Hello, everyone. I’m Lim Young-jin running a bakery “Sung Shim Dang” in Eunhang-dong, Daejeon.
Nice to meet you.
I think it’s quite rare that a baker is talking at TEDx.
I think I’m here because a bakery in Daejeon is the biggest in Korea.
Then I’ll tell you the history of Sung Shim Dang briefly.
We first started the business in 1956.
My parent first started it after they escaped from the Korean War.
At first it was a small store selling steamed breads
It’s not a picture of the store, it’s quite advanced from the first store
They started the business from the scratches
My parents escaped from the North, and it was almost a miracle
They promised to devote their lives for those in need if they can make it to the South
So they escaped from the North safely
and started this small bakery in front of the Daejeon Station
With 7 children, we were very poor
However, my father always made more breads than we needed
and at that time, there was nothing to eat, and under such circumstance,
, he visited houses and gave breads for free.
There were even beggars under bridges
Since it was right after the war, the food itself meant lives.
Even now, there are bakery corporations which dispose left-over breads
to maintain its brand’s image or sell for discounted price.
By the time, my parent had a hard time, and had to pay for flour and sugar
but they still helped other people.
So they had to make fresh breads all the time
, and naturally it led the store famous.
Restaurants make foods when they get ordered,
, but bakeries have to sell breads before they get orders.
So what customers wonder the most is when breads are made.
But Sung Shim Dang is doing charity work a lot
, and it advertised our store naturally, customers had trust in our breads.
And I think that has been the most important factor for Sung Shim Dang
to be the biggest bakery in Korea.
As you saw in the famous TV drama,
‘Kim Tak-gu, the baking king’, many factors affect breads.
For example, humidity of the air can change the dough,
and many other factors can change breads.
So, I think breads are attractive because it can be created in many different ways.
That’s how I started baking, and decided to follow my parent’s path.
There were several breads I made and sold very well.
And the baked soboro was very famous and played a major role,
, but it’s very common bread.
I thought what if I put the 3 most famous breads
, red-bean stuffed bread, soboro, and doughnut into one.
, and I was going to coat it with chocolate syrup.But I couldn’t,
because the baked soboro sold so quickly. Still, it’s not completed.
And people had to stand in lines,
, and when you do that, you want more.
Because you’ll have to wait again next time you come to buy the breads.
So, when people in front of the lines buy too many,
people behind had to wait another 20 minutes, and sometimes the customers got into fights.
So we decided to give them small notes with the number of breads they were to purchase.
By that time, there was a bigger bakery than Sung Shim Dang.
But thanks to the baked soboro,
Sung Shim Dang became bigger and more famous than that.
And the fresh whip-creamed cake was also an important one.
By that time, cakes were only to celebrate something,
and after celebration people scrub butter cream off and ate it.
I went to Japan and saw fresh creamed cake,
and produced cakes after a very difficult procedure.
Butter cream cakes can be stored for 15 days,
but fresh creamed cake would only last a day.
And I thought how I could sell it,and figured that
we could get a sponge cake in advance and whip it
when we get an order.It only took 3 minutes to whip a sponge cake
So we called it ‘3-minute’ cake and whipped it in front of customers.
It’s being made while a customer’s watching it
there’s no need to doubt if it’s being made clean,
and it only took 3 minutes.
Butter cream cakes are greasy
but fresh creamed cakes are less sweet and greasy,
it was just perfect for the customers’ needs.
At first, customers, who were accustomed to butter cream cakes,
were unsure about this new cake,
but since it’s so much better,
later many people came and bought the cakes, and it’s still famous
One more thing about Sung Shim Dang is its Bingsu(red bean sherbet).
When I saw people coming to my bakery with a pot to buy Bingsu,
I came up with an idea.
Prof. Lee just talked about insulation material
, such as polystyrene,
but by then, it wasn’t so common.
But there was a long, cylindrical polystyrene used at hospitals to put IVs.
I cut them into half and put Bingsu in it,
and hung in under strong Sun for three hours.
And even after three hours, the ice was still frozen.
So I named it, “3-hour take out Bingsu”, and started selling it.
There was no take-outs by the time,
but the Bingsu was famous
and I could see people at bus terminals carrying the Bingsu.
People even brought them to Seoul.
When people brought them to Seoul,
nobody could even imagine people will carry Bingsu from Daejeon.
Get a Bingsu from Daejeon, and eat it in Seoul?
It’s never seen before.
We had such a product, also.
However, we had many ups, but there were downs also.
