Word: chung
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Chung Mong Koo, Chairman of South Korea's Hyundai Motor, carefully scrutinizes a newly designed gearshift lever for the automaker's Sonata sedan while his entire senior-management team hovers around, anxiously awaiting his approval. The execs are justifiably edgy. Engineers added a plastic plate beneath the shifter to prevent spilled coffee and other flotsam from falling into the mechanism and gumming...
...minor change, but no one treats it that way, least of all Chung, a hard-nosed, detail-oriented boss with a penchant for micromanagement. ("He still makes the decision on how big a Christmas tree to put in the lobby," quips a former Hyundai executive.) After eyeballing the gizmo from several angles, Chung demands, "Is this enough?" Finally, he nods his O.K. but reminds his execs, "We can't allow any defects to damage our cars...
...Chung, 67, has spent six years hammering that zero-defects message into the heads of Hyundai's employees, and the result has been one of the most surprising turnabouts in automotive history. A few years ago, Hyundai, South Korea's largest car manufacturer, was a synonym for shoddy. Seoul was the only place in the world where you were likely to see large numbers of its cars on the street. Today the company's line of pleasantly stylish, relatively inexpensive and certifiably reliable sedans and sport-utility vehicles is tailgating the industry's best-known brands in several prime markets...
...architect of Hyundai's rise is Chung, who was named chairman in 1998. Although his father Chung Ju Yung founded Hyundai Motor in 1967, it was clear that the son would not get a free ride. Shortly before his appointment, the Korean economy was slammed by the 1997 Asian financial crisis and Hyundai was forced to lay off 25% of its staff. Complicating matters, Hyundai agreed in 1998 to acquire South Korean rival Kia Motors, which had to be assimilated. Chung had little experience with the automotive industry. He had spent most of his career managing a smorgasbord of affiliates...
...these stoned tableaux are lightened by intrusions of real-world comedy: the visit of a Yellow Pages ad salesman to a stoned Blake; the door-to-door missionary zeal of two young Mormons. Ricky Jay provides a few moments of irrelevant coherence with his story of a magician named Chung Ling Su. But these interludes can't bring Last Days to life. The film is so studied and self-conscious that the audience can never concentrate on Blake; it can only watch the camera watching...