Ecopro "30% Cost Reduction Over 2 Years... Reflected in Executive Performance Evaluations"

Song Hojun CEO "Innovation results are given only to those who innovate"

Ecopro is set to overcome the battery market downturn by cutting costs by 30% over two years. Ecopro plans to reflect the cost reduction achievements in the year-end performance evaluations of subsidiary presidents and executives.

On the 1st, Ecopro unveiled a detailed roadmap for the 'Cost down, Change up' campaign, aimed at reducing costs and upgrading organizational culture, during a briefing ceremony marking the start of the second quarter at its headquarters in Ochang, Cheongju, Chungbuk.

Under the goal of reducing costs by 30% over the next two years, Ecopro has formed a cost innovation task force (TF) involving the holding company and its subsidiaries.

The cost innovation TF is divided into three subcommittees: processing costs, raw material costs, and investment & productivity. They plan to analyze the costs of major products, evaluate the current levels, and devise ways to reduce total costs by 30% within two years.

Ecopro intends to reward employees who improve profitability through cost reduction with performance bonuses corresponding to a significant portion of the savings.

Song Hojun, CEO of Ecopro [Photo provided by Ecopro]

Song Hojun, CEO of Ecopro, emphasized in his address, "Innovation must start with changing the attitude toward customers and the market," adding, "Being more humble in front of customers and openly accepting the issues they point out will open the door to innovation."

He continued, "To ensure that innovation results are strictly rewarded only to those who innovate, we will institutionalize this approach."

Ecopro is revising the key performance indicators (KPIs) for subsidiary CEOs and key executives, established earlier this year, to significantly incorporate innovation metrics such as cost reduction.

Ecopro explained, "Whether innovation targets are achieved will be a major criterion in the year-end evaluations of presidents and executives," adding, "This reflects the top management's strong intention to enhance execution power rather than just slogans."

On the 1st, a view of the second quarter review at the EcoPro Ochang headquarters in Cheongju, Chungbuk [Photo by EcoPro]

Furthermore, Ecopro views corporate culture as the foundation for overcoming crises and has decided to strengthen its corporate culture of challenge, trust, change, and innovation.

To foster an innovative mindset among all employees, Ecopro will hold an 'Innovation Idea Contest.' It will solicit ideas across business, technology, products, and overall organizational culture to become not just a good company but a great one, followed by internal evaluations.

Winners will receive prize money and promotion points, and if their ideas are adopted and yield results, they will also receive performance bonuses.

Ecopro is also considering revising its personnel system to favor employees with an innovative mindset by introducing a technical expert system for office workers and a master technician system for operational staff.

In line with the spread of generative AI, Ecopro recognizes the adoption of digital and artificial intelligence technologies as an unavoidable task and plans to improve work processes by utilizing corporate GPT and other AI tools.