How Shin Kyuk-ho Imagined Lotte Before the Tower Went Up

I was in my last semester at university and sending out job applications. A reply usually meant I had not made it to the interview. I was grateful for the occasional exception.

Lotte Department Store gave me one of those chances. I wanted to know more about the company before I walked into the room.

Researching the interview

Other students sometimes got together to practice interviewing. I spent much of my preparation reading.

I borrowed four or five books about Lotte. Im Jong-won’s book on the company and its founder, Shin Kyuk-ho, was among them.

The founder in the book’s own time

Shin was born in 1921 and died on January 19, 2020, at the age of 98. The book came out a decade earlier, while he was still alive.

He built businesses in both Japan and South Korea. The group that grew out of the early confectionery business eventually encompassed department stores, hotels and entertainment.

The date of the book matters. It gives you a view of the company as its founder and a sympathetic writer still wanted others to see it.

The name above the door

Lotte takes its name from Charlotte in Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther. Im brings up the choice as part of how the group tells its own story.

There is a bronze statue of Goethe in the grounds by Lotte World Tower in Jamsil. After reading the origin of the name, I understood why that figure had a place beside the tower.

• See also — The Goethe statue in Jamsil, Seoul

Love, Life and Liberty

The book follows Lotte from selling chewing gum in Japan into the much wider business it built in South Korea. It describes a company that wanted a part in where people shopped, what they ate and how they spent a day out.

Im calls the values behind that ambition “3L”: Love, Life and Liberty. The promise of reaching a great many people reminded me of the utilitarian idea of the greatest happiness for the greatest number.

In the book’s account, the company first wanted to meet ordinary needs. Stores and entertainment developments gave it a way to shape a larger part of how customers spent their time.

A tower that was still a proposal

The planned second Lotte World development in Jamsil put that vision into concrete terms. Shin wanted a place for commerce and leisure that would give people from outside South Korea another reason to spend time in Seoul.

• Shin argued that Seoul could give visitors more to do alongside its palaces. He imagined a landmark that would draw people in and house both commerce and recreation.
  • From an interview Shin gave long before Lotte World Tower and the Signiel hotel opened.

At the time of publication the project faced obstacles. Im could report the proposal, but the building was still a matter for the future. Lotte World Tower eventually opened in Jamsil and became South Korea’s tallest building.

• See also — The statue of Shin Kyuk-ho at Lotte World Tower

The way he wanted people to work

Smaller decisions also come through in the book. It describes the tiles imported for the department store in Sogong-dong, an example of the attention paid to what a customer would see underfoot.

One line stuck with me. It asks a person to do what they can today, value the people around them and think about the future.

The book made me think about what it means to give an ordinary choice that much attention. A tile and a tower ask for very different decisions, but somebody has to care what each will be like to use.

I went looking for background for an interview. Im’s account gave me a better sense of how Lotte wanted its customers to understand the things it built.

Book details

Lotte and Shin Kyuk-ho: The Drive to Take on a Challenge Knows No Borders

Author

Im Jong-won

Published

July 15, 2010

ISBN-13

9788935208357

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