January 22nd, 2005, our factory got on a fire.
20 people were injured who lived near the factory
and were taken to hospitals, and we had 2 billion won loss.
We already were having a hard time.
So I thought maybe this is it, it’s done.
And it was really cold January,
but the employers brought water in baskets,
and cleaned the dirt on the walls.
They painted the temporary factory, and bought used machines.
The whole industry said
it’ll take a very long time for us to recover.
But only 5 days after the fire,
we baked breads again. It was a miracle.
With the fresh breads, the employees and I cried for long
Even under such circumstance, we needed each other.
The company had to be there,
and we all realized the true value of each other,
and felt becoming a family.
So, when you love somebody,
you need to know her/him,
and you want to know about her/him a lot.
And that’s how we started this One Family Project.
the One Family Project is to visit an employer’s house after work on Monday.
At the employee’s home,
visitors listen to the employee’s story,
from his birth to presence, for 30 minutes.
Then, our 18 team managers ask various questions.
The questions can be about anything,
, romantic relationships, and so on.
Through these questions we can know everything about the employee.
And we also can know whom they are living with,
if a child is handicapped and many other things.
By talking with true heart we get to know each other even better than family members do.
And each family has own recipes,
and by sharing foods together we get closer.
So, the “house” can vary from just one person living in a studio,
or a big family living in a bigger house.
By many factors, we get to know each other better.
Then, we make a One Family newspaper
to share what we’ve seen and heard from the visits.
Every PC of our company can access to small stories of our employees
such as having been to a seminar, or financial status of our company.
When we have 20-30 pages of these stories,
we make them into a newspaper.
With this newspaper we can share what’s happening in our company.
So each team can understand other teams better,
and we can prevent misunderstandings or any kinds of conflicts
caused by not knowing the others in advance.This is a very efficient “linker.”
And, I have enough time, so, one more thing.
There is a Rainbow Project.
If a corporation is only seeking for profits,
I don’t think it’s a good thing.
We have to make many parts into a harmony,
and just like a rainbow of seven different colors,
we mark each work with the colors of rainbow and report accordingly.
So, it’s seven colors.
Red stands for finances, profits, and etc. An accurate accounting.
Orange means identity.
So, why we are here, and what the concept of our company is.
Our self-esteem as a baking company can also be marked with orange
Yellow means law, and ethic.
Which means we pay tax 100%,
we don’t lie about how much profit we made and how much tax we ought to pay.
Also, we abide by the labor law,
food law, and every other laws we need to follow.
These are being marked with yellow.
Green stands for health. Health.
Not baking deliciously only, but we consider our customers’ health
and try to use Korean flour, or any other healthy flour.
Blue means harmony.
Keeping the bakery clean, and making the bakery feel comfortable
or the riches or the poor, old and young.
So blue stands for our effort to make the place comfortable to anyone.
Navy means knowledge. Study.
So, it means studying professional knowledge.
Attending seminars, benchmarking others, going business trips,
or buying books are all marked with navy color.
Purple means share.
Through the One Family Newspapers,
we make a place for us to understand each other and share.
So we evaluate with these seven colors,
and we have our own awards, too.
That’s pretty everything of it.
And there is an Italian guy, 끼아라 루빅, in Torento
, Italy who made a New Mankind Movement.
It was first started in 1943,
and now there are 189 countries where this movement is being done
by many people with the title New Mankind.
And people are trying to change the world at their own positions.
Over there, it’s small. (Laugh)
Last November, there was a competition in Rome.
New Mankind Movement is that I can change the world by running a bakery
, a doctor can change the world by working as a doctor,
and a politician working together,
not fighting with other politicians can change the world into a better place.
So, that’s the New Mankind Movement.
New Mankind Movement is that
people who are only looking for the money never changed the world.
And I think the world can be a better place when we make profits, run a business
abiding by the law, and most importantly,
when people actually experience such things, I believe the world will truly be changed.
So I want to tell you that I’m doing it by this New Mankind Movement.
My company is 55 years old now.
Now, I want to express it as a bowl putting a value, named culture
I’ll continue putting a culture of love in a bowl (bread).
The last thing I want to tell you is to whom ask me what I’m going to do next.
Rather than making my company bigger,
I want to make it more precise and perfect,
so other people would benchmark my work,
and as the goal of the New Mankind Movement,
I will do my best to make the world a better place as a baker.
I will appreciate it if you do your best at your position
with a good idea and try to use it for the world.
Thank you.