The Words of the Elder Family
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The Words of the Elder Family |
...The first half of January is really crazy this year. It's as if we're trying to pack the whole year into a couple of weeks. This week, Kook Jin Nim is visiting the major companies overseen by the Tongil Foundation.
One Monday, for example, he spend the whole day at Ilwha. We started in the morning with an overview from the president of Ilhwa on the 2010 performance and plan for 2011. Then the head of each of the company's business divisions -- management support, pharmaceuticals, food and beverage, and overseas operations -- gave their reports.
After a lunch break at a nearby Outback Steakhouse, Kook Jin Nim began his interviews with management personnel. I lost count, but he must have done close to 20 interviews during the afternoon. It was close to 7:00 pm when we finally finished. A number of critical issues came out during the interviews, and Kook Jin Nim gave instructions on how he wanted the companies to deal with these.
Overall last year, the Tongil Group -- the group of companies managed by the Tongil Foundation -- did quite well. The number that Kook Jin Nim emphasizes most is operating income excluding the sale of tangible assets such as land and buildings. By that measure, the Group improved by about $7 million, taking it from a deficit in 2009 to surplus in 2010. In particular, Segye Ilbo reduced its 2009 deficit by more than 70 percent and seems to be on course to make positive operating income in 2012.
These are preliminary figures. The final figures will be available after our outside auditing firm KPMG gets done checking the numbers...