Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) President Cho Hwan-eik (photo: KEPCO)

Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) President Cho Hwan-eik has enumerated the innovating of corporate culture, transforming Naju into an energy hub, and exploring new energy growth engines as his company’s top priority tasks for the new year. 

Cho said at a New Year’s gathering of KEPCO executives and staff members on Jan. 2 at the KEPCO headquarters in Seoul, “If all are scrambling to sites and they are making the most of their own network to address the pending issues, it will result in better benefits.”

Cho suggested the new year’s business buzzword “jimsagwangik” in Chinese characters, meaning that the gathering of ideas from several persons will bring about better benefits and new values.

He said, “It is the energy sector that could bear fruit and come closer to becoming the source of new growth engines. Energy storage systems, efficiency improvement, environment protection, power transmission and distribution, and other technologies need to be put on the market and transformed into our future breadwinners.”

Here are excerpts of KEPCO President Cho’s message. 

“As I took office on Dec. 17, 2012, I floated the management buzzword “musinbullip,” meaning that KEPCO now badly needs the restoring of mutual trust. I’ve sensed the frustration our KEPCO family expressed over the broken relationship and dented pride while looking back at the past.

“As such, I proposed the buzzword since I thought it is most significant for us to enhance awareness that ‘we are one family’ so as to restore mutual trust. Under the catchphrase, ‘I’ve loved KEPCO, and in return, KEPCO has supported me. We’ve devoted ourselves to regaining trust from both the inside and the outside. Outside assessments indicate that KEPCO has turned out to have changed much. I see we’ve managed to address the thorniest issues one by one while hearing these assessments. 

“Despite the difficult times, we’ve tided over a power shortage crisis that hit last summer, which appeared to be an impossible thing, with our 20,000-member KEPCO family spearheading energy conservation campaigns like ‘surfing the waves.’ Despite the prevailing pessimistic views, we’ve made it ultimately on top of raising electricity charges by about 10 percent during last year, an unprecedented feat in our history. KEPCO has finally solved several issues of conflict one by one, including the confrontation in Milyang (over the construction of transmission towers). We’ve also displayed the right stuff to make the 2013 World Energy Congress in Daegu, the nation’s biggest extravaganza energy event, a success amidst a partly unprepared situation.

“The biggest feat we’ve made is our entering profit-making territory pending the settlement of accounts in the 2013 fiscal year whose final report is to be released in late January. I hope KEPCO will chalk up a profit for the first time in six years. In the meantime, I suggested the so-called “S.O.S,” calling for being more “soft,” more “open-minded” and more “swift.” I now see a slow-moving KEPCO turning into a nimble one with an aggressive, open-minded attitude and keeping on speeding from now on. 

Our overall self assessment of last year indicates we’ve successfully established a trust-building structure, but when it comes to taking another step forward based on trust, it is not sufficient. 

“For the new year, I propose the business buzzword “jimsagwangik,” meaning, you should be off and running while gathering ideas from several people to bring about greater benefits and new values. You have to solve many issues before galloping forward. We have to tackle the pending issues that are pressed for time and make preparations to brace for other issues ahead.”