In his New Year’s speech, Hyosung Chairman and CEO Cho Hyun-joon urged the employees to focus on clients and the market, secure world-class technical competitiveness, and practice responsible management, the company said Monday.

During a meeting with the employees to mark the New Year, Cho said, “The number of competitors is rapidly surging and the most important action for survival is thus to reflect the voices of clients and markets in products.”

Explaining that this means refraining from self-flattery and thinking the company knows all there is to know about the market. “Hyosung needs to meet and engage more clients than our competitors and quickly respond to market changes to remain one step ahead,” he said.

In addition, Chairman Cho urged more effort in securing world-class technical competitiveness. While the biggest factor behind Hyosung’s emergence as a globally competitive company is the pride it has in its technologies, he warned against complacency by resting on past laurels

Stressing the practice of responsible management to achieve success in the market, Cho also said, “We shouldn’t blame why we’re behind our competitors or underachieved on external circumstances or other factors; rather, we must uncover problems and complete the tasks ourselves from beginning to end.”

Celebrating the company’s 52nd anniversary this year, Chairman Cho has requested that employees work together to help the company continue to grow into a global player, adding that a history of more than 50 years has helped showcase Hyosung’s strength and its potential to lead over the next 50 years depends on its employees.

As part of the move to improve its corporate government, Hyosung in September last year had formed a transparent management committee, changing the representative members to include non-executive director candidates. This followed Chairman Cho’s call to work on transparent management plans after his appointment as CEO to boost shareholder value by expanding communication with markets.

Hyosung explained that the core focus falls into three areas: building transparent management, securing the independence of non-executive directors and strengthening internal monitoring procedures. The transparent management committee will perform a preliminary review of primary management plans for shareholder value, such as inspecting the implementation of compliance programs, spin-offs and mergers, M&As, and capital increase and reduction.

The representative member position of the Recommendation Committee for Non-Executive Director Candidates, which Chairman Cho had assumed, is taken over by Kim Myung Ja, a non-executive director and former Minister of Environment.

The company will also reinforce its internal accounting monitoring by increasing the evaluations and strengthening education programs for accounting staff, it added.

Hyosung in 2016 broke company records with sales of 11.9 trillion won ($11.1 billion) and operating profits of 1.163 trillion.

Chairman Cho contributes this success to his grandfather and father, whom he calls his mentors, according to the company.

Hyosung Group founder Cho Hong-je has always emphasized on the need to become “a citizen of the world” to grow as an executive, while his father Hyosung CEO Cho Suck-rai always taught him thoroughness and persistence, the philosophies that he also channeled in the management of the firm.

Hyosung, with the motto “Technology is our competitiveness,” established Korea’s first private technological think tank in 1971, Hyosung R&DB Labs and has made significant investments to achieve such highest-added value products such as Spandex and Tire Cord. (khnews@heraldcorp.com)