The reason Lee Soo Man’s position in SM has decreased, “His decision on Chinese idol members was the problem”
It is said that Lee Soo Man’s dependence on the China market was one of the factors that created negative public opinion towards SM.
On February 3rd, SM Entertainment announced the “SM 3.0” strategy on its official Youtube channel.
According to “SM 3.0”, SM plans to introduce a multi-production center/label system to produce mega intellectual property (IP) and establish publishing subsidiaries with 100% investment from SM.
In particular, fans are raising high expectations that Lee Soo Man‘s resignation will speed up the progress of the project by changing the production system and accelerating the decision-making process after escaping from the one-man management system.
However, the conflict between Lee Soo Man and SM continues. Kim Min Jong, a singer, actor and outside director of SM C&C, sent an e-mail to all employees on February 3rd, claiming, “Contrary to their announcement, co-CEOs Lee Sung Soo and Tak Young Joon, who are working for Lee Soo Man and SM Family, cut their contact with Lee Soo Man and unilaterally announced their plan without consulting with people from the inside”.
Producer Yoo Young Jin also emphasized, “I can’t agree with the decision of excluding Lee Soo Man from the production. I’m upset that the role of the most important producer in content production was left out”, adding “I’m shocked that they unilaterally decided to part ways with Lee Soo Man without consulting him. SM without Lee Soo Man’s producing skills is not SM anymore.”
On the other hand, there are also many people who support SM without Lee Soo Man. On the online community Blind for office workers, comments criticizing Kim Min Jong and showing support for “SM 3.0” also poured out. An employee said, “As we are entering the era of 4th-generation idols, I felt that the management system is not sophisticated as a corporation with songs, concept, marketing and trillion-unit market capitalization”, adding “We won’t be able to keep up with others in the market without major changes. Don’t be too into the past and we have to stay alert”.
Some people pointed out that Lee Soo Man’s dependence on the China market has created negative public opinion. He has included Chinese members in many SM groups with the aim of targeting the Chinese market. However, when Chinese members of Super Junior and EXO left and caused problems, insiders already questions the effectiveness of having Chinese members but Lee Soo Man’s strong will calmed the public down.
Above all, complaints about Lee Soo Man’s attitude, which showed an ambiguous position for some reasons in the process of choosing the candidates between Kakao and CJ ENM for an acquisition last year, are also growing. Rather than the development of SM, he was too obsessed with the conditions under which his own shares were evaluated at the highest price.
Lee Soo Man has led SM Entertainment as an executive producer since he founded the company in 1995. After stepping down as a director in 2010, he has received more than 20 billion won every year from SM through the production conducted by his private company Like Planning. As of 2021, he received 24 billion won, about one-third of SM’s annual operating profit.
In response, Align Partners, a minor shareholder and capital management, has raised issues about the contract between SM and Lee Soo Man since September last year, signaling a legal response. Later, on the 20th of last month, it agreed with SM to 12 conditions related to the company’s management and operation. Lee Soo Man’s resignation is also known to be one of the agreement condition made at that time.
Source: wikitree
