Though products made in Korea may rank four or five on a scale from one to five, the nation’s corporate social-responsibility would only rank at about two, said Lee Seung-han, president of U.N. Global Compact Korea.

“Most companies are still at the level of making simple donations. It should be, however, more strategically approached, considering the character and strong points of the company. Companies need to broaden their vision but narrow the focus,” Lee told The Korea Herald on Tuesday.

“The way of doing things should change as well; airing TV advertisements that say, ‘Let’s make a warm society’ with the company’s logo on the bottom, are very expensive. Such money should instead be used to actually help starving children.”

Lee, who serves as chairman and CEO of retail giant Home plus Group, met with The Korea Herald during the Y-CSR conference held at Sejong University from Aug.13-14. The conference was hosted by UNGC Korea and supported by several companies including Home plus.

Over 1,000 university students including those from China and Japan gathered for the two-day conference to discuss ways for companies to contribute to society.

It was the first big event designed by Lee who promised, after he was reelected as UNGC Korea chief in March, to make more opportunities for students to speak up with their opinions on CSR. Noting that it must be the world’s first-ever such conference planned by and for students, Lee said that the conference would be held biannually.

“It is the students who will lead our future, not the older generation. They learn like a sponge and are quicker in spreading what they have; they belong to the digital-society age,” said Lee. 

“Products made in Korea earned high brand value overseas, K-pop is spreading out in the world and our sports stars are winning Olympic medals. These heighten the status of a nation in the world. What heightens the dignity of a nation is helping others. The conference will be an opportunity to make creative CSR models and contribute to making Korea a leading country in the field.”

Lee said that companies should move on from simply giving bread to those in need in the name of charity to teaching them how to make it ― and well.

“Global Mission Church, for example, opened the bakery Tranchair and taught baking skills to the disabled. And the bread tastes delicious. People don’t buy it out of charity but wait in lines because it is so good,” said Lee.

Home plus took it a step further. Making the best use of its strength ― large stores and many partner companies ― it started a campaign to help 6,000 kids who are overlooked in government subsidies for living expenses.

Participating companies choose some of their products to be the means of the project, and when customers purchase the items, 1 percent of the sales is donated.

“If they are the same price, customers choose the product that makes donations. It helps the kids and ups the company’s sales as well as brand value. Such a CSR model is the first of its kind in the world. By creating more such global standards, Korea can become a more respected country,” said Lee.

To help other companies to each find appropriate ways to contribute to society, Home plus established the Social Responsibility Research & Development Center in January.

According to a survey of 136 companies conducted ahead of the establishment of the center including both companies that are giving back to society and those that are not, 78 percent said that they are willing to better contribute to society if they are taught how.

“They said that they want to do it, but don’t know how to do it, and lack the ability to develop appropriate methods. They said they would participate if given interesting suggestions. That is why we opened the center. Now even governmental organizations like the Foreign Affairs Ministry request ideas,” said Lee.

To be respected and loved by the public, Lee suggested that companies always make contributions to society despite the sluggish economy.

“Companies can, of course, be flexible on the size of social contribution depending on the times, but the basic rule should be that they do it, regardless of the economic situation. CSR should be one of the key values of a company, and be integrated as a part of its culture and system,” said Lee.

Currently 222 companies have joined UNGC Korea, which was established in 2007.

“Our goal is to have 1,000 members by 2015 and 2,000 by 2020. I hope leading companies in the nation, regardless of size, join in,” said Lee.

By Park Min-young (claire@heraldcorp.com)