi, the SK SUPEX Council chair, CEOs, and executives—agreed to further strengthen fundamental competitiveness by continuing to push O/I.
Chey emphasized, "O/I may sound difficult, but it is about getting the basics right," adding, "To do O/I, it is not important that the company and business have 'built good' processes (procedures), but rather it is more important to consistently check whether they actually work well."
He added, "If a company pursues an AI transition without a basic foundation, that is no different from courting failure," and noted, "There is a need to reexamine the processes of the past 5–10 years to avoid repeating mistakes."
Chey also stressed the importance of thoroughly building "domain knowledge," meaning the specialized knowledge and experience accumulated in one's core business. He said, "If you introduce only AI without domain knowledge, things will not work out," adding, "You need to be equipped with domain knowledge to seize the initiative in the AI race."
Participants also agreed that they must change the essence of the business to suit the AI era through structural reorganization. Along with this, there was heated debate on business strategies for the AI era, directions for a successful AI transition, and ways to strengthen AI-based business models by company.
The CEOs decided to strengthen the group's overall AI execution by sharing and reviewing AI achievements and tasks by member company and to seek collaboration synergies. Through this, they plan to proactively secure the initiative in the coming AI era based on memory semiconductors and AI data centers. Chey suggested that in the AI era, while keeping the memory semiconductor business as the mainstay, the group should evolve into a business that can provide comprehensive and diverse solutions.
Chey said, "SK must evolve beyond supplying high-performance memory semiconductor products to become a business that provides customers with the most efficient solutions based on AI infrastructure such as AI data centers." He then proposed, "Let's pool the capabilities of member companies and, through open alliances with partners, play the role of a primer for the development of Korea's AI ecosystem."
At this seminar, discussions also continued on ways to strengthen capabilities in safety, health and environment (SHE), information security, and compliance management to reinforce the company's fundamentals and principles. Management reviewed key tasks to enhance group-level competitiveness in safety, health and environment and decided to seek ways to strengthen execution.
An SK official said, "SK Group will fundamentally reexamine and elevate the business's intrinsic competitiveness through O/I, beyond stabilizing the financial structure," adding, "Through this, we will respond successfully and swiftly even in the great AI transition and strive to contribute continuously to the national economy and stakeholders."