KT Chairman Hwang Chang-gyu called for his company to make 2015 a watershed year by gaining trust from the market.
The chairman summoned a baseball metaphor to explain last year’s performance and this year’s expectations: “Last year was a year when players did practice games to rehabilitate themselves from injuries, but this year will be a year when players rack up great performances,” Chairman Hwang said.
KT Chairman Hwang, accompanied by heads of each division and union leaders, toured the Gangbuk Customer Center in the Seoul metropolitan area, exchanged New Year’s greetings with staff members, and delivered a message concerning harmony between management and labor and site-oriented management.
It was one of the gatherings the chairman held as he launched the 2015 business year on Jan. 2.
In his message delivered over the in-house broadcasting service, Chairman Hwang looked back last year, saying that 2014 was a year of a hard times and the lesson the group learned was that they’re group is “one” and minute details should not be neglected.
He said the telecommunications market is unpredictable due to the enforcement of the Act on the Distribution of Handsets, and the fixed-line market is not good.
“What is more important is what outcome we make reap in the first half in order to gain trust from the market and mark a watershed,” he said.
Chairman Hwang made the point that creative and challenging companies tend to create markets and have the upper hand over them. He urged the company to make KT Group a No. 1 company by concentrating its capacity after breaking the conventional mold and habits.
He expounded the direction of KT’s management, citing an example of KT’s baseball team, “kt wiz,” in which all team members strive to improve their personal records, but sometimes they have to sacrifice themselves to help their team win.
KT needs to upgrade itself one step higher by reinventing its foundation to gain long-term competitiveness rather than running forward, he said.
Citing a case of Big Data, Hwang said, KT will make a difference with competitors if subsidiaries’ service, technology, manpower and infrastructure are converged.
Site-oriented communication, collaboration and empowerment are prerequisites to realizing differentiation, so KT will have to review all duties in the perspective of sites and customers and make it routine, he said.
Hwang said it is necessary for KT to regularize customer-first policies and foster a group-wide environment of communication and collaboration for empowerment.
Such social contribution activities as GiGa Island and GiGa School KT, which have been implemented last year, are designed to contribute to state and society via its advanced technologies, “and publicize the GiGaTopia we’re dreaming of,” said Chairman Hwang, adding, “Let’s make KT an innovative company beloved by people, which is committed to contributing to state and public interests.”
In particular, he said, “K-Champ” – announced by KT in 2014 – and the Creative Economy and Innovation Center in Pangyo, Gyeonggi-do are future growth models designed to nurture Korean SME and mid-size superstars and pursue global exploration.
He said he will take the initiative to reinvigorate KT and incentivize employees with rewards.
