# Gowoonsesang's CEO Builds a Workplace Around an Idea He Calls Protectorship

> Lee Joo-ho, who runs the company behind the Dr.G skin care brand, describes a culture in which staff and management protect each other and grow together, an approach he set out in a management book published this year.

- Source: Korea First
- Canonical URL: https://koreafirst.tv/article/gowoonsesang-cosmetics-protectorship-lee-joo-ho
- Author: Korea First Staff
- Section: Money
- Published: 2025-02-20T08:30:00.000Z
- Updated: 2025-02-20T08:30:00.000Z
- Tags: Gowoonsesang Cosmetics, Dr.G, Lee Joo-ho, Corporate Culture, Beauty

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Gowoonsesang Cosmetics, the company best known for its Dr.G skin care brand, has built its workplace culture around a concept its chief executive, Lee Joo-ho, calls protectorship, a relationship in which the company and its employees protect one another and grow together.

Lee describes protectorship as a deliberate answer to what he sees as self-centred individualism, an attempt to put mutual support and a sense of community at the centre of how the company operates. He set the idea out at length in a management book, titled Protectorship, published in January, which traces the company's growth alongside his own path as a leader.

## How it shows up

The philosophy translates into fairly concrete policies. Employees can work from home twice a week and choose their own hours, and the company describes its aim as creating a demanding environment in which people can become independent professionals rather than one that simply asks for loyalty.

The test of a phrase like protectorship is whether it survives contact with a difficult year, and the company has had a few. It reports steady sales growth at home and abroad despite the strain of Korea China tensions and the pandemic, the sort of stretch in which cultures built on mutual obligation are either proven or quietly abandoned.

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Originally published by Korea First. Free to cite with attribution and a link to https://koreafirst.tv/article/gowoonsesang-cosmetics-protectorship-lee-joo-ho.