This is the second of a series highlighting successful ethnic Korean entrepreneurs overseas. The series is supported by e-Bay Korea, JTI Korea, Korea Post and World OKTA. ― ED.
By Kim Tae-gyu
When people are desperate, they sometimes do extraordinary things.
PG Holdings Chairman Park Ki-chool says he owes his success to extraordinary things he did when in a desperate state.
``In 2000, I started my own business, selling computer parts in Singapore but things didn’t go as I expected and I lost all the investment in a year,’’ Park said in a recent interview. He worked for big companies before trying to strike out on his own.
``I thought of returning to Korea. But I could not and decided to give a last try in the automotive sector,” he said.
Park moved his business to nearby Malaysia where he stayed for three years in the 1980s while working for Ssangyong Engineering and Construction (E&C).
He would leave for Malaysia from Singapore early Monday morning and go back late on Fridays. During the weekdays, Park desperately looked for business opportunities but without much success.
When he was almost broke, one of his acquaintances asked whether or not he would be able to provide coil springs for the seats of used cars.
He took the offer gladly because he had little money left to support his wife and two daughters.
``Actually, I hardly knew anything about automobiles and their components such as coil springs for seats. But I had no other option but to assume the hard-earned chance at the time,’’ the 56-year-old recollected.
``My connection with cars was initiated through the supply contract of the coil springs, which offered me about a 20-percent margin, or some $2,000, and then began the history of PG Holdings.’’
Beginning with coil springs, he expanded the business horizon to car seats, wiring harnesses and in-car audio/video systems.
With such subsidiaries as CNA Manufacturing, PNA Technology and Forbes Electronics under its wing, PG Holdings’ annual sales topped 100 billion won in recent years and it aims to jack up this figure further down the road.
With 1,000-plus employees in factories in Malaysia, Vietnam and Russia, he catapulted PG Holdings to become a top-tier competitor in the auto component area.
Park also gained a strong personal reputation when he was appointed to head the Korean society in Singapore in early 2011 for two years. He is also an executive vice chairman at the World Federation of Overseas Korean Traders Association (World OKTA), an outfit of successful ethnic Korean entrepreneurs across the world.
After getting his bachelor’s degree in construction management, Park got aboard Ssangyong E&C in 1982.
Midway through 1985, Park moved to the Seoul-based contractor’s Malaysian unit so as to contribute to the Shah Alam project during the next three years.
He took flight to Singapore in 1990 to play an instrumental role in the company’s various businesses there such as the Suntec City project to construct a complex of high-rise buildings.
As part of one of Korea’s leading construction firms, Park had been relatively free from the rough and tumble of life during about the first two decades of his professional career.
Yet, a storm was around the corner ― the 1997 Asian financial crisis prompted many corporations, including Ssangyong E&C, to cut costs. Diminishing the size of overseas offices was part of restructuring.
Park was allowed to stay in Singapore but his family members were forced to return home, a policy that would save substantial expenses for the company.
He opted to part with his company rather than with his family because multinational construction firm Permasteelisa offered him a well-paying job as a director at its Singaporean branch, which he accepted in 1998.
``My life went pretty well with handsome incomes and the full support of my family. But I didn’t want to be content with the status quo. Hence, I decided to quit after a couple of years, a decision strongly opposed by my wife,’’ he said.
``But my first business collapsed in a year at the expense of a large proportion of my personal wealth. Thereafter, I had very hectic days for three or four years, as I sought to find ways of earning bread and educating my children.’’
One day in the early 2000s when he ventured into the automotive sector and was busily diversifying PG Holding’s business portfolio, his younger daughter asked him about his job.
``According to my daughter, her friends said behind her back that I might be a Korean mafia because I was not available at all,’’ Park beamed.
``My life was like that. Even my family members did not know what I was doing exactly. When I eventually showed them the PG Holdings factories, I was really proud _ you know, I proved I’m not a bad guy.’’
Asked about the main driving force behind his success, Park highlighted responsibilities.
``The spirit of challenge is important. But where do you think that such a spirit originates when the situation is terrible? It is a sense of urgency spawned by a sense of responsibility,’’ he said.
``In my case, I was desperate to feed my family and educate my children. Such a sense of responsibility led to a sense of urgency and eventually to success today.’’
Park added that he still feels a sense of responsibility and urgency.
``In the past, around the dawn of the new millennium, it was all about my family. But as the size of company gets bigger, it is now about the employees and I am required to care about them,’’ he said.
To complete his responsibilities, Park said that he needs to raise the profile of PG Holdings so that workers do not have to worry about the future of the firm and themselves.
``I still see many business opportunities in organic growth, not through mergers. My immediate goal is to double and triple the sales, which currently amounts to some 100 billion won, in several years,’’ he said. ``My eventual target is to reach the 1 trillion won plateau, which would be a tall order but not impossible.”