East-West Power (EWP) President Chang Joo-ok has been credited with his commitment to ensuring creative management by breaking the conventional mold and shedding inefficiencies since he took office in November 2011. With these management tactics in mind, CEO Chang has established future strategies with a global management vision and pursued shared growth management with SMEs to put EWP on the right track.
President Chang has introduced a shared service center to ramp up its competitive edge and has focused on establishing strategies to make inroads into foreign markets, as the company has done with the Kalsel thermal power plant project in Indonesia.
President Chang’s initiative to buck the trend based on a field-oriented management system has paid off. He has been around in the power industry for some 30 years, as he has been demonstrating his prowess as a field-oriented leader. In 1984 he entered KEPCO upon his graduation from university. The power industry expert-cum CEO has held such EWP positions as head of the fuel team, chief of the planning division as well as chiefs of KEPCO’s overseas resources development division and overseas business divisions.
Chang is noted for having implemented numerous best practices as a field expert by being innovative. For instance, as the head of EWP’s fuel team, Chang submitted a contract for transporting bituminous coal for generating power to an international bidding, which was awarded to NYK of Japan. That was a departure from the conventional practice of giving away contracts to a Korean shipping company. The move allowed them to buy more coal at cheaper prices, bringing more earnings to EWP, easing speculation and complaints by the Korean shipping industry.
Another innovative measure he implemented was purchasing coal through an internet reverse auction system instead of the conventional simple auction among power companies. He talked up his proposal to EWP directors and the CEO, persuading them to put suppliers to completion in consideration of a supply glut of Chinese coal. The new auction system brought benefits in terms of price and procurement period. Each auction saved $600,000 and $100,000 in buying Chinese and Indonesian bituminous coal, respectively.
“Management based on thinking of bucking the trend is how much anyone has an in-depth grasp of the field may yield different fruits,” President Chang said.
Top Priority is Communication with Staffers
President Chang attaches top management priority to facilitating smooth communication with his staff members. He is noted as a field-oriented CEO who frequently meets with his staff to lend an ear to their voices and complaints.
He is attentive to their voices.
In two months since taking office as EWP CEO, he met half of the 2,300 employees of the five power complexes across the nation. He even sometimes worked night shifts to talk to and listen to the concerns of power plant engineers. In particular, his smooth communication with rank-and-file officials has led to the overhaul of operational systems. Executives’ meetings and work reports have been telecast to all employees via the company’s intranet. Each department’s staffers have been allowed to participate in their heads’ work reporting session to enhance efficiency.
Human Resources Development Program
EWP President Chang’s key management tenet is human resources development. Recognizing the need for manpower development, Chang has explored the Human Resources Development (HRD) Program. The program is a kind of “reading management” program designed to make up for EWP's weaknesses. EWP is devoting itself to encouraging staffers to have self-development by opening a book cafe and diversifying reading programs to promote companywide reading.
“The establishment of the book cafe and the introduction of the companywide reading management program, dubbed ‘EWP’s Renaissance through Books’ are designed to help EWP staffers, mostly manpower from engineering departments, cultivate creative work capability based on comprehensive insights,” an EWP official said.
EWP has become the first public entity to set aside recruitment opportunities for the hiring gifted high school graduates, irrespective of their specifications. EWP won the Education Minister’s Prize at the 2014 Best HRD Certification in recognition of its human resources development innovation. EWP’s winning the award is owed to the company’s efforts to develop all employees into core elites, setting an example by innovating human resources among public entities.
EWP is noted for exploring gifted talent from the regional area, particularly women. EWP plans to increase the ranks of EWP women cadre members to 37 by 2017. The company has introduced a so-called Board of Women Directors to handle how to root out discrimination against women employees.
EWP has pledged to become a global energy company by re-launching its business on June 16, 2014, after relocating its headquarters from Samseong-dong, southeastern Seoul, to the innovative new city of Ulsan.
In line with the launch of “an era of Ulsan,” EWP has become the first public entity to introduce the smart office to spur creativity, create a horizontal corporate environment and enhance communication and cooperation between EWP executives and staff.
A smart office refers to the converging of advanced IT technologies and gadgets designed to dramatically improve work productivity by allowing employees to work at any place in an efficient fashion, departing from the conventional method of working in a fixed place.
In this regard, EWP operates flexible seating for team heads and team members in lieu of the existing cubicle style by tearing down partitions between departments and individuals.
To create its smart office, EWP has installed a virtual desktop infrastructure, fixed mobile convergence and cloud printing. The virtual desktop infrastructure is designed so the center can offer each user their own virtual desktop and data storage space, which are safe from outside hacking. It comes in handy for online and offline work. The fixed mobile convergence system substitutes each person’s cellular phone for the existing extension phone line to make it suitable for the flexible seating system. The cloud printing system offers a paperless office space by allowing the printing of documents without place limitations while maximizing office space and strengthening security.
Committed to Ensuring Shared Growth & Social Responsibilities
EWP is stepping on the gas to lay a solid foundation for sustainable growth by spreading models for advancing shared growth and differentiating itself from others with reinforced social contribution activities.
EWP is focusing on standardizing and spreading corporate models for advancing shared growth. The power company is making the rounds of power complex sites to explain the standardization and registration of corporate models. It plans to earn trademark and IP patents and register standard models in the industrial field with the Presidential Commission for Shared Growth.
EWP aims to nurture 30 “star” SME models for shared growth by offering programs tailored to meet corporate needs. The company is providing support to SMEs by developing core technology; turning its power sites into test-beds for experimenting with SMEs’ products; assisting marketing activities by setting up overseas branches under a common brand; sharing achievements and designating New Excellent Product (NEP) certificates; and by purchasing SMEs’ products. EWP has joined forces in participating in EPC-connected exhibitions in Korea and abroad and sending overseas market exploration delegations.
The company has established a model for hiring new employees from meister vocational high schools and is expanding the system to cover all worker categories. EWP has become the nation’s first company to introduce a quota for recruiting meister vocational high school graduates. EWP has made its mark in establishing open-minded recruiting systems such as raising the portion of gender equality from 10 percent to 15 percent and the rate of manpower from provincial districts other than the Seoul metropolitan area from 20 percent to 30 percent. The company has received diverse prizes for establishing and spreading a model for hiring new employees from meister vocational high schools.
EWP is earnestly implementing its corporate responsibility to the community by sharing its blessings. The company has been credited with creating common values by conducting social contribution activities related to power projects. EWP is implementing the so-called Power Project for Hope of Sharing Sunlight as part of its efforts to eradicate the energy divide.
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