Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Mong-koo traveled 44,000 km in just three months, prodding officials at Hyundai’s overseas production plants to enhance their quality and improve sales. Chairman Chung’s traveling distance is an equivalent to one lap around the Earth. Chung’s global journey was designed to take stock of the current production situation and the outlook for auto sales overseas. He stressed a determination to break through the hardships after seeing first-hand examples of the sagging global economy.
Chairman Chung’s journey started with a trip to Europe in August, which was designed to come up with a new strategy after taking stock of rapid changes in the European market, influenced by such things as the U.K.’s decision to leave the European Union. He then toured Hyundai Motor’s Russian plant, Kia Motors’ Slovakian plant, and Hyundai Motor’s Czech plant. While touring the production lines, he examined closely the quality of cars.
He called for continued growth by making the most of R&D and brand enhancement.
Chairman Chung then visited the United States and Mexico last month. He toured a U.S. sales location in Los Angeles and inspected the overall U.S. car market. He examined the production and marketing situations there and took stock of the luxury car market as the company launched its G80 and G90 (known as EQ900 in Korea) in the U.S. market.
Following his trip to the United States, Chung headed for Pesqueria, Nujebo Leon State, in Mexico, where he participated in a ceremony to dedicate a car plant. While delivering a speech there, Chairman Chung said, “(Hyundai Motor Group) will be a globally recognized car maker, based on foundations on quality management experiences that have been accumulated so far.”
His remarks may be interpreted as a need to be recognized as a top brand beyond the conventional premium brands. Kia Motors’ Mexican plant is the fourth the automaker has built overseas, following plants in China, Europe and the United States.
On Oct. 17, Chung attended a ceremony to dedicate Hyundai Motor’s new plant in Changzhou, Hebei Province, the automaker’s fourth in China. “Hyundai Motor will be able to launch anew in the Chinese market,” he said. Hyundai Motor’s Changzhou plant capable of 300,000 unit annually brings to 1.51 million units per year the automaker’s combined production capacity in China.
In particular, Chairman Chung has focused on “skinship management.” He had separate meeting with ranking Chinese officials, including Zhou Benshun, Hebei provincial Party Secretary, in which he pledged to produce top quality products to meet customers’ needs, which he said is not only a corporate responsibility, but also Hyundai Motor’s management tenet. The reason for the chairman’s focus on global field management is that competition is getting fiercer in the international automobile market amidst a prolonged economic downturn. Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors sold 5.62 million units globally in the first nine months of this year, a 1.8 percent decline over the same period of last year. The slump was attributable to the economic downturn and product losses caused by labor strife.
As Hyundai Motor saw its sales drop in the U.S. market in 1999, Chung came up with the “100,000-mile, 10-year guarantee” instead of the conventional 24,000-miles, two-year guarantee to overcome the crisis, a Hyundai Motor official said. As one of his management philosophies in the face of challenging times, Chung pledged to tour production centers across the globe to seek solutions.
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