"Establishment of Dedicated Gamechanger Research Positions"... Jeong Eui-seon's 'First Mover' Strategy Succeeds

Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Euisun's 3rd Anniversary Achievements
Dedicated to Researching Only 'Game Changers' to Embed in Management DNA
Father Was a Fast Follower, Son Is a Game Changer
Transformed Corporate Structure, Organizational Culture, and Mission
Achieved Global Sales Rank of 3rd in 12 Years
'First Mover' Strategy with Electrification, AAM, Hydrogen, and Robotics

Last month, an unfamiliar job posting appeared on Hyundai Motor Company's recruitment website. It was for a position responsible for researching the management strategies of 'game changers' who have transformed the global industrial landscape. Hyundai is the only company in Korea to hire a dedicated researcher for game changers.

According to comprehensive reporting on the 12th, Hyundai Motor Company posted a job opening last month for a game changer management research position and is currently conducting the selection process. The dedicated researcher studies companies or leaders who have changed the market landscape, organizes strategies and trends, and reports to the management. Through this, they establish new management systems and perform in-house consulting, training, and advisory roles.

The fields they focus on are not limited to automobiles. They research successful game changers across a wide range of areas including artificial intelligence, new platforms, decentralization, metaverse, cloud, and subscription economy. This recruitment is part of Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Eui-sun's 'First Mover' strategy, aimed at changing the rules of the game and leading the market.

Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Euisun is discussing management strategies and directions at the 2023 New Year's meeting held at Hyundai and Kia Motors Namyang Research Center. / Hwaseong - Photo by Kim Hyunmin kimhyun81@

Chairman Chung first mentioned game changers in his 2019 New Year's address. It was the first New Year's message he delivered as the captain of the Chung Eui-sun administration after becoming the Chief Executive Vice Chairman in the fall of 2018. Chairman Chung stated, "A distinctly different new set of game rules is forming," and expressed his ambition to "lead the market landscape with innovative ideas."

At the end of 2020, the following year, Chairman Chung presented a concrete strategy. He unveiled the blueprint for Hyundai Motor Group's four future businesses: electric vehicles, AAM (Advanced Air Mobility), autonomous driving, and hydrogen energy.

Father was a Fast Follower, Son is a Game Changer

Chairman Chung will mark his third anniversary as chairman on the 14th. It has already been five years since he became the group's top executive as Chief Executive Vice Chairman. His father, Honorary Chairman Chung Mong-koo, was a fast follower. During the internal combustion engine era, Hyundai Motor Group's main goal was to narrow the gap with the leaders as a latecomer. How quickly to close that gap was a matter of life and death. During this time, Hyundai Motor Group laid the foundation to become a global company. In 2021, Honorary Chairman Chung stepped down from frontline management after serving as a director of Hyundai Mobis. In June this year, he continued to support from behind the scenes, leaving a message encouraging employees in Hyundai Steel's 70th anniversary company history.

Chung Euisun, Chairman of Hyundai Motor Group [Photo by Hyundai Motor Group]

Chairman Chung inherited a group that had entered the global top 5. As the head of a company already ranked among the global top tier, his concerns differed from those of his father. Now, instead of thinking about how to catch up, he had to think about how to outpace competitors. The first answer he presented was to transform the company's nature from manufacturing to service. To this end, he introduced the new concept of a 'smart mobility solutions provider.'

From that point on, Hyundai Motor Group changed everything from its working methods to its mission. The military-style organization and culture typical of manufacturing were transformed into a flexible IT company-like environment. Hyundai employees, who used to wear only suits, began coming to work in hoodies and cotton pants. Paper approval documents were eliminated, and reporting was simplified. Kia even removed 'Automobile' from its company name.

Chung Euisun, Chairman of Hyundai Motor Group (center in the photo), visited Hyundai Motor's Chennai plant in India last August to inspect the production status. [Photo by Hyundai Motor Group]

Innovation from within led to a rise in global market rankings. In 2022, Hyundai Motor Group rose to become the world's third-largest brand by sales volume. It was 12 years since entering the global top 5 in sales rankings. Now, as the market shifts to eco-friendly vehicles, Hyundai has jumped to second place in the U.S. eco-friendly vehicle market share. In emerging markets like India, it is competing for first and second place in market share. By pursuing a two-track strategy covering both internal combustion and eco-friendly vehicles, profitability has also been maintained.

Hyundai Motor and Kia, which have recorded record-breaking performances for three consecutive quarters recently, are expected to surpass combined sales of 260 trillion won and operating profit of 26 trillion won for the first time this year. They also expect to achieve an operating profit margin of 10%. Achieving double-digit operating profit margins as mass-market vehicle brands rather than luxury brands is quite exceptional. For Hyundai Motor and Kia, this means they have caught both the growth in scale and profitability. This was thanks to increasing the sales proportion of eco-friendly vehicles, SUVs, and high-value-added vehicles such as Genesis.

From Game Changer to First Mover... Future Strategy

The area where results as a game changer first appeared was electrification. The transition to electric vehicles is an opportunity for Hyundai Motor Group. First, Chairman Chung led the development of the dedicated electric vehicle platform 'E-GMP.' Utilizing a dedicated platform allows cost reduction through securing common parts. E-GMP-based electric vehicles achieved cumulative sales of 500,000 units in just over two years and three months and have swept global automotive awards. Models like Ioniq 5, Ioniq 6, and EV6 have won the three major global Car of the Year awards: 2022 and 2023 World Car of the Year (WCOTY), 2023 North American Car of the Year (NACOTY), and 2022 European Car of the Year (ECOTY).

Hydrogen is a field where Hyundai Motor Group can confidently claim to be a 'First Mover.' Hyundai succeeded in mass-producing the world's first large hydrogen fuel cell truck in 2020 and developed the high-performance hydrogen hybrid rolling lab 'N Vision 74.' A rolling lab refers to applying technology gained from motorsports and other fields to a moving vehicle to verify technology before mass production. The reason Hyundai could continuously invest in the hydrogen sector, which is difficult to secure profitability immediately, was Chairman Chung's firm determination. Hyundai is pursuing various projects beyond hydrogen vehicles, aiming to build a hydrogen ecosystem, including waste resource hydrogen production packages and mobile hydrogen charging stations.

Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Euisun appeared at CES 2022 with the quadruped robot Spot to explain the robotics vision.
[Photo by Hyundai Motor Group]

Investments in AAM and robotics are aimed at the distant future. Chairman Chung has appeared twice on the CES stage. In 2020, he unveiled a personal aerial vehicle (PAV) capable of flying in urban areas, and in 2022, he appeared alongside 'Spot,' a quadruped robot developed by affiliate Boston Dynamics. The message Chairman Chung emphasized when announcing these new technologies was the progress of humanity through freedom of mobility.

Professor Lee Moo-won of Yonsei University's Department of Business Administration said, "Under Chairman Chung Eui-sun's leadership, Hyundai Motor Group has been reborn as a 'creative disruptor,'" and evaluated that "while providing greater freedom of movement to humanity, it has positioned itself at the forefront of the mobility market." Professor Lee also analyzed Chairman Chung's 'game changer' actions as a case study and published it in a Stanford University academic journal.