I wanted to start sharing on the leader I recently most admired. I got a chance to visit South Korean last November 2010, and visited the Hyundai Heavy Industries. Little do we know that Hyundai was concentrating on the heavy industries sector. We just know Hyundai as a manufacturer of cars, I am so. The founder “Asan” Chung Ju-yung, live as a poor farmer family trading rice. Eventually found the most successful shipbuilder in the whole wide world. Ansan practically visioned to produce-manufacture ships without any capital to start with but because of his will power to lead and materialize what he dreamt of. He started a Hyundai Auto service and Hyundai Civil Works, which civil projects practically develop and restructured most part of South Korea. It became one of the building blocks of their country that branched out to other opportunities like Hyundai Heavy Industries.
During my visit they we were also exposed from the Korean history especially during the war that devastated their country and split it into two. But the place was very planned and no sign that the country came from a war 40 years ago.
I just could not imagine how a person could lead , inspire almost a whole nation that it made the company as the number one shipbuilding company with less natural resources just relying on guts, skill, perseverance, leadership and dream.
To give you a picture how a typical line works. Not less than 2,000 personnel works for a single tanker ship with different stages of structural works, they hand them after to another group of skilled work stage by stage until such an oil tanker, LPG ship, submarine, Oil Rig ship platform be completed. That’s management with intense collaboration in control. Imagine a huge structure completed chunk by chunk. I am just amazed how their project management performs to come up a world class products.
More of the Hyundai Heavy Industries product lines where we visit the actual different manufacturing sites.
See for yourself, for me it is a humongous breath taking products lines: http://www.hhi.co.kr/
What do you think Asan is? A Leader or a Manager?
