Kyobo Life Insurance Chairman Shin Chang-jae won the top CEO award at the awarding ceremony for the "2019 Korea Sustainability Conference" held at Lotte Hotel in central Seoul on Oct. 18.
Based on the stakeholder management, Chairman Shin led Kyobo Life to the top spot in the life insurance sector for the 10th consecutive year, and was named the first winner of the top CEO award.
The "Sustainable Management CEO Award" is an award given to CEO who has contributed to creating social values with outstanding leadership among those who have worked on sustainable management.
The Korean Standards Association (KSA) newly enacted it this year under the auspices of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy in order to promote the right entrepreneurial image.
The screening committee, which consists of experts and professors by area of sustainable management, praised Shin for leading the management based on corporate social responsibility (CSR) through "good growth" that has developed with stakeholders over the past two decades.
Chairman Shin is one of the flagship CEOs who have led the Korean insurance industry over the past two decades, and is the owner of a unique career that has turned from a medical professor to an insurance company manager.
Since taking office in 2000, Shin has embarked on sweeping management reforms to head-on the IMF foreign exchange crisis. At that time, his strategy to change thinking centered on suppliers (company) to buyers (customers) and focus on internal growth was unprecedented.
Shin corrected the company's wrong business practices and refined its business organization. He shifted its marketing strategy to medium and long-term guarantee insurance and focused on improving management efficiency and productivity that are centered on customers.
Kyobo Life Insurance, which recorded 250 billion won in losses when Shin took office, has transformed itself into a company that displays a net profit of 500 billion won to 600 billion won every year. The ratio of risk based capital (RBC) has improved to 352.6 percent (as of June 2019) and it gained the highest credit rating in the financial sector, including Moody's A1 and Fitch A+.
Kyobo Life Insurance's efforts in sustainable management are also receiving favorable reviews abroad. It was the first financial company to win the 2016 Transparent Management Award from the five economic organizations in 2016. In addition, it has achieved its seventh consecutive Consumer-Centered Management (CCM) certification.
At the ICSB (International Council of Small Business) forum held at the U.N. headquarters last year, Shin was the first Korean businessman to deliver a keynote speech under the theme "Sustainable Humanitarian Stakeholder Management." Citing President Lincoln's Gettysburg address, "Of the People, By the People, For the People," he expressed his belief that businesses should create humanistic values as well as economic values.
Meanwhile, Kyobo Life Insurance was selected as the top life insurer for the 10th consecutive year at the ceremony for the "Korea Sustainability Index," becoming the first financial company to receive the honor of being dedicated to the "Hall of Fame."
