Chair Chey Tae-won diagnosed the complex problems arising from the deepening of capitalism and emphasized the importance of measuring and managing social value to solve them at the "Tokyo Forum 2025," held at Yasuda Auditorium at the University of Tokyo in Japan for two days starting on the 21st.
Chey Tae-won, chair of SK Group and chair of the board of the Chey Institute for Advanced Studies, said at the "Tokyo Forum 2025" held in Tokyo, Japan, that "in today's capitalism, we face various social problems such as environmental issues and social polarization, and we need a new framework of capitalism that measures and manages the social value gained by solving them."
The Tokyo Forum is an international forum co-hosted annually since 2019 by the Chey Institute for Advanced Studies and the University of Tokyo to address global issues such as rapid technological development and geopolitical instability. This year, under the theme "Rethinking capitalism: Varieties, contradictions, and futures," experts from various countries are gathering to hold discussions.
Chey said, "Traditional capitalism focused only on the financial aspect and offered little in the way of rewards or incentives for social value." Social value means going beyond simply generating economic profit to contribute to solving social problems and enhancing the happiness of diverse stakeholders.
Emphasizing the importance of social value for sustainable growth, Chey stressed the need to measure and manage social value. Chey noted, "Social value is not easy to measure, so the optimal allocation of resources to create social value has not been achieved," and said that technological changes such as artificial intelligence (AI) could be an important turning point. Chey emphasized, "Measuring social value required many transaction expenses and had many limitations such as a lack of data," adding, "Now, with digital technology and AI as very good tools that facilitate measurement, problem-solving is possible."
Chey said, "Once systematic measurement and evaluation of social value become possible, we can allocate resources differently and create incentives to change behavior." Chey called this the "new capitalism" and explained that when capitalism comes to include social value as well as financial value, it could create a much better structure for a sustainable future.
As an example of quantifying social value, Chey also introduced SK's "social value measurement" conducted at the affiliate level. Chey said, "At SK, we evaluate various items such as job creation, tax payments, environmental impact, and community contribution for each affiliate as pluses and minuses," adding, "Once measurement begins, corporations' decision-making changes."
Chey said, "Now, corporations' key performance indicators (KPI) do not stop at creating financial value," adding, "The goal has become not only to avoid undermining social value at a minimum but to continuously increase it every year." Chey said, "This change is bringing fundamental shifts to corporations' criteria for resource allocation, moving from a focus on financial performance to a direction that considers social value as well."
Chey also joined as a panelist in the "Business leader session" held the same day. In the session titled "Exploring sustainable models of capitalism for a new era," Chey discussed with University of Tokyo President Fujii Teruo, Japan Association of Corporate Executives acting chair and Japan Tobacco Inc. board chair Iwai Mutsuo, and Newberry Global Chair Lee Han-ju about "collaborative capitalism," a model in which corporations, the government, and society solve social problems together while growing, and about practical solutions using AI and other tools.
At this Tokyo Forum, experts from academia and the economy, including Chair Chey Tae-won; Kim Yu-seok, CEO of the Chey Institute for Advanced Studies and CEO of the Korea Foundation for Advanced Studies; Marianne Bertrand, professor of economics at the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago in the United States; Kojima Fuhito, professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Tokyo; Kim Byung-yeon, chair professor in the Department of Economics at Seoul National University; Kim Sun-hyuk, professor in the Department of Public Administration at Korea University; and Hoshi Takeo, professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Tokyo, are participating to diagnose various social problems and seek sustainable solutions.