I joined Amorepacific in 2018, after having worked for several tech firms. As the Chief Digital Technology Officer, I oversee the Digital Strategy Unit's digital technology development division, and ensuring that the company leverages its technological assets, such as big data and AI, for business innovation. We also want to create the technological groundwork for improved commerce, marketing, and branding to sharpen the competitive edge of the organization and its various departments.

Being a typical “computer kid,” just like most entrepreneurs of 1st and 2nd generation venture companies, I wanted to become a computer programmer from an early age. I began writing code when I was in elementary school, progressed to creating games in middle school, and started developing software alongside my peers while in high school. This led me to pursue a degree in electrical engineering.

My professional experience prior to joining Amorepacific may be largely broken down into three distinct areas: first as a programmer, then as a data engineer, and lastly as a marketing technology engineer. As for the last part of that career, I have been developing digital marketing tools, such as DSP, SSP, and Ad-Exchange, starting with an analytics tool similar to Google Analytics back in 2014. Part of the job included creating digital marketing optimization algorithms using big data and AI and utilizing them in my platform business. I believe that my career in marketing technology, more so than that in programming or engineering, is what made me a good fit for Amorepacific.

Before joining Amorepacific, I had never worked in manufacturing or distribution industry, let alone cosmetics. Nonetheless, the Fourth Industrial Revolution had already begun, and one of its key drivers, namely digital technology, just so happened to be my area of expertise. So, it only made sense that my qualifications matched those required by companies that wished to transform their business using the technology in manufacturing and distribution, more so than industries or companies specializing in tech services. I am also the type of person who appreciates new experiences, new people, and new situations, so joining Amorepacific was a very attractive choice for me.

Our division is made up of a group of digital technology specialists, and together we support ways of working digitally across all departments. We also explore unchartered terrain such as the metaverse, blockchain, and my data for various pilot projects. We focus our attention on three major categories: data technology, which includes artificial intelligence and big data; commerce technology, which digitizes domestic and international commerce and uncovers new digital channel models; and beauty tech, namely personalized connected beauty.

Allow me to elaborate on each point:

When it comes to data technology, we create an overall environment wherein the firm can engage in activities that directly leverage data to boost competitiveness. Providing analytics services that allow for in-depth analyses of consumer data is an important part of this, as is developing dashboards and tools that anyone can use and adapt to suit different individual needs. In an effort to achieve this, our data engineers are developing our very own data system. Through these systems and services, all aspects of business, including revenue status, marketing, CRM, sales management, and customer management, can be made accessible.

The commerce sector, which includes AMORE MALL, entails constructing and managing D2C stores all over the world. Some, like AMORE MALL, are operated by us alone, while others, like innisfree Mall and OSULLOC Mall, are designed and managed in partnership with the respective brand organization. More recently, we have been channeling our efforts towards growing the D2C segment for both Korean and global businesses. One of our primary responsibilities is to improve the foundational platform, which may include an e-commerce system or a member platform for O2O (Online to Offline) customer service and logistics delivery. Additionally, together with the New Commerce Division, we have begun materializing and developing a new type of commerce business model to revolutionize the door-to-door sales sector. It is one of this year’s major projects.

We collaborate closely with the R&I center and the restructured Personalized Cosmetics Division when it comes to the beauty tech segment, many aspects of which are still very experimental and challenging. Earlier this year, after two and a half years of development, we finished developing a smartphone image-enabled skin diagnosis system, which was released as part of the Custom Me service, a one-on-one customized cosmetics brand. This milestone is significant in that our own AI developers succeeded in creating a high-quality product that is marketable around the world, with the clinical data and expertise provided by our research laboratory.

The digital expertise of the members of our division is wide-ranging. Many of them are developers, some service planners, UI/UX designers, data engineers, AI modelers, data analysts, marketing technology managers, and project managers. All of us are working day in and day out towards driving Amorepacific’s exclusive digital beauty innovation.

For the past year, self-BI and self-CRM have been key areas of focus. The constructive utilization of data is a crucial aspect of digital transformation, or digital innovation. Identify problems using data, find solutions, make sure they lead to meaningful outcomes, and repeat. Some call it PLAN-DO-SEE, and we call it the digital loop.

Self-BI refers to the culture of relying on our own resources, rather than a tech organization or an outsourced partner, in utilizing data to find data-centric solutions and ways of innovation in brand or sales organizations. Self-CRM is essentially the same, except that the concept applies to CRM.

To support this, our division reorganized the data in the cloud service so that it could be used with minimal effort. The AP Report Service went live in early 2020, allowing non-tech specialists to directly edit data and build the reports or dashboards that their respective departments need. In early 2022, the service underwent significant expansion and usability improvements and we are committed to ensuring that our colleagues can maximize its usage by organizing monthly user training sessions. Attendance rates are high, reminding us that digital data utilization is in great demand. Almost half of today's data traffic originates from internal reports and dashboards. Going forward, we would like to take a more proactive approach by focusing on a single brand or sales department.

By collaborating with other relevant departments, we are also aiming to gradually integrate the Personalized Connected Beauty Platform and expand the use of the non-face-to-face skin diagnosis technology, which is currently available through Custom Me, to areas of makeup, healthcare, and even hair care.

I’m a techie, but I’ve always believed that the key to digital innovation is not some great technology. Rather, it’s all about the spirit of openness to change. We have to welcome it. Technology just helps turn imagination into reality. Change doesn’t come easy, especially for large organizations. So it’s critical for us to cultivate a progressive work culture that is receptive towards change. Implementing and experimenting with work methodologies like OKR*, utilizing digital collaboration tools to foster information sharing and collaboration, and adopting an evaluation and reward system that recognizes inventive attempts rather than performance itself, are all things we are constantly working towards realizing.

The energy that fuels digital governance is a culture that embraces new initiatives and has the capacity to cushion any potential loss so that the company’s decision-makers aren’t discouraged by risk.