■ The Korea Entrepreneurship Foundation announced a research analysis on SK Innovation’s points for its innovative growth as the company celebrates its 60th foundation anniversary

– Through the late Chairman Chey Jong-hyon’s “Big Picture,” and Chairman Chey Tae-won’s “Deep Change,” SK Innovation has grown from an oil refiner into a global green energy leader

■ President of the foundation Lee Choon-woo, Ph.D., said, “The DNA of innovation is embedded into SK Innovation… It will serve a great role for the company to evolve into a ‘Green Energy & Materials Company’ and achieve Net Zero”

SK Innovation was analyzed to have made a leap forward from a domestic oil refiner to a global green energy leader through two innovations, “Big Picture” and “Deep Change.” This is the result of an analysis on SK Innovation’s competitiveness by a group of distinguished domestic professors as the company celebrates the 60th anniversary of its foundation.

The Korea Entrepreneurship Foundation* held an academic symposium on the topic of “SK Innovation’s innovation and growth story” in SK Building, Seoul, South Korea on the 30^th. The foundation announced its analysis results on how SK Innovation has evolved into a “Green Energy & Materials Company” today by classifying its points for innovative growth into two sections, “Big Picture” and “Deep Change,” and selecting 10 innovation themes related to the points.

(*) Korea Entrepreneurship Foundation: Founded in November 2019, the foundation conducts academic research on theories, on-site business matters, systems, and policies related to entrepreneurship with an aim to promulgate and promote this spirit to the socio-economic sector through active exchanges among members, cooperation between government, industry, and academia, and education on it to make Korea a nation filled with enterprising businesspeople.

The key research results emphasize that Yukong, the starting point of SK Innovation, met SK through the acquisition by **Sunkyong and grew as a comprehensive energy company under the first innovation, the “Big Picture,” and for preemptive response to a new management environment, the company has developed into a global green energy leader through the second innovation, the “Deep Change.”

(**) **Sunkyong: previous name of SK Group

The Korea Entrepreneurship Foundation analyzed that the late Chairman Chey Jong-hyon’s foresight, the “Big Picture,” enabled Yukong, which was just a domestic oil refiner at that time, to grow into SK Innovation, a comprehensive energy company. After acquiring Yukong under the “Big Picture” of “From oil to textiles,” SK clearly knew that running an oil refinery business only would face a limitation in its growth. Therefore, it undertook and completed vertical integration of its value chain. Furthermore, the company established an institute of technology, the first among oil refiners, to secure R&D capabilities and continuously expand its business areas, such as the lube base oil business.

The foundation also pointed out that Chairman Chey Tae-won’s “Deep Change,” which aims for sustainable growth, has transformed SK Innovation to become a leader of the global green energy industry in the age of ESG management. The foundation assesses that the “Deep Change” innovation has led SK Innovation to diversify its business portfolio in non-oil-refinery businesses, such as batteries and materials, but also emphasize ESG management, which has made a foothold for SK Innovation to grow into a global green energy company focusing on electrification and circular economy.

President of the Korea Entrepreneurship Foundation Lee Choon-woo, Ph.D., analyzed, “SK Innovation’s DNA of innovation that the late Chairman Chey Jong-hyon emphasized has come into the completion stage under the leadership of Chairman Chey Tae-won.” He added, “The DNA of innovation is embedded into SK Innovation, and it will serve a crucial role for the company in evolving into a ‘Green Energy & Materials Company,’ the company’s ultimate goal, and achieve Net Zero.”

On the other hand, the Korea Entrepreneurship Foundation sorted “SK Innovation’s 60-year of innovative growth” into two criteria, points – “Big Picture” and “Deep Change,” – and periods – ▲ the time before “SK’s acquisition of Yukong,” ▲ the time after “SK’s acquisition of Yukong,” and ▲ business expansion and ESG promotion period. According to these two criteria, the foundation selected 10 specific innovation themes, and professors in the corresponding fields conducted research and analysis for the past 4 months.

The themes corresponding to the “Big Picture,” ▲ the time before “SK’s acquisition of Yukong,” and ▲the time after “SK’s acquisition of Yukong,” are: (1) Sunkyong’s entry into the oil business, (2) the project to turn the country without any resources to become an oil-producing country, and (3) Big Picture technique for the petrochemical business. The themes for the “Deep Change” and ▲ business expansion and ESG promotion period are (4) Sinopec-SK Petrochemical, the largest Korea-China economic cooperation, (5) Korea’s first battery company, (6) lube base oil business, (7) establishment of the growth foundation through gas and bio-energy, (8) ESG leader (advanced governance structure), (9) innovative labor and management culture, and (10) Financial Story management technique.

Lim Su-kil, Head of SK Innovation’s Value Creation Center, commented: “SK Innovation has received objective evaluations and recognition from the outside for its ceaseless growth through major innovations such as ‘Big Picture’ and ‘Deep Change’.” “Based on this, we will actively promote future growth through the development of an eco-friendly portfolio based on differentiated technologies,” he added.

[Photos]

(Photo 1) The professors of the Korea Entrepreneurship Foundation are having a discussion session after the presentation in the morning.

(Photo 2) Lee Choon-woo, President of the Korea Entrepreneurship Foundation, is giving an overview of SK Innovation’s innovative growth.