Welcome to
Siemens in Korea

A global powerhouse in electrical engineering and electronics, with innovative envi-ronmental caring technology and sound business management, Siemens Ltd. Seoul (SLS) is taking the lead in ethical operations, while encouraging its peers to follow suit.

SLS and FKI-IMI will hold a graduation ceremony of Northeast Asia Business Integ-rity School (NABIS) as well as a CEO forum on March 22 at the Lotte Hotel. Busi-nesses that participated in the second round of the NABIS program included Kook-min Bank, Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction, Samsung C&T, Shinsegae, Incheon International Airport Corporation, POSCO Energy, Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, and SK Hynix.

NABIS is the Korean project among Siemens’ 31 global anti-corruption projects, hosted by Siemens and FKI-IMI and organized by the Global Competitiveness Em-powerment Forum. Siemens finances KRW1 billion for the program over a 3-year period since 2011, helping college students understand ethical leadership through real-world examples of ethics and compliance. The first round of the NABIS program was attended by GS Construction, KT, SK C&C, Kyobo Life Insurance, POSCO, SLS, Korea Electric Power Corp., and Homeplus.

Instructors, who handle legal affairs, compliance, business ethics, sustainable busi-ness, and corporate social responsibility at the workplace, delivered lectures for the second round of the NABIS program based on their companies’ ongoing ethics and compliance efforts. Ahead of the program, they held workshops to produce educa-tional materials for NABIS students. They also shared examples of business integ-rity improvements as well as challenges that they actually faced when trying to meet compliance requirements.

Siemens and FKI-IMI carefully selected NABIS students from 1,600 applicants who belong to Young Leaders Club or Elite Integrated Club ? intercollegiate clubs formed under FKI to learn and discuss market economy ? or are other college students. Applicants underwent application reviews first and then interviews. It turned out that 57 percent of the 32 trainees selected are studying business administration, eco-nomics or commerce. Students take a vow to hold and foster anti-corruption values at the completion of the NABIS course. Siemens and FKI-IMI plan to increase the number of companies participating in NABIS by 8 to 24. In addition, they will hand-pick college students for the third round of the NABIS program to expand the NABIS community of entrepreneurs and college students.

“I hope that our efforts to eliminate corruption and promote compliance as well as educational programs such as NABIS will help advance the nation’s business eth-ics,” said JongKap Kim, Chairman and CEO of Siemens Ltd. Seoul. “Korea has tightened ethics and compliance standards over the past few years. But, doing busi-ness ethically within a compliance framework isn’t possible with just laws and regu-lations. Chief executives and middle managers should change their mindset and be educated about complying with laws and regulations. In addition, ethics and compli-ance is an ongoing process, and also one of the biggest challenges which we should establish organizational culture”

SLS promoted Jorn Elbracht, Head of Legal & Compliance, to executive managing director, while hiring more workers to strengthen the roles and responsibilities of its Legal & Compliance team. Currently, the team has 11 staff members in Korea. The Compliance Officer System that the Korean government introduced last April re-quires companies with assets of over KRW1 trillion ? those with assets of over KRW500 billion next year ? to employ one or more compliance officers. Siemens has approximately 600 compliance officers at the main and branch offices around the world ? at least one compliance officer in each country. SLS applies strict rules to its staff and partners regarding compliance and employee treatment.