Happynarae
Happynarae (Korean: 행복나래) is one of the largest social enterprises in the world and the largest in South Korea.[1] The Nobel Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus visited Happynarae and acclaimed it a "realization of revolutionary social enterprise that can help other social enterprises".[2]
History
Its original company MRO Korea was a joint venture between W. W. Grainger group and SK group. MRO Korea increased its partners to 44 outside of SK group.[3] Currently, MRO Korea increased its partnership to be 44 outside of SK group. With the suggestion from group chairman Tae-Won-Chey, MRO Korea became a social enterprise in 2011. However, since MRO Korea was part of the SK conglomerate Chaebol, the government did not see Happynarae as a genuine social enterprise in 2012. After that failure, MRO Korea changed its name to be Happynarae and added more social contributions to the proposal, which includes full-profit invest and pro-bono activity on other social enterprises. In July 2014, Happynarae received a citation from president Park Geun-hye for the contribution it made for other social enterprises. The current president of company is Dae-Sung-Kang and 25% of its employees are from socially vulnerable class.
Social activity
Happynarae is a social enterprise that contributes to society through several ways, which can be categorized in six sections.
- 1. Happynarae employs socially vulnerable up to 27 people out of 153 employees (27%). It employs a wide variety of socially vulnerable comprising North Korean defector, immigrant, and one-parent family members who are isolated from general support.
- 2. Happynarae supports other social enterprises through two methods. Happynarae operates preferential purchase to other social enterprises’ products. Since most social enterprises suffer weak price competitiveness, this greatly helps social enterprises' sustainability. Moreover, Happynarae markets social enterprises' product to its partners, for example by organizing anniversary special sales, to improve the brand of social enterprise.
- 3. Happynarae buttresses social enterprises’ R&D projects which will give them an edge to survive in industry and runs consulting program which will help them to reduce the cost and expand marketing channel. It also helps other social enterprises to build their websites, and runs Happynarae mall which exclusively sells products from social enterprise.
- 4. Happynarae tries to improve the cash flow of social enterprises. For that, it 100% uses its profit for the development of social enterprise ecosystem. Initially, it shares its profit from certain goods to the social enterprise which supplied those. Also, considering social enterprises’ weak financial foundation, Happynarae makes an early payment for social enterprises.
- 5. Happynarae organizes in-company pro-bono activity for social enterprises that need advice and expert knowledge. Moreover, Happynarae makes a constant contribution to local communities, through volunteering at local elderly welfare center. To improve the communication between social entrepreneurs, Happynarae holds regular Social Enterprise Partners Forum.
Business
Happynarae’s capital started with 80 billion won from SK Group, specifically SKI, SKT, SK C&C, SK Gas and SK Happiness Foundation. The two top share-holders are SKI and SKT.
Happynarae supplies maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) to companies in South Korea and to SK group companies. In 2013, Happynarae established a subsidiary company in China (Suzhou Happynarae Trading Co., Ltd). In the same year, it recorded annual sales of 200 billion won ($145,004.28820). It is still expanding its business across the globe and is investing its profit to other social enterprises.
Controversy
Happynarae was accused of forcing social enterprises to buy its anniversary set menu. Several informants claimed that Happynarae is exerting excessive power on partner companies. However, only one media outlet reported this controversy.[4]