Choi Yang-ha (born 1949, age 70), the Chairman and CEO who has led the growth of Hanssem Co., Ltd., a comprehensive home interior specialist company, announced his intention to step down from front-line management as of October 31. This comes 25 years after he was appointed Representative Director and Executive Managing Director in 1994.

Chairman Choi is reported to have refrained from announcing his retirement date in advance—in order to avoid unnecessary controversy and prevent confusion among employees—while making preparations to minimize any disruption to operations.

Chairman Choi is a rare example of one of the longest-serving chief executive officers (CEOs) among Korea's top 500 companies. Over 25 years at the helm of Hanssem, he is credited with growing the company into a bona fide No. 1 player in the domestic interior industry, with sales of 2 trillion won, and with leaving a significant mark on Hanssem's half-century history.

After joining Hanssem in 1979, Chairman Choi elevated its kitchen furniture division to the top of the industry in 1986, just seven years later. The comprehensive interior division also rose to No. 1 in 2002, five years after its launch in 1997. Since then, Hanssem has provided spaces and services tailored to consumers' expectations, recording 73 consecutive quarters of profit through the second quarter of this year.

In particular, Chairman Choi devised the business strategy of "selling space" and successfully established the Rehaus business. His unprecedented idea—"selling not a bed but a bedroom, not a desk but a child's room"—evolved into the Rehaus business, Hanssem's own distinctive business model.

Building on this foundation, Hanssem successively rolled out new business models that create spaces previously unseen, such as Built-in Plus, establishing itself as a comprehensive home interior distribution company. This was the result of Chairman Choi's all-out effort toward Hanssem's goal, which he had long articulated, of becoming "a residential-culture company with world-class competitiveness that takes responsibility for the entire residential culture"—offering a glimpse of his driving force and management philosophy.

Moreover, the strategy of commercializing space is based on the vision of commercializing and selling everything needed for a living space—furniture, accessories, fabrics and more—under the "Hanssem" name. Indeed, to this end Hanssem invests 4 to 5% of its annual sales in design, an important management strategy that generates high added value.

As Chairman Choi has long expressed his intention to create educational and business opportunities to nurture the next generation, he plans to devise a blueprint related to this after his retirement.

Chairman Choi has expressed his determination to devote himself to activities for younger generations, saying, "Hanssem is in fact a company with more cases of failure than of success. I think it may also be my role to organize the trial and error we have experienced and pass it on to others."

Meanwhile, Hanssem plans to soon appoint Vice Chairman Kang Seung-soo (born 1965, age 54) as its new Chairman and CEO through its board of directors, taking over Chairman Choi's role as the professional manager who will lead the entire company. President Lee Young-sik, who has been in charge of finance, is expected to be promoted to Vice Chairman and to oversee the Strategic Planning Office.