▲ Shin Dong-bin, Chairman of Lotte Group. ⓒ Lotte Group
Lotte Group was blown away. After the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), large-scale store restructuring, the largest-ever executive resignation, and voluntary retirement have continued in the Lotte Group.
The number of executives who took off their clothes in this year’s regular executive reshuffle is 70, which is slightly more than half compared to the previous year’s 133. On the other hand, the number of promoted personnel more than doubled from the previous year to 178, which is considered a significant increase in the number of executives.
According to the Lotte Group on the 25th, the number of executives retiring from the Lotte Group was counted as a total of 70 in the regular executive reshuffle announced that day.
Of these, about 13 retired from the food BU, and 14 each from the chemical BU and the hotel BU. In the distribution BU, where the largest number of executives resigned last year, 19 executives resigned this year. Compared to last year’s sharp winds for executives, the scale is significantly reduced.
Last year, 133 executives resigned, the largest number in Lotte Group’s history, and 49 executives took off their clothes in the distribution BU, which was particularly poor in performance.
As a result, Lotte Group’s 500 executives are expected to increase in size. A total of 178 executives were promoted at this year’s regular personnel appointments at the Lotte Group, and 96 of them were promoted to new executives. A number of external recruits were also selected here.
Hee-tae Kang, vice president of Lotte Shopping and head of distribution BU, who were considered to be the second thought of Chairman Shin Dong-bin, were exceptionally named on the list of retired executives, and vice president Hwang Beom-seok, who was selected as the representative of Lotte Department Store during a regular personnel appointment last year, also took off his clothes after a year. Bong-cheol Lee, head of the Hotel BU, also stepped down as a full-time advisor after this appointment.
This is the reason why the internal tension is high.
In this personnel appointment, the number of retired executives from Lotte Shopping reached 11. This means that the majority of the retired executives of the distribution BU are.
In the Food BU, Lotte Confectionery had the most retired executives with six. Among them, Min Myung-ki, CEO of Lotte Confectionery, and Yoon Jong-min, who was appointed as the head of the Human Resources Development Institute last year, were named on the list of retired executives.
On the other hand, not a single executive of Lotte Chilsung Beverage took off their clothes this year. The fact that Lotte Chilsung CEO Lee Young-gu took on the role of general representative of the food group and CEO of Lotte Confectionery through this appointment is also not unrelated to this.
In addition to this, Lotte E&C accounted for half of the 7 retired executives of the Chemical BU, and in the Hotel BU, all five executives, including Hotel Lotte CEO Lee Bong-cheol and Hotel BU head, took off their clothes.
A Lotte Group spokesperson said, “As for this personnel direction, Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin is known to have ordered the securing of super-core talents who will lead change and innovation. It emphasized the organization that has it.”
