The Korea Times

Volt is future for now but will you buy that future?

By Oh Young-jin To the untrained eye, the Chevy Volt looks as ordinary as the next car. After all, it is GM’s popular subcompact sedan the Cruze on the outside. But that is about where similarities end. To power-hungry, RPM-conscious guzzler lovers, the Volt, the American carmaker’s first mass-produced green vehicle, would be a curiosity at best and an affront to their masculinity. If you take a ride in a Volt, you may think again. But the bottom line about the Volt, a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, is you may feel good about doing something to improve the health of our planet. The Volt was chosen as the most fuel-efficient subcompact vehicle in the United States, beating the Toyota Prius. A footnote is that some GM people don’t like the Volt being called a hybrid ― their term is “an extended-range electric vehicle.” Let’s start with the ride. GM Korea offered a test ride of one of three Volts available in Korea to The Korea Times Tuesday. Two GM officials were present in the vehicle with an additional gasoline-powered vehicle assigned as a guide vehicl

Jul 20, 2011By Oh Young-jin

Economy

In Person: Let’s learn from Kookmin CEO

Always smiling, Min is a master of martial art and sales By Oh Young-jin Rarely has this column described, from the start, its subject person as an example to learn from, especially when he or she has been in their job just one year. But it was shortly after the interview began that it was made apparent to our team that Min Byong-deok, CEO of Kookmin Bank, has a lot more to offer than what we had expected. The interview, which was conducted at his Yeouido office, only lasted 35 minutes, about half the time given by others. We had agreed on a shorter time partly because we believed the interview with Min would be business as usual. CEOs of banks under the wing of the four top financial groups are subordinate to group chairmen and often regarded as chairmen’s CEOs. Secondly, reflecting their position in the chain of command, they rarely speak frankly. The 58-year-old career banker fit this typeset image, eclipsed by the charismatic Chairman Euh Yoon-dae. As a matter of fact, Min was chosen for the job last July through Euh’s novel way of naming his top lieutenant —

Jul 17, 2011By Oh Young-jin

Companies

Lone Star lessons

The ongoing Lone Star saga is a case from which plenty of lessons can be learned by both Koreans and foreign investors. For Koreans, Lone Star was first seen as predatory private equity fund looking to maximize its profits by using whatever means. After all, the Texas-based fund purchased the Korea Exchange Bank (KEB) at a fire-sale price at a time of national crisis in Korea. Now, it is trying to redeem its stake for at least twice as much as it paid through dividends and the sale price it is likely to get. If Lone Star had succeeded in one of its repeated attempts to sell its controlling stake and left Korea that would be the end of the story with the image of Lone Star as a global financial pirate. But as the luck would have it, the story has dragged on. Now Korean regulators had failed to match their words about the early settlement of the Lone Star issue with actions. In other words, the public is simply fed up with the Lone Star struggle, which perpetually portrays Koreans as a victim. Now, the sentiment is shifting to get it over with. Of course, it wou

Jul 13, 2011By Oh Young-jin

Opinion

Praising Lee Kun-hee

By Oh Young-jin Assistant managing editor I wanted to title today’s column as “Lee Kun-hee’s tears” but decided not to at the last minute after finding at least five columns with similar titles on my website checkup. It was a humbling experience because it showed there were other people who beat me even to what I (mis)judged to be my unique perspective. It was, however, an assuring confirmation because I am not far off from the league of conventional thought. Another disclaimer is that this column was submitted to the Editorial Board with the title “Praising Lee Kun-hee , humanizing Samsung,” but chances are that only the first half will likely survive because of space constraints. I won’t shed tears about. Let’s start with the photo in question, capturing Lee, the 69-year-old Samsung Electronics chairman and leader of Korea’s biggest business empire, tightening his lips to make the corners of his mouth rounder, while his eyes narrowed as if to fight back tears. It was a typical facial reaction showing a person in a high emotional state either in joy or sorrow j

Jul 12, 2011By Oh Young-jin

Economy

Arcamone the tough negotiator

'How you treat people is more important than nationality.' By Oh Young-jin It was a setup that better suited an executives’ meeting rather than an interview. Mike Arcamone, CEO of GM Korea, was rising from his seat when we entered a conference room at Millennium Hilton Seoul’s business center. Together with him were two junior GM employees plus Arcamone’s top PR officer. On the table was a notepad per seat plus a bottle of water and a plate of cookies. Slight disorder on the table of the objects laid out hinted the GM Korea CEO was having his second back-to-back interview of the day. The previous one lasted about an hour. As soon as hands were shaken and seats occupied, a thrust was made to check his level of alertness since an hour of answering questions could make one weary and tempted to repeat the same speech for the following one. “Are we in a labor-management negotiation of numerical inequality?’ was the gist of the feeler question. GM Korea was in the midst of talks concerning wages with the union. Arcamone didn’t take the bait, pointing out that our

