MANAGEMENT & STRATEGY

How Booyoung Group Became a 'Respected Company'

In 2024, Booyoung Group became the first in South Korea to introduce a childbirth incentive of 100 million won per child, distributing a cumulative 13.4 billion won through 2026, while the number of newborns within the company increased from an annual average of 23 to 28. The condition-free design—which provides funds even to those who give birth on their first day of work and imposes no obligation to return the money upon resignation—proved the sincerity of the system, and that trust returned as a recruitment competitiveness of up to 180 to 1 in open recruitment. A company's internal welfare led to the legislation of '100% tax exemption for childbirth support funds' and spread across peer industries such as Krafton and KAI, moving beyond a one-off event to influence national policy and the broader industrial sector. The childbirth incentive is a branch of consistent social contribution functioning as a foundation where people grow and stay, following rental housing and educational donations, serving as an example where the core business and social responsibility point in the same direction. However, the absolute sole-proprietorship governance that made all these decisions possible is also the two-sided risk of a lack of checks and balances, and sustainable respect is completed not through the buzz of good deeds, but through transparent governance and core business competitiveness.