Word: hyundais
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Once a laughingstock for its poorly made cars, Hyundai Motors has in recent years boosted quality and won fans in key markets such as the U.S. and China. But the fast-growing South Korean automaker-the world's seventh-largest when combined with its affiliate Kia Motors-was blindsided last week from an unexpected quarter: its 68-year-old chairman, Chung Mong Koo, was arrested on charges of embezzling $100 million and breach of trust relating to $300 million in company losses...
Facing questions from Korean regulators over your company's business practices? Just open your heart-and your wallet. That seemed to be the message last Wednesday as the Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group, under investigation for allegedly creating a slush fund to influence government officials, apologized to the public for "causing the nation much anxiety" and pledged a whopping $1 billion in donations to unspecified charities. The same day, U.S. private-equity firm Lone Star Funds, facing an inquiry into its purchase of a local bank in 2003 and smarting from allegations that its former top Korea executive had embezzled millions...
...plan was to burnish Hyundai and Lone Star's public image, it's backfired. Critics and local media have called the pledges a cheap ploy to get the government to overlook any wrongdoing. "It's just ridiculous. It's an insult to the public and it is unprecedented," says Professor Jang Hasung, dean of Korea University Business School, calling the moves a bad precedent for other companies: "Now the rumor is who is next, and how much should they contribute...
...with cash has become a common strategy for corporate Korea. Samsung, the nation's largest conglomerate, announced in February it would donate roughly $800 million to charity following a spate of embarrassing incidents, including bribery accusations against its chairman Lee Kun Hee (Lee was cleared of the allegations). But Hyundai and Lone Star's moves aren't helping either company's regulatory woes, as the national Supreme Prosecutors' Office has said the donations won't influence the outcome of its investigations. "The government does not like the timing of the offers," notes Seoul-based business consultant Hank Morris. Maybe...
...Christians, says Irene Dickey, a Christian branding expert. When Mark Gadow of Preston, Md., registered his Christian Faith Driving School at the Department of Motor Vehicles, a worker there urged him to change the name. Gadow, a burly former policeman, persisted, painting giant fish on the sides of his Hyundai Tiburons. But when he dropped off applications at a public school, he later found them tossed in the trash. And one student angrily denounced God in class...