Wed, Jan 19, 2000 page9

• Park ready to wipe S Korean politics clean

  South Korea's own `Iron Head' created a miracle at its largest steel firm, and will likely apply the same principles to the country now that he is the prime minister..

  • By Rick Chu
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  The founder of POSCO (Pohang Steel Corp, 浦項製鐵) Park Tae Joon

  (朴泰俊) has been appointed Prime Minister of South Korea. Among all the political figures in post-war Korea, Park is the one I respect the most, and definitely deserves introduction to a wider audience.

  Taiwanese often boast about how Chao Yao-tung (趙耀東) led China Steel Corp (中國鋼鐵股份有限公司) to establish a unique management model and corporate culture. Similarly, all Koreans know the details of the fascinating stories about Korea's "Iron head (鐵頭)" (a nickname that the Taiwanese have for Chao), especially the story about how he came up with his "bathing and quality-control theory" for the management of steel refineries.

  

  ILLUSTRATION: MOUNTAIN PEOPLE

  Under Park's 24-year leadership, POSCO became the largest single steel refinery in the world, three times the size of China Steel Corp. The completion of POSCO's second refinery in 1988 gave wings to Korea's steel industry. With an annual steel production of 1,750 tons, it pushed Korea into fifth place in global steel production at the time.

  In the past, Koreans would probably never have dared dream that POSCO would one day achieve so much. The planning and preparations for construction of the POSCO refinery experienced many setbacks. First, a syndicated loan group of banks from five countries pulled out at the last minute. Then, the project was boycotted by the World Bank. Finally, the project managed to make up for lost time after Japan offered a helping hand by providing a much-needed loan. The Koreans, hardworking by nature, pushed themselves to the limit and completed the first phase of the construction in 38 months, much to the astonishment and admiration of the Japanese consultants.

  Park, who was in charge of the construction, set an outstanding example for others to follow. Allowing himself only three hours of sleep a day, Park created a miracle with his Spartan management style. With Japanese technology and funding, POSCO actually produced steel products superior to the Japanese. As a result, the leading Japanese producers became alarmed by this Korean newcomer, and boycotted the construction of a second POSCO refinery. It was too late, however, as POSCO was ready to stand on its own now that it had obtained the necessary technology.

  

  In his early days, Park lived in Japan with his father, who was doing business there. He graduated from the School of Engineering at Japan's prestigious Waseda University. This experience helped shape his meticulous and detail-obsessed character. While studying in Japan, he was evacuated to the countryside to escape air raids during the war. While there, he saw how farm women would wash themselves after returning from the fields before proceeding to cook meals. The experience gave him a valuable lesson and inspired his "bathing and quality-control theory."

  After World War II, Park returned to South Korea. Witnessing the chaos of Korea's domestic politics, he decided to join the military. In the military academy he met Park Chung Hee (朴正熙) who taught ballistics there. Park Tae Joon served as Park Chung Hee's personnel advisor during his 1961 military coup and played an important behind-the-scenes role in its success. Alleging that he was unsuited to politics, Park retired from the military with the rank of major-general. He then became involved in the management of state-owned businesses and began lobbying for the resumption of diplomatic ties with Japan.

  In April, 1968, Park was ordered to make preparations for the construction of a major steel refinery, and he was determine to do all he could to help lay the foundations of one of the state's basic industries. Thereafter, Park became engaged in the steel business. His dedication to the refinery may be characterized as feverish.

  In 1978, during the third phase of the POSCO steel refinery's construction, the head of the construction company was once summoned and upbraided by Park because the project was running behind schedule. Park ordered the man to do 20 minutes of push-ups in front of all the participants of the staff meeting. On another occasion, the workers had inadvertently built the foundations 10cm higher than planned due to the tight schedule. After Park discovered the mistake, he completely destroyed the building, which was already 80 percent complete.

  Park's style was criticized as bullying and unreasonable at times. He has been described as "the crazy man" in Korean political circles. However, Park did not care and he continued his pursuit of perfection.

  Textile exports from Korea were reaching their peak toward the end of the 1970s. Once, during Park's visit to the US, he went to a department store and could not find "made-in-Korea" clothing on the entire 8th floor of the store. Later on, he discovered that all Korea-made clothing was sold at the discount market located in the basement. The store clerk told him that Korea-made clothing could only be sold as cheap discount items because of the poor quality of their manufacture. At the time, Park was filled with shame.

  After he went back to Korea, Park went looking for the operators of export-clothing manufacturers. He asked the operators to let the female workers take a bath frequently, and change and launder their underwear often so that they could keep their body clean and their spirits up. He believed that, as a result, the workers would be more detailed-oriented and cautious and the products would be much improved. This advice derived from Park's management philosophy derived from his experience of seeing the attention to personal hygiene of the farm women during the war.

  Because the weather in Korea is extremely cold in winter and there is often a shortage of resources, taking a bath is considered a luxury to the Koreans. Some Koreans have even speculated that "bath-taking could cause the fall of a nation " as a justification for their refusal to bathe. However, Park took a stand different from most and loudly promoted his "bathing and quality-control theory" to break Koreans' bad of habit of not bathing regularly.

  Park always checked the bathroom first when he inspected a workers' dormitory or visited an employee's home. Despite opposition, Park used five billion won (about NT$400 million at the time) to construct high-standard bathroom facilities at POSCO, so that the more than 16,000 POSCO workers could maximize their work efficiency in a clean environment.

  Park believes that a person who is upright spiritually and physically would naturally arrange his surroundings in an orderly fashion. On the other hand, someone who feels dirty would overlook the mess and dirt in his environment. Afterwards, a slovenly and lazy mentality would take shape and a person would lose discipline and do things in a careless and disorganized manner.

  The success of POSCO even made Deng Xiaoping (鄧小平) envious. In the mid-1980s, when Deng visited the New Nippon Steel Corp in Japan, he said to the company's chairman, Inayama Yoshihiro (稻山嘉寬), "hopefully, you can also build for us a refinery like the POSCO refinery." At the time Inayama answered "but you don't have a Park Tae Joon!"

  The success of POSCO may be attributed to the following reasons:

  1) Government support and the full powers given to Park, which meant that 2) Park was able to run the business fairly and honestly without political pressure and the burden of favoritism. Under the strong leadership of the "crazy man," POSCO employees have high morale and are proud of the opportunity to contribute to national development. Park's motto puts it best: "Dedicate your brief life to your everlasting country." This is the spirit of POSCO. The theory about bathing that Park had learned from the Japanese farm women is the common belief of all POSCO personnel, as well as the driving force behind the success of this large corporate community.

  In 1992, Park was forced to take refuge in Japan after disagreeing with Kim Young Sam's (金泳三) political ideals. When Kim Dae Jung (金大中) came to power, Park returned to Korea to join the camp of Kim Jong Pil (金鍾泌) who partnered Kim Dae Jung in the establishment of a unified South Korean government.

  Last week, it was finally Park's turn to succeed Kim Jong Pil as Prime Minister. Let us wait and see if the "bathing and quality-control theory" of this neurotic for cleanliness can clean up the long accumulated corruption in South Korea's political and economic arena.

  Rick Chu is the associate editor in Chief of the Taipei Times.
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