April showers in 2009 have not brought much May flowers to the business sectors in Korea. The global economic crisis hailed on the territories of the three Kings, as well. Would Samsung, Hyundai, and POSCO have built a greenhouse based on lessons learned in 2009, or just lay low until the sun shines again
Samsung
Samsung is a legendary survivor. Under the difficult economic situation last year, Samsung Electronics made a notable accomplishment, KRW 136 trillion in sales and KRW 11 trillion in operational profit to become the top global IT company. Just in the television sector, Samsung Electronics takes 22.1 percent of the global market share that is based on the record global sales for the last four years. The sales for cell phones have increased over 16 percent, taking 20 percent of the market share. Semiconductors, LSI, and LCD businesses all have shown significant growth.
Samsung also made some major changes to the operating system in 2009. By reconstructing the departments into seven, which are: semiconductor, LCD, wireless, display, network, household electronics, and IT solution--Samsung sought to bring efficiency and synergy effect in business. Samsung plans to develop convergence products and services, taking full advantage of every part and sets from the past.
Samsung's future development plan in health, environment, and life care areas also show a great potential to be a flourished garden.
In 2010, Samsung Electronics has set a new goal, 'VISION 2020' to reach US$400 billion in sales and be recognized as the world's top 10 company by year 2020. Samsung believes that differentiation is the key. In order to retain its championship, number one products must be upgraded with creativity. Samsung plans to specifically focus on the smart phone market. "We also strive to bring the runner up electronics such as printers and consumer electronics to be the number one products in the global market," Samsung spokesman said. Showering products and strategies of Samsung also shows a great potential to bloom May flowers.
Hyundai Motors
Compared to other businesses, Hyundai proceeded without a hitch in 2009 that brought a reward shower. Hyundai Avante has won the Segment Winner award; Genesis won the 2009 North American Car of the Year with its debut, and is ranked first in the compact sedan category of the Initial Quality Study (IQS). The credit goes to the President, Chung Mong-ku, the world's noted CEO who is rewarded with the CEO of the Year by Business Week and Best Asian CEO in Automotive by Automotive News.
Forbes recently quoted Claire Chung, marketing chief at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, "Hyundai took advantage of the recession to connect with respective buyers in large 'gesture' marketing moves that positioned them as empathetic, the carmaker successfully turned 'what was once seen as a poor-quality brand into one that has good quality'." Indeed in 1986, Hyundai Excel debuted in the U.S. market as a rising star. This small compact car immediately hit the sales record of 160,000 in the first year, but the low quality and service sank the brand image to the bottom. Since then, President Chung Mong-koo has successfully rebuilt the image of Hyundai with the Quality Improvement & Field Management plan.
Hyundai, which launched its first luxury car, the US$33,000 Genesis sedan this year, sold 20,136 cars in November 2009, a 75 percent increase over the same month in 2008.
Hyundai Motor is accelerating GQ-3.3.5.5 Project under the special command of President Jung Mong-koo. GQ stands for global quality, and Hyundai's new Creative Quality Management will push its global quality to be ranked third in three years, perceived quality to be ranked fifth in five years (GQ-3.3.5.5.) Genesis and Equus, therefore, are the ambitious work of Hyundai Motors.
POSCO
In 2009, POSCO has produced 29.5 million tons of steel, which added up to about KRW 27 trillion in sales. The economic recession of late 2008, has affected the operations and net profit to decline. POSCO quickly responded by changing the regime with a new President, Chung Jun-yang. Under the new President's emergency management system, the quarter based operations management was reset to be operated by months. POSCO successfully rolled over to the recovery phase with the reduction of KRW 1.36 trillion in prime costs. This was the largest saving in the history of POSCO. Also by strengthening the bases of both domestic and global markets, POSCO soared through the dark clouds.
POSCO Center in Seoul launched an official site called POREKA (compound world of EUREKA and POSCO) in hope of making the place to be the problem solving space for POSCO. POREKA encourages the employees' critical thinking and creativity. Effective management and cooperation of POSCO has recently retrieved the glory of the past. POSCO regained the title, Most Competitive Steel Maker, by World Steel Dynamics (WSD). WSD is the world's renowned analyst institution for steel companies. Based on 23 categories including size, technology, and profitability, POSCO was ranked number one from 2002 to 2004, but Russian and Indian companies have been ranked first until this year.
President Chung, said in January, "Let us enter the POSCO 3.0 Era, where our creativity and cutting-edge technology will bring us record sales of KRW 100 trillion as a 100 year old company and with 100 points given from our partners. A bright 2010, awaits us with E&C, resource development, energy, and ICT projects. We will take the best advantage of M&A as well. Major global projects in Indonesia and India will create a business synergy in emerging markets as well as in marine sectors." POSCO's creative and systematic shower is expected to Bring May flowers.
