Buhmwoo Puts
Human-Oriented Management
on a Pedestal
Focuses on tech development and renovation
Buhmwoo and Family of Companies, which celebrated its 32nd anniversary on May 10, has not shed any of its work force since its establishment, particularly despite the difficulties it experienced in the 1997 Asian financial crisis.
Such personnel management strategies guaranteeing workers'job security until their retirement age was considered too burdensome for a Small Medium Enterprise to make good on. In spite of this approach which Kim Myung-won, CEO of Buhmwoo and Family of Companies, has kept, the company has emerged as one of the global top five metalwork processing oil companies with technology power.
Buhmwoo CEO Kim has refrained from the press coverage of his unique management style. Kim has expounded human-oriented management under his corporate slogan since his establishment of Buhmwoo and Family of Companies in May 1973. Buhmwoo CEO Kim has since made good on its promise of hiring sincere staff members and working together until he retires. Kim recalls, "I'e never forgotten my management principles - human-based management and contribution to society while running Buhmwoo and the Family of Companies for the past 32 years."He describes his mission for realizing a human-based corporation as the concept that humans are the most precious asset of the corporation and the source of realizing value. Unlike other companies, any one of the 300 Buhmwoo staff members has never worried about a possible layoff. He taught students at the Photograph Department of Chungang University after studying photography in Germany before founding Buhmwoo.
Kim turned down a demand from a director in charge of personnel management that about 20 company workers should be laid off during the Asian financial crisis and he told the director that he was willing to take responsibility for the difficulties facing his company, not blaming for employees.
Kim's eventual declaration on no layoffs has prompted his employees to exert themselves, which has paved the way for achieving massive exports.
In a rare move as a SME, Buhmwoo has conducted publicly contested screening methods designed to hire new employees, not headhunting workers. Shin Woo-jin, one of the new employees of the company's first publicly contested screening test, has now become the president of Bex Inter-Corporation, specializing in producing WD-40, a well-known rust preventative oil, and GC100X, a environmental-friendly bio-detergent. All other four first-term new employees have been promoted to the presidents of Buhmwoo subsidiaries. Choi Jong-woo, a new employee hired in the second-term public test, now serves as the director of Buhmwoo Institute of Technology Research (BIT).
Buhmwoo Chemical has factories in Sihwa, Gyeonggi Province, and Yangsan, South Gyeongsang Province. Its cutting edge oil products are supplied to such automotive companies as Hyundai Motor, Kia Motors, GM Daewoo Auto & Technology, Renault Samsung Motors, Mando Corporation and Hyundai Mobis, while its rolling oil products are sold to such steel companies as POSCO, INI Steel, Dongbu Steel Co., Hyundai Hysco and Union Steel Mfg. Co.
Buhmwoo, which posts about 130 billion won in annual sales, is now striving for growing into the position of the global top metalwork processing oil leader. With the production of GC100X, Buhmwoo has an ambitious plan to leap into the top in the cleaning detergent sector. Buhnwoo's growth is now banking on the R&D capabilities of Buhmwoo Institute of Technology Research and the company has dedicated with an investment of 11 billion won, the largest outlay for an SME.
Kim, who seems to be gentle in appearance, but sturdy in spirit, describes himself as a straightforward, aggressive man of principle. The Buhmwoo CEO has been on the road for 32 years, developing Buhmwoo into a world-class metalwork processing oil maker. nw

Kim Myung-won, CEO of Buhmwoo and Family of Companies

Buhmwoo? Sihwa plant