Coupang continues to face turbulence as it works to contain a massive personal data leak. The parent company, Coupang Inc in the United States, signaled it would take the lead, but the mood inside and outside Coupang remains unsettled. Internally, staff are closely watching public opinion on Chair Bom Kim's responsibility and on compensation plans.
According to the related industry on the 11th, Coupang recently entered an emergency management mode across the company after the data leak occurred. Top executives have been holding emergency meetings daily to discuss countermeasures. Working-level departments are refraining from unnecessary external contact, and year-end dinners and gatherings that were scheduled have been canceled one after another.
The previous day, Park Dae-jun, who oversaw Coupang's Korea business, stepped down, and Harold Rogers, chief administrative officer (CAO) and head of legal at parent company Coupang Inc, was appointed acting CEO. Rogers plans to arrive in Korea soon and respond to requests to attend a National Assembly hearing on the 17th of this month.
Rogers, a lawyer who graduated from Harvard Law School, is one of Chair Bom Kim's closest aides. While it is seen as the parent company and Kim's confidants moving assertively to manage the fallout, criticism continues inside and outside Coupang over Kim's role and response.
Coupang's official position is that it does not know Kim's whereabouts, but Kim is known to have been briefed and aware of the situation from the early stages. Because only a limited number of people communicate directly with Kim or the headquarters, even working-level staff are expressing frustration.
Hwang Yong-sik, a professor of business administration at Sejong University, said, "Given domestic sentiment, it would have helped quell the situation more if Kim had come forward with a sincere apology than Park Dae-jun resigning," adding, "It is a typical foreign way of thinking and is far from how general domestic corporations manage crises."
In Korea, when a corporate crisis occurs, it is generally considered the basic playbook for the company to acknowledge responsibility and for the actual owner to give a public explanation or apology. The subsequent steps are to announce plans to manage the situation and measures to prevent a recurrence, and to promise reasonable compensation to victims.
Some observers say that, because Rogers—known as a legal expert—was appointed, the company is likely to focus on legal responses such as the imposition of a penalty surcharge going forward. They also say it will be difficult to prepare compensation plans for consumers or civil groups and measures to prevent a recurrence in a short period.
A corporate crisis management expert who requested anonymity said, "Because the punitive damages systems in the United States and Europe are well established, they are likely trying a legal approach first in Korea," adding, "This decision does not sufficiently consider public sentiment, and there may be internal disagreement causing confusion."
The expert added, "A compensation plan may also be prepared once detailed investigation results come out and a legal conclusion on liability is reached," and, "It is hard to say which approach is right, but if it were a domestic corporation, it likely would have responded by saying it would discuss compensation or improvements on an ethical level regardless of the investigation or probe results."