POSCO is conducting a massive campaign to establish itself as an advanced, exemplary company beloved by people.
Recognizing that Korea and Korean companies have made tremendous achievements through quick growth over a short period of time, and they also need to be the armed with the right stuff and an exemplary corporate culture corresponding to a country and companies that can maintain sustainable growth and be respected in the global community. POSCO has been carrying out a companywide drive to change its mindset starting May.
In particular, POSCO said a so-called “power-wielding contractor mentality,” in which powerful persons or companies bully the weak, is one of the biggest hurdles that bipolarize society and stand in the way of Korea becoming an advanced country. To eradicate the practice, the company has come up with the catchphrase “Respected You with a Considerate Mind.” POSCO has had regular meetings with eight outside contact departments, including marketing, purchase and HR, and five group subsidiaries to put it into practice.
POSCO Chairman Kwon Oh-joon said, “The power-wielding mentality not only impairs our corporate image and has an adverse impact, caused by clients’ mistrust, but also incurs intangible economic losses stemming from unnecessary conflicts.” He called for his officers and staff to eradicate the practice and settle upon a corporate culture based on trust and respect.
In this regard, about 1,200 people, including Chairman Kwon, POSCO executives, and CEOs of POSCO’s business partners, participated in an educational program held on Aug. 27 in which they watched a video showing that the discarding of the power-wielding contractor mentality not only gets rid of conflicts among interest parties, but also creates mutual synergetic energy.
POSCO also plans to conduct an on-line campaign in which all POSCO officers and staff pledge to translate into action a corporate culture of mutual respect. The written pledge enumerates five action guidelines — recognizing inside and outside stakeholder people as partners, putting yourself into other’s shoes, creating a freely discussing corporate culture, using polite expressions regardless of rank and position, and correcting wrongful practices and process.
POSCO continues to conduct the mutually respecting campaign. Starting in September, the company will open a compulsory course on the harm of the power-wielding mentality and ways of communicating among staff members so that a corporate culture based on trust and respect can take root.
POSCO 10th Anniversary of QSS+, the Innovation DNA for a Lasting Corporation
POSCO's unique innovation program, QSS+, has marked its 10th anniversary. The company has established healthy manufacturing sites by carrying out its QSS+ program at Pohang and Gwangyang works over the past decade to transform itself and bring out a variety of achievements.
POSCO has been the No. 1 steelmaker in the world for seven consecutive years.
This remarkable achievement has been possible due to the continual improvements being made in the workplace environment and the facility competitiveness through QSS+. This is the result of both tangible and intangible efforts made by the employees who created the unique innovation DNA of POSCO by developing Six Sigma into QSS and then QSS+.
That POSCO has maintained its competitive edge regardless of crises can be attributed to QSS+. Over the past decade, the employees have managed to reduce the rate of fine dust generation as well as obstacles for facilities and unexpected glitches. They have also improved the operation ratio to 95 percent, by focusing on completing more than 8,000 cases of improvement assignments under the slogan that “we will protect our facilities ourselves.” The continuous efforts to undertake improvement assignments have also contributed to the nurturing of suitable talents for each site, improving trust between employees and establishing a positive organizational culture.
QSS+ is a derivative of Six Sigma and QSS. Having been adopted by global companies such as GE and Sony, Six Sigma is a strategy for management innovation that has been considered quite effective. POSCO judged Six Sigma as being useful for realizing financial achievement.
It was, however, difficult to learn and apply into the daily work process, which led to the establishment of POSCO's unique innovation program, QSS+ in 2005.
POSCO operated a trial plant for about a year to confirm the effectiveness of the program, and officially started QSS in May 2006. As QSS was suitable for application at the sites, and easily accessible for any employee, it spread to all the companies in POSCO as a culture that creates healthy facilities.
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