POSCO adopts inventive sales ideas

POSCO employees learn problem-solving skills during a class run by the steel manufacturer at its research and development center in Songdo, Incheon. / Courtesy of POSCO

By Yi Whan-woo

POSCO is using a problem-solving theory developed by former USSR inventor Genrich Saulovich Altchuller to improve its business performance, the company said Thursday.

According to the theory, called Teoriya Resheniya Izobretatelskih Zadach (TRIZ), problems and solutions are repeated across industries and sciences, and patterns of technical evolution are repeated across industries and sciences.

This theory is widely accepted among managers as a tool to create and improve products, services and systems.

And POSCO, the country’s leading steelmaker, has successfully boosted sales and improved quality of its products since it applied TRIZ in its management since 2003.

“Creativity has become crucial for efficient business management since the mid-2000s and we try to take advantage of TRIZ as much as possible.”

In particular, it developed its own business model based on TRIZ jointly with the Art of War, an ancient Chinese treatise about military tactics.

“Such a model allows us to find out and solve problems in setting up our plan, and it is protected by patent for its uniqueness,” the company said.

According to the steel manufacturer, it used the model in building an underwater tunnel connecting two industrial complexes in Gwangyang and Yeosu, South Jeolla Province.

It said it also was able to produce synergy in combining the steel and petrochemical industries in its business.