A Workaholics Journey To Success
Assembly lines at the Seoul plant of Daewoo Motors came to a grinding halt a few days ago after workers went on strike. The last time shipyard workers of Daewoo went on strike, the group founder and chairman, Kim Woo-Choong, negotiated by the day and used the time at night to write. The result is this book which unravels secrets behind the success of this Korean entrepreneur who has built a $68 billion conglomerate.
Though the book is a collection of short essays addressed to the youth of his country, it has autobiographical overtones which makes for fascinating reading. Originally published in the Korean language, it is now available in English in India at a time when Daewoo is spreading its wings in the country in businesses ranging from automobile to shipbuilding and construction to chemicals. In the introduction by journalist Louis Kraar, he is called the Asian equivalent of Andre Carnegie or John D Rockefeller.
I can smell money everywhere, says the 54-year-old Kim. He started chasing money at the age of 14 after his father was picked up by northern Korean soldiers during the war and he fled along with his mother and two brothers.
After years of struggle doing odd jobs and hawking newspapers, he graduated on a scholarship and joined a trading company. It was trip to London to meet his fiancee which was the first major turning point in his life. He got a chance to travel in South-east Asia because his London ticket allowed free stopovers. He picked up samples of tricot cloth, which was popular at that time, from Hong Kong and Saigon calculated that it could be made cheaper in Korea. He told buyers that the samples were his and started selling and by the time he reached Singapore he had booked orders worth $ 300,000. Kim went back home, wrote to his fiancee not to expect him and never married her.
At 26, he set up his textile export business. There was no looking back after that. From textiles he diversified into engineering, construction, automobiles and finance.
He expanded by taking over units deep in the red and reviving it and now has 23 companies in the Daewoo empire. Internationally too he is known as a turnaround expert after he took over a loss-making refinery in Antwerp and turned it profitable in a years time.
A similar turnaround was witnessed in the case of Korea Machinery Limited, which had not made profit for 40 years and was heavily in debt. He took over this company despite protests from horrified executives. So serious was his intent to turnaround the company that he handed over the charge of his Daewoo company to his brother focused solely on the plant. He slept, ate and lived at the factory for several months and in nine months he began turning around the company. This experience inspired Kim to move into heavy engineering and other such uncharted territories.
Kim is not a typical corporate raider. Instead of stripping assets and firing employees of the acquired companies, he pumps in capital and management expertise to revive them. Profits are for investment and not for enjoyment, says Kim. It is this dedication coupled with a daring attitude of venturing into areas where others would dread to tread that marks him out from his counterparts in Korea. He also thrives on investments in forbidding markets. At the height of the war, he went to build railway lines in Iran and undertook construction in Libya. Opportunities are born out of adversity, says Kim. A truly international entrepreneur, he makes refrigerators in China, VCRs in Northern Ireland, microchips in Californias Silicon Valley, microwave ovens in France and construction excavators in Belgium, and now cars in India.
For readers fed on success stories of Bill Gates, Lee Iacoccas and Tom Peters, here is another role model to look up to. He may not be as glamorous as the rest. He works 16 hours a day, even shaves and has breakfast in his car as he zips to office. He never goes on a vacation, neither paints nor understands music and finds golf unexciting, and while toasting guests he drinks barley tea poured from a whiskey bottle. The European habit of taking naps in the afternoon exasperates him which he says is a serious loss of man-hours.
The workaholic says: If our levels of diligence only matches that of the people in the West we will never catch up. Creativity comes from hard work. Hard work and sacrifice may not necessarily be the priorities of his workers, who now refuse to work more for less and hence the strike at the car plant. Time for a sequel .
Every Street is Paved with Gold Kim Woo-Choong Times Books International Price not stated/199 pages