As I live my life, I ask the question of why I live and where I should go, what is the reason for my existence and why I live. You can think that you just have to go to the happiness, and you can live helpful and live a life of contribution, and you can live be famous or live religious life.

In Richard Bark's 'Jonathan livingstone seagull', which I read as a young, "What matters to seagulls was not flying, but eating. But flying was much more important than eating for Jonathan" comes to mind, a phrase that says, "The reason for existence is not to settle for life and to take on new challenges".

While running a company for the quarter century on the 25th anniversary of its foundation, I think about the reason, purpose, and social responsibility of our LCC. In order to achieve this goal, companies face the challenge of generating profits, and in the process of developing and growing quality and price competitiveness through various management strategies, many stakeholders demand various responsibilities. There seems to be a lot of responsibilities such as providing good quality with good price to customers, paying appropriate salaries and benefits to employees, paying taxes to the country, co-prosperity with communities, and donating to schools and organizations.

Professor Carroll of the United States describes corporate social responsibility in a four-step model, which can be summarized as economic, legal, ethical, and charitable responsibility.

First, we must thoroughly fulfill the most basic economic responsibilities of maximizing profits and creating jobs.

Companies that don't make a profit cannot continue, nor can they play a role in increasing employment. In order to create jobs, we need to lead continuous technological innovation to provide new products and services, and to challenge the development of overseas markets. Profitability is used to improve the financial structure, invest in new expansion and facility replacement. It put to use into improve employee's appropriate salaries and benefits. We, LCC, have not made a single deficit in our 25 years of business and have continued to increase employment by expanding five factories. Since 10 years ago, we have been practicing borrowing-free management, pioneering overseas markets, and increasing the proportion of exports to 40%, and solidifying the company's vision of 'Be an one hundred year company through export'.

Like Article 4 of the company's statement, "Creating a corporate culture where employees are happy and realize their dreams," it is expanding benefits such as dormitory, housing, and educational expense, and promoting the establishment of a welfare fund in the near term.

Second, we must comply with laws set by the state and various regulations required by society.

Throughout the era of industrial capitalism, which only values corporate profits as the best value, it began as a demand to solve various problems such as human dignity, safety, and environmental destruction. The limitations of existing laws to prevent corruption in commerce and the enactment of the 'Kim Young-ran' Act, an anti-corruption law to expel corruption in public offices and enter a transparent society, are also aimed at emphasizing corporate legal responsibility.

Since our founding, LCC has never offered bribes to solve major problems, has never tried illegal ways to get orders, and we can proudly state that there have been no cases of reception from our partners. We have strictly adhered to efforts to adapt and comply with related laws even if large amounts of money are invested, without attempting to illegal or evading laws, environmental building permits, safety-related laws, Fire Services Act and labor laws that do not fit the corporate reality. Also, as a small and medium-sized enterprise, we cannot contribute to greenhouse gas emissions and natural resource depletion, but we are committed to environmental responsibility by investing in large-scale facilities in wastewater treatment and separating and recycling emissions.

Third, it must fulfill its ethical responsibility, which is not a compulsory nature such as law or regulatory compliance, but a conscientious action of a company not to fail to meet its promises and expectations with the stakeholders surrounding it.

Ethical management should prioritize ethics in company management, ensure that it is transparent and fair to perform reasonable tasks, and ensure that it is trusted by customers, partners, and employees.

In pursuing the company's original purpose of maximizing profits, it can improve the company's competitiveness and increase economic added value by adjusting the wrong practices or cost structures to ethical standards. In addition, it will lead to an increase in core competitiveness by drawing pride and love from employees who are members of the company, and increase the value of the company to realize long-term and 100-year-old company. Our LCC holds a monthly meeting every month to disclose management performance and transparently share the company's major tasks, and through the publication of LCC Magazine and 3 Minute Speech Collection, we communicate closely between the company, employees.

With the financial stability of non-borrowing management and the vision setting of 'realization of 100-year-old company through export' we feel Article 4 of the company's statement 'creating a company culture where employees are happy and realize their dreams' through 7H education and various welfare practices.

In addition, we have a complete computer system and practice quality management, providing customers with the belief that LCC is competitive in quality and price. As it instills the image of LCC, which has no 'Power Trip' for partners, and has no 'no gift giving and receiving' and no wrong practices of reception, we faithfully practice Article 9 "WIN-WIN with customers and partners."

Fourth, the measure of company success should not be based on returns, but should further grow the symbiotic relationship between company and society by fulfilling the charitable responsibility of donations and social contributions.

As a small and medium-sized enterprise in the province, it is impossible to carry out charitable activities for the public interest, such as the operation of social welfare facilities, so it has no choice but to provide scholarships, support for disadvantaged facilities such as nursing homes, and support for various events in the local community.

For 25 years, LCC has provided more than 100 thousand dollars every year, including donations and product donations, to practice the 'social responsibility of charity and donation' in Article 10 of the company's statement. The annual donation plan is established every year, and scholarships from middle, high schools, and universities are regularly provided, donations and various household goods are provided to nursing homes run by nuns, and a considerable amount is also donated to the World Federation of Gukseondo, a non-profit organization.

In 1997, at the strong request from Global Company named Beiersdorf (Germany), I founded LCC, a manufacturing industry that produces and supplies Nivea. Of course, personally, although I was late at age 50, I could also think that resigning LG and challenging my 'second life' was a rewarding retirement measure. However, after 25 years, I have expanded factories 1 to 5 and have more than 150 employees, and considering the volume of exports with various overseas customers, I feel that I'm now in a 'public position' that cannot be considered 'private position'. I feel an infinite sense of responsibility to take responsibility for their livelihood, to have a balanced life of work and family, and ultimately to create an environment where employees can be happy and realize their dreams. LCC need to become a long-lasting and 100-year-old company, increase sales and profitability through quality and price competitiveness, and continue to expand overseas markets for the future of the company.

The number of small and medium-sized enterprises in Korea is 99%, and the number of employees is 66%. Therefore, it would be desirable for small and medium-sized companies to share their roles, even in small parts, because it is difficult to fulfill the service of gratitude to country only with social (charitable) responsibility centered on large companies.

It is the direction of future companies to work together in various fields such as social contribution, environmental protection, and workers' human rights, not just focusing on increasing sales and pursuing profits, and it will be possible for them to survive. We should be deeply aware of corporate social responsibility and pay more attention to ESG management of environment, social responsibility, and governance in preparation for the post-COVID era.

CEO BAIK, SUNGCHUN