Dear Cheil Worldwide family at home and abroad!
 
Hope you had a great dream over the first night of the New Year.
 
One of the good things about the first day of a new year is that we can embark on a new journey
with fresh expectation and full of hopes.
I wish you all the best this year and hope all of your wishes can come true.  
 
Last year we saw considerable achievements in both quality and quantity,
thanks to your hard work and enthusiasm. 
As Chief Idea Officer (CIO), I would like to thank all your effort.
I really appreciate it! 
 
As I took office as CEO in January of the last year and set 'New Changes and Innovation'
as the motto of the company, I was afraid that you might experience so-called 'the pain of change',
burdens and stress caused by the changes.
I hope you understand that such pain is an unavoidable process to put new wine in new bottles.   
 
However, the word of change comes to me as fate, not as a simple slogan.
As CIO, I firmly believe that the change is the motto for survival, rather than the selective motto. 
Cheil Worldwide cannot survive in old ways. Unless we transformed ourselves,
Cheil with 35-year history could fall down over a single night. 
 
We can define the last year as the period of building foundation for changes
such as establishing new vision and slogan.
Meanwhile, this year should be the year which produces tangible results for the changes. 
 
To continuously change, I set "Creative Innovation and Challenge" as the motto of 2008,
carrying over from 2007.
Creative Innovation and Challenge can be shortened into one word, which is "Change."
The biggest enemy of change is fear: Fear that it is hard to succeed or fear that
change introduces pain and uncertainties.
If you are worrying about dying every moment, you would not be free from the fear of death in any moment.
However, if you are willing to face the death, you will die only once.
Take charge to be changed! 
 
We have to make changes in our business method to develop new growth engines and to achieve future expansion.
In addition, changes should be made in core competitiveness to emerge as a global top tier company.
Most importantly, our corporate culture should be changed into a creative way to produce creative ideas and
realize 'Idea Engineering,'
which produces creative ideas and transforms those ideas into real businesses.

The three main pillars of change - change in business method, change in competitiveness, and
change in corporate culture - would help us realize our motto, Creative Innovation and Challenge.
We have to take charge toward these changes while constantly reminding ourselves of the three main pillars of change. 
Your point of view would determine your thoughts, attitude, and behavior, and even performances.
As CIO, I pledge myself to fully support you in every way so that your take on these three changes
can lead to achievements. 

It sounds very serious and dry for the New Year's message. 
I believe that 'being creative' represents more on being soft and flexible, such as witty humor,
rather than being serious.
However, I feel foolish to find myself being very solemn and serious in writing this message.
This shows a good example that I myself need to be changed as well.
 
One of the main ideas of the Avatamska Sutra, a Buddhist scripture, is "Everything is created by mind alone,"
which indicates that nothing could be achieved unless mindset moved.
I can interpret it as "if mindset were not changed, nothing could change." 

Dear Cheil Worldwide family!
 
I'd like to humbly ask you to join the wave of changes-change in business method, change in competitiveness,
and change in corporate culture.
Each one of your willingness to make changes will bear fruits of the company’s achievements. 
In the end, such achievements will go to each one of you as rewards.
 
In closing, I wish all the best to you and your family.
 
Happy New Year!
 
 
January 2nd, 2008

Nack Hoi Kim, CIO of Cheil Worldwide