Yuhan Kimberly, Ltd.

a) The main facts about the activities of the company.

Yuhan-Kimberly is a joint venture of Yuhan Corporation and Kimberly-Clark. The founder of Yuhan Corporation, Mr. Yuhan New believed that ?profit-seeking is worthwhile only when it results not just in individual wealth but also in national prosperity?. The company has been listed one of the most respectful companies in South Korea since recent 7 years. The main products of Yuhan-Kimberly are personal care products such as tissues, diapers, and feminine hygiene products. Yuhan-Kimberly emphasizes on sustainability in terms of society, economy, and environment. The solved moral dilemma with Korean government in 1970; they went through the economic crisis in 1997; and they insisted on the ?Keep Korea Green? campaign for 26 years. In 2010, they achieved the annual revenue $11 billion, the net income $80 million and exported product to 48 countries.

b) The ethical challenges this company is addressing.

In 1970, one year before the death of Yuhan New, Yuhan Corporation entered into a joint venture with Kimberly-Clark, one of the world?s leading manufactures of personal care products. The venture was motivated more by politics than economics: At that time, South Korea was ruled under the dictatorial government, it was almost impossible for companies to survive without currying governmental favor. The founder Yuhan New faced a terrible choice: either to protect his company by paying bribes to the government, or to protect his integrity then put his company in danger. Finally, Mr. New came up with a creative solution: since Korean was a staunch American ally. Mr. New figured that it would be impossible for the government to pressure a local company that had a joint venture with a major US corporation. So the joint venture with Kimberly?Clark successfully solved the ethical dilemma.

c) What makes you believe this company is really ethical and why you trust it.

Personally, the most negative aspect of capitalism is that company exploits the employees. The company just fire employees when they are useless. However, Yuhan Kimberly tries to keep employees right which is based on human esteem. During Currency Crisis period ( which is one of the most serious economic crisis in Korea in 1997, resulting in over 26 million unemployment and mass bankrupt of companies ) no one was fired in Yuhan Kimberly. All employers and employees made an effort together to go through harsh time by implementing a shift and cutting off their salary voluntarily. The company still keep providing favorable work environment and job security, making 95% of employees satisfied with the their job. (According to questionnaire 2011)

d) The possible challenges facing the company in the future and how you think this company may improve.

In 1984, Yuhan-Kimberly embarked on a Keep Korea Green Campaign, one kind of social responsibility campaign. They want to use this campaign to build a healthy social image, which will create sale volume for the company. This campaign was skeptical by the public in the beginning. However, after insisting on it twenty years, the company builds a successful and unique social image with an increasing sales achievement. Almost 90% of consumers were willing to pay a premium for the products of environmentally-friendly companies
However, along with reorganization by the public, other company began to imitate the same activity. Therefore the company faced the challenge whether they should continue the ?keep Korea Green? campaign to connect or they should build another campaign. We think the realistic method is to use the current green image to expand their product line in short term. But in the long-run, they will build a new one, such as the birthrate project, to expand their business capacity.