Aju Group is conducting its innovative activities to reinvent a companywide corporate culture into a “creative” one. 

The group said on July 19 that the “AJU New Thinking (ANT) Management” brand, an integrated companywide innovative platform it used for the past 10-odd years, is being adopted throughout its management sector. The ANT Management system calls for all company members to achieve common dreams and vision based on collective intelligence, just as if they were ants. 

To this end, Aju Group adopted ANT Management based on the outcomes of a recent companywide naming contest and surveys. It decided to make it an integrated brand of the group’s goals and innovative activities. The group produced the logo and emblem of the new brand and plans to utilize it at in-housing educational programs and meetings. 

Aju Group has already developed the innovative platform “Rainbow,” which utilizes company members’ collective intelligence, and inaugurated an in-house venture system last year, setting them up as opportunities to awaken company officials’ creativity and spreading a companywide “startup DNA.” Rainbow is an integrated in-house communication platform, which takes an interactive approach so that any executives or staff member can propose ideas, set goals on a voluntary basis, execute and support them. Under the in-house venture system, if commercialization is granted, it may be separated into an in-house venture or an independent startup entity. For instance, the group’s first in-house venture on P2P secondhand cars, dubbed “NEST” is in place. 

ANT Management takes a cue from “Amoeba Management” created by Kyocera Chairman Kazuo Inamori. Amoeba Management is a unique management method designed to ensure organizational flexibility by allowing members of each unit, armed with expertise, to carry out their duties on their own on a voluntary basis as if amoebas behave. 

Aju Corp, a unit of Aju Group, has some business operations, including one in Gwangmyeong, Gyeonggi-do, which adopted a pilot program to introduce Amoeba Management to promote independence and responsibility by each unit. Aju Group Chairman Moon Kyu-young said, “Aju Group’s innovative activities are always now ongoing, and Aju Group’s sole corporate culture and innovative activities will be settled down with all members ranging from CEOs to staffs participating to complement horizontal communication culture.”

Aju Establishes Aju Myanmar to Tap Construction Material Market

Aju Group is making a foray into Southeast Asian markets by expanding production centers there. Aju Corporation, the construction materials unit of Aju Group, established Aju Myanmar, a locally incorporated body. 

It broke ground for a pre-tensioned spun high-strength concrete (PHC) pile production plant on March 30.

The Aju Myanmar plant, to be dedicated in late November at the earliest, will undergo a two-month equipment testing process before it goes into mass production in early next year.  An open-air storage yard covering 39,410 sq. meters, a two-story office building, a plant, and an aggregate structure will be established on an overall lot covering 59,822 sq. meters.

Aju Corporation obtained investment permission from the Myanmar government last December. The company plans to hire about 120 local workers. In principle, the plant site will be leased for 50 years, but it can be renewed for additional 25 years.