Jul 10, 2011By Oh Young-jin

Companies

SK in factory-building rush

By Oh Young-jin SK Group is pressing to lay the foundations for its future growth businesses, company officials say. The conglomerate has started construction for four production facilities this year, showing the intensity of its efforts to find and adopt forward-looking sources of income. This fast-paced approach was well presaged by the group’s Chairman Chey Tae-won, who earlier this year talked about the creation of “new growth engines that can be globally recognized and adopted.” The new projects include the establishment of an “incubating nationwide network” connecting nine key cities, designated in groups as the future stronghold of three new businesses such as ecology, the bio-industry and future materials at a total cost of 4 trillion won. Under this broad theme, SK Chemicals broke ground for a facility in which support raw materials for vaccines will be provided in Andong, North Gyeongsang Province. The project is being pushed by the central government, local governments of the province and the city as well as SK Chemicals. A unique feature for this facil

Jul 3, 2011By Oh Young-jin

Economy

In future, will Apple be KTs friend or foe?

By Oh Young-jin KT is not what it was a couple years ago. The second largest mobile carrier, whose business roots date back to the days of fixed-line services under state control, is as vibrant as ever, leading the way in the era of smartphones. What has caused the change? It would be hard to deny that at the heart of KT’s change is its Chairman Lee Suk-chae, who served as a senior bureaucrat at the last stage of the development dictatorship, who brought in the iPhone. Lee’s right-hand man in forging ahead with KT’s iPhone revolution is Pyo Hyun-myung, a 52-year-old with a Ph.D. in electronic engineering from Korea University, who works as president of KT’s Mobile Business Group. KT has another president who is in charge of the fixed line business. Since he has played a key role in the introduction of the iPhone to Korea, the first question to be asked during a recent interview was about Apple’s after-sale service, which is the subject of considerable griping. The second was whether KT is preparing for the postiPhone era. Considering the nature of the two questions, Py

Jul 3, 2011By Oh Young-jin

Companies

SK leader fuels robust growth in oil business

Numbers only tell half the story about SK Group’s rise in the oil business. SK’s sales in the field amounted to only about 4 trillion won in 1991. Last year, they ballooned to 46 trillion won. Exports accounted for 60 percent of the total sales, ranking the second largest export firm in Korea. The amount of fossil fuel reserves reached 530 million barrels, 10 times more than 20 years ago. Now, Korea’s petrochemical firm is branching out into non-fossil fuel areas such as cleaner natural gas and other forms of green energy. The other half of SK’s success story concerns management. According to company officials, Chey Tae-won, the group’s chairman introduced a management strategy of concentration in 1991. It involved opening nine factories in SK’s petrochemical complex located in Ulsan, ranging from refining, petrochemicals and film to textiles. Chey concluded that globalization would be the ultimate ticket to growth, as laid out in his 2000 New Year speech when he referred to “Globalized Innovative Marketing.” It was repeated but in more concrete terms re

Jun 28, 2011By Oh Young-jin

Opinion

Huh’s defiance

By Oh Young-jin Few had expected Huh Chang-soo, GS Group chairman, to speak out when he took office as chairman of the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) four months ago. Above all, the big business lobby has been compliant since its birth in the middle of the nation’s era of development through dictatorship, to whatever calls the government in power at any given time made. Nowadays, the FKI no longer enjoys its “intimate” relationship with the government, with none of the big five conglomerates bothering to serve the post that once was seen as coveted for an opportunity to hobnob with those with power. When Huh came in as FKI leader the consensus was that the leader of the conglomerate, which split from LG and centers around the nation’s second largest refiner, GS Caltex, would be more of the same as his lesser-known predecessors. Besides, the 63-year-old GS leader is known to be a “gentleman in the business community.” But Huh has defied conventional thought about him twice in three days. First, he blasted the political circle for the promotion of populist poli

Jun 24, 2011By Oh Young-jin

Companies

SK sets pace to secure resources

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won makes it a rule to visit places where there are natural resources to tap such as South America, the Middle East or anywhere else, irrespective of distance. His globe-trotting endeavor is not just to boost the bottom line of his energy business but, more broadly, for the nation’s energy security, company officials say. As a matter of fact, Chey chose as his management priority for this year “making the country resources-rich.” Matching his words with actions, he visited a rubber factory of SK Networks in the hinterland of Indonesia in April. His trip involved an airplane flight, two chopper rides and a jeep trip through thick rainforest, the officials said. “It was Chairman Chey’s show of determination to stay close to where the action is, in this case, the site where rubber is harvested,” an official said. “The area is infested with malaria and other indigenous diseases. It was quite a risk for the chairman but the employees were happy to see their boss show concern for them.” The location of the rubber plant in question is on a 60-yea

Jun 20, 2011By Oh Young-jin

Oh Young-jin

Read more

Volt is future for now but will you buy that future?

In Person: Let’s learn from Kookmin CEO

Lone Star lessons

Praising Lee Kun-hee

Arcamone the tough negotiator

SK in factory-building rush

In future, will Apple be KTs friend or foe?

SK leader fuels robust growth in oil business

Huh’s defiance

SK sets pace to secure resources

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