Growing the Pie: Hongik-Ingan as Business
“Broadly benefit humanity” is not a moral platitude or one-way charity. It is the most powerful business principle there is: expanding the possibilities of the market, society, and the whole ecosystem by benefiting more people.
Growing the pie: Hongik-Ingan as business.
The world has long been accustomed to fighting over a fixed pie.
It's the zero-sum mindset: my share grows only by taking someone else's, my position solidifies only by pushing others out.
But the great leaps that reshaped markets have always come not from those who divided the pie more precisely, but from those who overwhelmingly grew the size of the board itself.
I believe at the summit of that strategy sits “Hongik-Ingan (弘益人間)” — broadly benefit humanity.
Hongik-Ingan is neither an abstract moral doctrine nor one-way charity that gives away what one has. It is the most powerful business principle there is: expanding the possibilities of the market, society, and the entire ecosystem by benefiting more people.
A structure where I monopolize the gains inevitably meets resistance. Growth sustained only on someone else's loss shakes as competitors multiply, and hits the limits of expansion as the list of things to defend grows.
By contrast, a structure where customers, members, partners, and society as a whole gain more value than before expands on its own.
There's no need to force persuasion or push anyone out. People participate voluntarily for their own benefit, and more participation creates more value — a virtuous cycle begins.
When I grow the board, it isn't only my share that grows.
Customers use better products, members gain bigger opportunities, partners grow alongside, and society gains possibilities it never had. And all of that value returns as the company's growth.
This is the business of growing the pie.
The most powerful company is not the one that tries to rule the world. It is the one that creates benefit so large the world cannot do without it.
The most overwhelming influence, likewise, is not built by seizing someone else's share. It is completed when you change the very size of the board so that more people can claim a larger share.
To broadly benefit the world, and with that benefit expand the size of the market and society.
Hongik-Ingan is not a phrase confined to an ancient founding ideal.
It is the oldest — and most futuristic — business philosophy that we must now prove through products, technology, and companies.