KEPCO E&C President & E&C Park Koo-woun set the 2015 management buzzword as “seokjeongyeongwoo,” which is a Chinese saying that translates into “perseverant ox converting rocky soil into a good soil,” and he called for his executives and staff members to join forces to proactively take up diverse challenges rather than avoiding them, and making strenuous efforts to explore creative solutions.
“The past 40 years was a period of challenges and responses in which KEPCO E&C has come a long way in technology self-sufficiency and advancement into a global market through fulfillment of missions of the times,” Park said. “On the occasion of marking the 40th anniversary this year, we at KEPCO E&C embark on a new historic journey by solidifying a foundation for a leap forward for the new 40 years, not just overcoming another types of challenges ahead us.”
“The year 2015 ought to be a time in which we have to devote our all energies to achieving technology innovation for a 2nd leap forward, and we cannot say corporate management without innovation,” Park said.
At the very beginning of the new year, a stream of uncertainties such as foreign currency exchanges, crude oil price and global economic variables come to a head, said President Park, adding that the government, pledging a full-fledged realization of the three-year economic innovation plan, is concentrating on structural reform in four areas — the public, financial, labor and education sectors.
The government’s reforming of the public sector over last year focused on getting rid of lax management and reducing debts. Realigning of functions, overhauling fundamentals and other refined types of reform will likely be pushed strongly, and KEPCO E&C should rise to a technologically innovative company controlling the global market by achieving structural innovation in all sectors, including management, labor-management relationships and corporate culture, Park said.
Quoting from the Art of War by Sun Tzu that victories cannot be repeated in identical methods, President Park called for flexibility to establish strategies which suit changing business conditions in an age of globalization and creative innovation as a breakthrough.
Park stressed that just offering better customer services through securing competitiveness based on conventional technologies and services cannot attain a sustainable competitive edge in the rapidly changing global market.
“We have to secure the solid upper hand in the paradigm change of the new energies not only by enhancing efficiency through selecting and concentrating its own technology capacity and resources, but also regenerating into new and innovative technologies,” he said.
President Park urged his executives and staff members to lay a foundation this year for the resurgence of new energy industries, which will likely have future growth spill-over effects.
He called for KEPCO E&C to push for technological innovation in new energy industries, ranging from ensuring the safety of nuclear power to clean coal technology. The goal, he said, is solidifying the company’s standing as a market leader with mid- to long-term perspectives of advancing its commercialization an entry into markets.
“The year 2015 is a more significant year in which KEPCO E&C will move to Gimcheon Innovative City, which will emerge as its growth center,” he said.
Park said he expects the relocation to serve as opportunities to cherish the regional values of the new land as the epicenter of innovation and creation for the next 100 years, as well as to sow the seeds of hope and create infrastructure to rise to a world-class technology company, leading the creation of global energy technologies.
He also appealed for all KEPCO E&C staffs to unite their wisdom and make preparations for the next generation of KEPCO E&C members, so they can square off in global competition proudly based on elder generation KEPCO E&C members’ contributions.
“KEPCO E&C’s management will spearhead the creation of a beautiful corporate culture in which different opinions and different approaches can be put to public debate for sharing and exploring solutions,” he said. “KEPCO E&C members are the closest colleagues in the world who go for the same goal at the same place.”
Whatever tasks are in front of them, Park called for the company to be reborn into a healthy organization — a trustworthy and dependable one like the old adage, “Where there is a will together, there is an accumulation of wisdom.”
He expounded three requisites for making the company a prosperous one. First, he cited hope. Second, he called for the development of the company and each member through challenging a common goal in a cohesive manner. Third, he cited the company’s capability to cope with a crisis.
