Iosu Maria Zabala Iturralde, president of University of Mondragon in Spain, 

replies to a question at a conference for sharing the successful settlement of social enterprises, 

hosted by Hanwha Group and the Work Together Foundation at the Convention Center of the 

63 City in Yeouido, Seoul, on Feb. 20. 

  Business Group is spearheading efforts to promote shared growth through the successful settlement and promotion of social enterprises producing environmentally-friendly items. 

The business group and the Work Together Foundation hosted a conference for sharing the successful settlement of social enterprises, dubbed “Together, Far Away with Hanwha,” at the Convention Center of the 63 City in Yeouido, Seoul, on Feb. 20.

 The event was designed to take stock of projects for supporting the social enterprises the business group has carried out for the past two years. It served as opportunities to provide solutions for creating successful social enterprise models by sharing social enterprise owners’ operational knowhow and experts’ mentoring. 

Session 1: Talk Concert offered tips for success stories of social enterprises provided by experts from academia and government organizations on top of social enterprise owners’ presentation of practices. 

As the first speaker of the first session, Kim Ga-young, a director of Gukde F&B, a tteobokki (rice cake) chain of 13 stores, spoke of his food chain’s exciting and interesting episodes of evolving into a distribution company with 3 billion won in annual sales.

Iosu Maria Zabala Iturralde, president of University of Mondragon in Spain, gave a lecture on overseas exemplary practices of Mondragon’s cooperative group with a network of 2,000 firms for building an ecosystem for social enterprises and cooperatives. 

The second session on investment served as an opportunity for Bigwalk and five other social enterprises, supported by Hanwha Business Group, to publicize themselves and attract investments. 

The venue of the event also displayed environmentally-friendly products, including soy milk, made from soybeans from Siberia, and LED lighting and inspect-killing lamps, produced by social enterprises supported by Hanwha Group.

Kang Ki-soo, chief of the Communi-cations Team at Hanwha Group, said the catchphrase “Together, Far Away,” departing from “Alone, Faster,” is Hanwha Group Chairman Kim Seung-youn’s philosophy and Hanwha Group’s tenet for shared growth. He went on to say that the latest event was part of the group’s efforts to put into practice the corporate tenet, and Hanwha Group will continue to serve as a partner to promote the development of the local community.

In a related development, Hanwha Group and the Work Together Foundation have provided consulting services, such as cost analysis and the establishment of marketing strategies, to 20 social enterprises over 56 occasions during last year. Thanks to the group’s support, the social enterprises have seen their sales and employment rate soar 17.3 percent and 15.9 percent in 2013 over 2012, respectively.