Ch. 12: Globalization, Innovation, and 21st Century Organizational Trends{0}
Hyundai Engineering and Construction has been making serious progress in globalization, along with their market at home. When CEO Kim Joong-kyum took over the comapny at the beginning of 2009, the company was suffering in both the global and local markets. Many of their overseas projects were on hold due to the financial crisis. Orders were shrinking and the competition was growing. Kim almost single handedly steered the company out of its worst economic slump in company history. He started locally by campaigning to win orders to redevelope houses in the metropolitian area. His redevlopment then scattered nation wide. Kim then knew that he had to expand his efforts globally. At 60 years old, he was travelling world wide meeting personally with clients on the site. Since these efforts from Kim, the sales numbers are up 43% from this same time last year. The total sales came out to 4.6 trillion won. One of the keys to Kim’s success is maintaining a great staff of employees. His philosophy is that personell makes or breaks a business so he keeps a personal relationship with them and eats luch witht them and keeps their needs met. This is to ensure he get the maximun use of the employees talents. Kim also realizes that there is much more than just construction involved in his business, so he gets teams to research things such as enviromentally friendly methods.
I think that Kim Joong-kyum is what all leader should look to when needing an example of how o lead a company. He keeps his employees individually happy which provokes the greatest work to come from them. He also meets with his clients on the site ready to go. Looking at the improvement the company has made globally shows the importance of maintaing the global market along with the local market.
Han, Jane. Hyundai E&C Redefines Globalization Under new CEO. Korea Times. oct. 2009.
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2009/10/123_54308.html