SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won called for strengthening the conglomerate’s competitiveness in innovative technologies such as artificial intelligence, the group said in a statement Friday.

“If we do not minimize trade cost and utilize innovative technology to effectively deliver the value customers are looking for, we cannot secure the future of SK,” he said as he wrapped up four-day in-house forum held in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province, on Thursday evening.

“We need to redefine who our customers are and should be able to provide personalized value to each customer.”

Chey also urged members of SK affiliates ranging from energy to chip manufacturing to generate social value in use of innovative technologies, stressing that is what the group’s vision on “deep change” is about.

The group’s plan to launch SK University in January is to internalize capacities to develop such innovative technology and nurture future talents.

Calling for a change in individual efforts to create new corporate value, the group announced a plan to establish an internal training unit to instruct employees on the business culture and future direction of the conglomerate -- which appears similar to what Apple did with Apple University in 2008.

By Cho Chung-un (christory@heraldcorp.com)