"When we saw the factory with nothing left but ashes, everyone said it was over. Is anything easy in life? Management was always the same. But I never hesitated in front of opportunity." (Chey Jong-gun, SK Group founding chair)
"Do not fear a crisis. If you are an entrepreneur, you must always look 10 years ahead. The principles and standards within us—keep them, and keep rewriting them." (the late chair Chey Jong-hyun of SK Group)
SK Group is using artificial intelligence (AI) to recreate the words and achievements of its two founding-generation leaders who laid the group's foundation and share them with all members. Based on the founders' experiences and words, the aim is to reflect on the spirit of "boldness" and "challenge" and to continue growth even amid today's rapidly changing management environment.
SK Group said on the 14th that starting on the 13th, it has been screening a five-minute AI-produced video featuring messages from founding chair Chey Jong-gun (1926–1973) and the late chair Chey Jong-hyun (1929–1998) to members on the first-floor media wall (electronic billboard) of the SK Seorin Building in Jongno District, Seoul. The video is also broadcast internally, allowing any SK Group member to watch it.
The video begins with the two founding-generation chairs rebuilding Sunkyong Textile, which was reduced to ashes by the Korean War, in 1953, and is structured to reflect on SK Group's growth. The founding chair Chey recounts the history of growth that followed from the 1958 decision to produce nylon to the success of the Rooster-brand lining and the acquisition of the Walkerhill Hotel, saying, "My belief is that if it can be done, it must be done, and if you do it, it will be done."
After the founding chair Chey's passing in 1973, his younger brother, the late chair Chey Jong-hyun, who continued management, said, "I vowed to make Sunkyong a world-class corporation," and he reflects on deciding and achieving vertical integration "from oil to fiber," while also conveying the message to "prepare, plan, and challenge relentlessly."
The late chair Chey, saying "If you are an entrepreneur, you must look 10 years ahead," also recalls in the video the process that led to the decision to enter the "mobile telecommunications business," which became the foundation of SK Group's information and communication technology (ICT) capabilities today. In 1994, SK Group won the bid to acquire Korea Mobile Telecommunications in a public tender for privatization by offering a price four times the market value, laying the groundwork that continues today as SK Telecom and SK hynix.
At the end of the video is the commemorative address by SK Group chair Chey Tae-won on the 2022 foundation anniversary, saying, "With the intensity and noble spirit we inherited from the two, and with our solid underlying strength, let's write a new history of another great leap forward."
This AI video was created at the suggestion of chair Chey Tae-won, who said, "It would be good to use AI to share with members the DNA of boldness and intellect that the founding generation of SK Group preserved." The video was also screened at the Memorial Day event held on the 8th at Seonhyewon in Jongno District, Seoul, marking the 73rd anniversary of SK Group's foundation.
An SK Group official said, "This is the moment when the group's growth history—from founding to oil, mobile telecommunications, and semiconductors—connects to AI," adding, "We expect the original mindset and message of 'boldness' and 'intellect,' the legacy of the founding generation, to become a compass and wisdom amid a rapidly changing management environment."