SK Group has been committed to creating an ecosystem of social enterprises for almost 10 years in Korea.SK Group has been thinking that the social contribution form of simple donation has a limit. Tae-Won Chey, the chairman of SK Group, mentioned that a social enterprise can create much larger value against the investment cost than traditional social contribution such as donations. Additionally, he stated that revitalization of social enterprises is his lifetime task.

In effect, SK Group established 16 social enterprises including ‘Happy School’, ‘Happy Library’ and ‘Happy New Life’, and this has created employment of about 1,000 people.Although social enterprises have some good effects, they are exposed to some limitations. They are caught in a vicious circle that if there are no talented individuals then there is no investment, and that it could discourage people from participating.

Recently, Chairman Chey published ‘New directions, Social Enterprise’ and Social Progress Credit (SPC), which is an incentive provided to social enterprises in proportion to the social problem it focuses on. This was first suggested in his book. If social enterprises invite investments, SPC helps those companies with assets, and this would increase the possibility of developing more social enterprises.SK concentrates on creating an ecosystem of social enterprises by training talented people.

SK Group has been in partnership with KAIST and established the Social Entrepreneurship MBA (SE-MBA) program last year. The major purpose of the SE-MBA program is to train innovative social entrepreneurs in social value creation and to solve social problems. Chairman Chey said that although unemployment of young people is a serious social problem, profit-making enterprises alone cannot solve this problem. He also mentioned that if young people with a challenging sprit become involved in social enterprises, they will make great breakthroughs.

Reporter Youngju Kim

Press: www.munhwa.co.kr

Link: http://www.munhwa.com/news/view.html?no=2014102001032227097003