Chung, Mong-koo, Chairman Emeritus of Hyundai Motor Group, inspects a production site during a visit to Hyundai Motor's Alabama plant in the U.S. in March 2005.[Yonhapnews]
The business leadership of Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Emeritus Chung, Mong-koo(86) and Chairman Chung, Eui-sun(54), the second and third generation of the Chaebol, is in the spotlight.
Chairman Chung, Mong-koo inherited Hyundai Motor Company after a severe 'sibling dispute' and upgraded the company with 'quality management'. Chairman Chung, Eui-sun then established Hyundai as one of the top three global brands.
It is extremely rare to see a group like Hyundai, founded by the late entrepreneur Chung, Ju-young, become such a great fortress through the second and third generations. Only the case of Samsung Chairman Lee, Kun-hee, who took Samsung to a great leap forward in global management, surpassing the late Samsung founder Lee, Byung-chul, is notable in the business world.
In this report, we will focus on Chung, Mong-koo's untold story of "quality management" and his management abilities, achievements, and secrets, focusing on the "leadership of humility and listening" that Chairman Chung, Eui-sun was thoroughly educated in through home education by his mother.
"In short, he is an undiscovered management genius," says a former senior executive at Hyundai Motor Company who worked closely with Chairman Emeritus Chung, Mong-koo.
While the outside world only knows that Chung bulldozed his way through quality management and created tension through frequent executive reshuffles, those who worked with him say he is "a born entrepreneur who is thoroughly calculated."
Chairman Emeritus Chung, Mong-koo took over as chairman and CEO of Hyundai Motor Group in 1999 and worked tirelessly for 30 years until 2018, when he handed over the reins to his only son, Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung, Eui-sun, to revive and grow Hyundai from the brink during the IMF financial crisis.
"It must have been around 2,000," says the former executive, "and suddenly Chairman Chung, Mong-koo told us to select 30 of the smartest employees in the Ulsan Research Center and send them to the Seoul headquarter. We were all puzzled, because we thought, 'What is he going to do?
The former executive says that when he saw what happened next, he admired Chairman MK (the initials of Chairman Emeritus Mong-koo Chung)'s idea.
The mission of the 30 researchers was to monitor complaints from sales sites around the world, including Korea, the U.S., Europe, and South America, in real time around the clock, categorize them by production sector, and immediately send them down to the production site to solve problems.
This feedback system, in which 30 people work in three shifts to collect consumer complaints at the headquarter around the clock and immediately send them down to the production site to solve problems, is the core of 'quality management'.
"It sounds simple, but in a large company like Hyundai, it is difficult to solve problems quickly due to bureaucracy and departmental divisions. I think that recognizing these barriers and creating a solution system is the basis for creating the No. 1 quality automobile brand in the world today."
MK said this system helped him identify problems at every step of the way, from lab design to production to assembly.
So how did Chairman Chung, Eui-sun take over Hyundai Motor Group four years ago and steadily build Hyundai into a 'global top-three' brand?
According to those who have observed the Hyundai family, it is because he learned the ability to exercise managerial wisdom from his father and inherited the character traits of "listening and humility" from his mother, a devout Christian.
The story centered on these stories and anecdotes will continue in Part 2.
By Chung, Goo-hak
ghchung@naver.com
저작권자 ⓒ 비즈체크, 무단 전재 및 재배포 금지