Smart culture to rule way of doing business

He posts a few informative, insightful lines on Twitter in the early morning every day to more than 1,500 followers. He uses two smartphones.

Lee Hae-sun, president
of CJ O Shopping

By Cho Jae-hyon
Staff Reporter

He posts a few informative, insightful lines on Twitter in the early morning every day to more than 1,500 followers. He uses two smartphones.

He has some of his hair dyed yellow ― his trademark ― and looks chic in his suit. He sometimes strolls in blue jeans on Cheongdam-dong, a fashion and art street in southern Seoul, to get some new, young ideas.

Lee Hae-sun, president of CJ O Shopping, is obviously not a typical, bossy Korean CEO.

This soft-spoken CEO, staying up-to-date on marketing and IT trends, is very interested in the idea of "smart culture" these days.

One of gadgets he believes will help the company do business in a smarter way is the smartphone ― he let his company buy all of his 600 employees iPhones in April.

"With executives and employees playing with smartphones, they not only share information on applications, but exchange ideas each other. We can get a great deal of ideas especially from our customers," Lee said in a recent interview in his office. "I feel that the 'smart culture' inside our company has been leveled up."

Smartphones and social networking services are providing impetus for companies to renovate the way they do business, he said.

"If friends recommend, consumers buy. They call it 'connected consumption.' Plus, they mutually gain ideas and this is 'connected creativity.' I think these are two of the benefits of smart culture."

CJ O Shopping, formerly CJ Home Shopping, has its own application through which people can engage in mobile shopping.

"The 'O' in our company name means 'omnipresent.' Through our home-shopping application, we sell goods and introduce fashion. We also provide lifestyle information and even best sellers," he said. "We can show our customers our programs live through smartphones even on Jeju Island. This smartphone makes an omnipresent environment. It's a great weapon."

Payment settlement and other functions of these phones will drastically renovate retail industry and change customer behavior, he said.

Lee, dubbed a "marketing guru" or "idea bank," produced countless hit products when he was leading marketing divisions at CJ Cheiljedang, Binggrae, and Amore Pacific before joining CJ O Shopping in 2008.

"My experience tells me that the most important factor of business marketing is the 'way of doing business.' If we don't follow consumers, we will lag behind. To be smart or not, that is the question."

Lee said companies that will adopt smart culture will prosper and those who are ignorant of it will not.

"The way we do business should be changed. One-way channel is not a trend anymore. It's 'cross-channels'. Smartphones and social networking services are adding momentum to the trend," he said. "These days, not only Friday is TGIF. It's like seven days are TGIF ― short for twitter, Google, iPhone, and Facebook."

On top of strengthening smart mobile services, Lee is committed to expanding overseas operations and upgrading the structure of products.

He said his company will pursue non-Western globalization. "We need to expand in the Asian area to become global players. We are expanding our business in China and India. The pace of growth is very fast. Sales in China are doubling annually. We expect it to reach 1 trillion won this year."

One of product items he is incubating is "One Village, One Product." For example, a village raises high-quality ducks in an environment-friendly way and puts them on the company's home shopping channel.

"Chinese and Indians like these kinds of products. We are going to develop these products catering to hometown taste. This is global localization," he said.

Lee says he gets a great deal of insight from books and stresses the importance of taking notes.

He takes notes on his smartphones or small notebooks he carries whenever and wherever an idea comes across. And he reads two books a week on average and is an avid fan of several IT magazines.

"I carry three notebooks, I make notes whenever an idea comes across. When an idea occurs, I must write it down. Taking notes is very important," he said. "Some weeks ago, when I did some job interviews with applicants for our company, I took notes even when I was talking to them. This kind of one-point memo is very useful," he said, showing a sheet of paper full of memos. "I'm learning from everyone."

Lee joined Cheiljedang, a unit of Samsung Group, in 1982. He also worked for Binggrae, a food maker, and Amore Pacific, a leading cosmetics company, in the 1990s where he developed many hit brands. He returned to CJ at the end of 2008 as a vice president and was named CEO in February, 2009.

사업방식 지배하는 스마트 문화

CJ 오쇼핑 대표이사 이해선씨는 1,500여명의 팔로워가 있는 트위터에 유익하고 통찰력있는 글을 매일 아침 올린다. 그가 염색한 머리는 그의 트레이드 마크가 되었고 정장을 입을 땐 시크해 보인다. 가끔 서울 패션 거리인 청담동에 청바지를 입고 새로운 아이디어를 구상하기 위해 거닌다.

이씨는 그냥 봐도 보통이 아니다. 그는 항상 유행하는 마케팅과 IT에는 따라가며 스마트 문화에 굉장히 흥미를 느낀다.

그가 더 스마트하게 회사에서 사업을 하기 위한 도구 하나가 스마트 폰이다. 그는 4월 회사원 600명 전원에게 아이폰을 회사에서 사게 한 적이 있다. 그는 스마트폰이 회사원들끼리 정보를 공유하는데 좋고 또한 소비자의 의견을 즉시 들을 수 있다고 말했다.

그는 스마트폰만 아니라 해외진출에 대한 의견도 틀렸다. 이 대표는 서구로 가는 방향보다 이제 세계를 따라 갈려면 아시아로 뻗어야 된다고 믿어 인도와 중국으로 사업을 확장시켰다.

또한 그는 책을 읽으며 자신의 스마트 폰이나 작은 수첩에 아이디어가 떠오를 때마다 적는다. 이 대표는 작은 수첩을 세 개나 가지고 다닌다.