South Korea’s retail and entertainment conglomerate CJ Group must tap deeper into the global market towards the goal of becoming a leader in the global culture and entertainment industry, CJ Group Chairman Lee Jae-hyun reiterated.

Lee, who had come back to the group’s helm a year ago after four years of absence due to imprisonment from criminal wrongdoings and treatment of his hereditary disease, urged employees to work harder to obtain capabilities that no rivals can match, at CJ Onlyone Conference on Wednesday in Seoul held to award high-performing employees.

“We have made steady efforts to take a great leap through restructuring and improving corporate culture and to find new growth engines to lead the global market,” said Lee, adding that he appreciated efforts and passion of the employees who have worked hard to achieve the meaningful accomplishment. He urged employees not to stop such hard work and it is time to focus to achieve its vision of Great CJ by 2020 and World Best CJ by 2030. The group has set a goal to rake in sales of 100 trillion won ($92.5 billion) by 2020 and become the global top in more than three business areas by 2030.

“We should become the `only one` global leader that no one can overtake,” said Lee, adding that each business should have unmatched competitive edge to meet the goal.

Over the past year under the leadership of Lee, CJ Group has accelerated group-wide restructuring and investment. Its food and bio affiliate CJ Cheiljedang Corp. streamlined four divisions into two - food and bio - and transferred CJ Logistics Corp. into its separate subsidiary after acquiring an additional stake in the logistics unit.

The group’s food service unit CJ Foodville Co. attracted investment from overseas to separate its café chain A Twosome Place into a stand-alone enterprise. Its TV home shopping unit CJ O Shopping and entertainment unit CJ E&M Corp. in July will merge under a new name CJ ENM that has an ambitious goal to become a global multimedia and commerce powerhouse comparable to Disney or Time Warner.

By Lee Yoon-jae and Choi Mira

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]