Samsung Life on a Roll

Life insurer welcomes 51st anniversary on May 5 and swears to achieve 260 tln won in assets by 2015

Samsung Life Insurance Co. celebrated its 51st anniversary in a ceremony held May 5 at its head office in downtown Seoul.
President Lee Soo-chang presented citations and model awards to over 100 of the company's officers and staff including 93 for their service to the company for 30 or more years. Exemplary awards were given to 25 employees for their devotion to the work of boosting the core value of the company.
Lee, in his speech at the ceremony, said what the company needs are new growth engines for its sustainable growth and to be a global leading life insurance firm for the next 100 years now that the first half century of the company's progress is behind it.
The CEO went on to say that the existing FC channels should be employed to boost productivity to an international level through the diversification and enlargement of the company's shops and their effectiveness.
Lee said the company should look for new areas of business besides its traditional insurance business in such areas as trusts, beneficiary certificates, and retirement pensions so that the company would maintain its position as a leading life insurer.
He also said it is about time for the company to strengthen its overseas operations and find new growth motors in the process, calling on everyone with the company to join in the search for new global talent.
The president also said everyone with the company should work to upgrade the company's business operations and systems to an international level and change their mindsets to achieve these goals.
Lee said the new personnel system for the professional life insurance business to be introduced soon is designed to reform the company's entire operating system into a financial professional organization so that each manager would be able to concentrate on his or her own territory of responsibility by creating such an environment. He said every system and employee in the company should be changed to be more customer-oriented and market-friendly.
Samsung Life performed a social service in creating and running a market for produce for 15 villages around the country, which have sisterhood ties with the company, from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. on May 6 at a plaza in front of its office building in Taepyeong-ro, downtown Seoul. Every officer and staff member mingled with the village residents who participated in the traditional market place event, which was dubbed a "voluntary service festival"to commemorate the company's 51st anniversary.
Each village was assigned its own booth to sell its produce such as rice, fruits and cucumbers and the company bought unsold produce and donated them to welfare institutions.
On the first floor was held a photo contest displaying photos taken by company employees with digital cameras ranging from those taken a long time ago, those at company events and those of the countryside, which were good enough to provoke memories from way back and forge friendships among fellow employees.
Financial counselors, officers and staff operated an online market until May 23 where they sold their own items including clothing and brief cases through an online auction.
Samsung Life started as Dongbang Life in 1957 and was taken over by the Samsung Group in 1963. The company changed its name to the current one and has since recorded a phenomenal growth rate, making it a leading life insurer in the country with substantial overseas operations today.
The company has done its best to make contributions to national economic development and to the improvement of the welfare of the people. The company's assets exceeded 100 trillion won for the first time in 2006 and that number now sits at 114 trillion won.
Last year, at the ceremony marking the company's 50th anniversary, the company declared a new vision to be among the top 15 global life insurers with 60 trillion won in annual sales and total assets of 260 trillion won with ROE of 15 percent by 2015. nw

President Lee Soo-chang of Samsung Life Insurance Co.