By Jane Han
Staff Reporter
When POSCO CEO Lee Ku-taek took the helm of the Korean steel giant in 2003, the company wasn't the same as it is today. The formerly state-run firm's image was still largely rigid, its share price barely touched 100,000 won and its global presence wasn't impressive.
But the past six years was enough for Lee, who expressed his intent to step down Thursday to churn out some steely changes.
In numbers, the company's revenue doubled from 11.7 trillion won to over 22 trillion won, share prices quadrupled and annual production jumped to more than 30 million tons a year.
It sealed its position as the world's fourth-largest and Asia's third-largest steel maker.
The 40-year-old company's image was also boosted with Lee's emphasis on global management and corporate transparency.
Breaking away from local firms' traditional management practices, he helped enhance POSCO's governance structure and beefed up the percentage of outside directors to keep the company in check.
Emphasizing Six Sigma practice, a globally recognized performance management strategy, he made sure that the company upheld the highest standards in speed and quality.
All of these efforts appeared on the balance sheet amid soaring corporate value, with even world-renown billionaire investor Warren Buffett buying a piece of the steel group.
However, the accomplishments apparently weren't enough to help him override the recent hurdles ahead of him.
Lee's bold leadership was under growing scrutiny as repeated investment and expansion attempts from POSCO didn't go as planned in recent months.
The delay of a $12 billion steel plant in India and the last-minute fallout of acquiring Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering are some of the recent problems that have bothered the honed leader.
The 63-year-old is set to step down next month ― whether voluntarily or not ― with more than a year left in his tenure, but pundits commonly say that the ``POSCO Man's'' work over the past 30 years can't be undermined.
Known as a man ``who melts steel with his smile,'' Lee is widely recognized as a star CEO who breathed in a fresh air of challenge and competition to the steel maker, which has been the backbone of Asia's fourth largest economy's growth.
He often mentioned the book ``Good to Great,'' by Jim Collins, as the book that influenced him most.
Lee was quoted as saying in 2005 that the book helped him learn how to lead a company from being good to great, stressing that POSCO has all it takes to become a respected company.
But seeing the company's growth under Lee's stewardship, the CEO, who became an exemplary salary man's success story, is regarded as having done just that.