Word: chungli
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Chung was quietly engineering a revolution. Revered by the staff as a member of the founding clan, he was able to gather information quickly and impose his will. He concluded that quality problems were the crux of the company's ills. Suh Byung Kee, Hyundai's president, recalls Chung bursting into his office five years ago and saying, "Quality is crucial to our survival. We have to get it right no matter what the cost...
...Although Chung's revelation might seem obvious, it wasn't to Hyundai's staff. A premium had always been placed on making cars quickly and cheaply. Even Suh, who is in charge of Hyundai's quality-improvement efforts, admits, "When I first came to Hyundai, I too didn't think quality cars were important." But the new chairman made blemish-free manufacturing the top priority. To break down interdivisional barriers, Chung forced designers, engineers and factory managers to work as a team to weed out potential defects. Twice a month, Chung summons senior managers into a conference room...
...short run, Chung's obsession with quality can be costly. Last year he delayed the launch of a new Sonata in Korea for two months while engineers cleaned up 50 minor defects. In 2003 he asked senior R&D executive Lee to get rid of an annoying noise that grinding gears were making in the transmissions of Kia Amanti sedans. "I told him that we'd lose two months of sales," Lee recalls. "The chairman said, 'If it's for quality...
...course, quality isn't everything. Chung has also ramped up efforts to ensure that Hyundai is competitive in technology and styling. Hyundai's R&D budget has expanded 110% since 1999, to $1.6 billion this year. Hyundai invested $200 million to open or expand R&D centers in California, Michigan and Germany; a $60 million proving ground in California's Mojave Desert opened in January. And in South Korea, he expanded R&D headquarters, adding a new design center complete with a 3-D cinema for viewing virtual models. Lee says Chung visited his office recently and asked...
With some of its biggest rivals in disarray, Hyundai sees an opportunity to build on its progress overseas. Slammed by rising costs and slumping U.S. sales, General Motors recently shocked investors by reporting a $1.1 billion first-quarter loss, and Ford has downgraded its 2005 profit forecast. Chung is determined to keep the pressure on. He's moving Hyundai's product line into larger, higher-profit vehicles. In October, Hyundai unveiled a small sport-utility vehicle, the Tucson. Later this year the company will launch a new high-end sedan for the U.S. market, the Azera, and early...