This file photo shows the buildings of South Korea’s major companies in Seoul. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Jan. 14 (Korea Bizwire) — The offspring of South Korean business group founders are typically promoted to executive positions within five years of joining their parents’ companies, a business research firm showed Wednesday.
On average, it took 14.1 years for them to become presidents after starting out.
It took an average of 4.8 years for chaebol family members to be promoted to executive positions, according to the data from corporate tracker CEO Score.
The term chaebol refers to the large family-run businesses that dominate the country’s business landscape.
This study was based on 43 family-controlled conglomerates in which both the owner parents and children participated in management.
The chaebol offspring joined their parents’ companies at an average age of 29, and were promoted to executive positions at an average age of 33.8.
They became president at an average age of 42.7. In other words, it took just 14.1 years for them to become president after joining their parents’ company.
Considering that the average age of director-level executives at general companies is 52 and that of president-level executives is 58.8, the promotion of chaebol offspring to executive and president positions are 18.2 and 16.1 years faster than average, respectively.
Chaebol heirs were promoted faster than their parents.
On average, the first and second generation of chaebol owners joined the family company at an average age of 29.5 and became executives at 34.6. In other words, they took 5.1 years on average to become executives.
However, their children and grandchildren only took 4.5 years to become executives.
J. S. Shin (js_shin@koreabizwire.com)
