Expanded Global Presence

KEPCO strives to become a world-class integrated energy company

KEPCO Chairman-CEO Han Joon-ho urged his executives and staff to further expand overseas presence as a growth engine.
Korea Electric Power Corp. Chairman Han said in his New Year's message, "KEPCO will have to make diversified efforts to raise corporate values and competitive edge internally and externally. First of all, we will have to aggressively implement overseas projects as a driving force behind futuristic growth."However, Chairman Han said, KEPCO has made some accomplishments abroad, but the company's overseas business area is still in the infancy stage.
Mr. Han called on his staff to carry out power generation projects in foreign countries without a hitch and further focus on exploring new businesses. KEPCO will also have to turn to implementation of overseas projects in line with the development of overseas resources as well as its entry into the power transmission, distribution and telecommunication sectors. The strategy is designed not only to secure a stable profit foundation in the so-called Blue Ocean abroad, but also to build up a reputation as an undisputed global electric power company, he said.
Chairman Han forecast that competition will heat up in the electric power industry with the emergence of private power generation companies and combined cycle power operators in the wake of the introduction of a new electricity business regime.
He urged his staff to establish a strategy to strengthen marketing capabilities to brace for full-fledged competition and provide differentiated services aimed at satisfying customers'diverse needs.
As one of major tasks KEPCO will implement during 2007, he touched on the implementation of an independent business entity system and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), introduced last year to help the company make a take-off.
"Internal and external business environment surrounding our company has reached an era of unlimited competition to demand continuous changes and innovations as well as a change in the paradigm of the power industry, and in this juncture, the independent business entity system is the most autonomous change for its corporate growth in its corporate history based on a deal reached among labor, management and government,"he said. The independent business entity system is designed to help each department firm up autonomous management responsibility system based on its own independent accounting, and to this end, the head office needs to delegate its own authority and change its business practices the way that the independent business entity system can be maximized, he said.
Chairman Han said the ERP project is a management innovation project designed to redesign KEPCO's business performance systems to global standards, saying, "How KEPCO utilizes ERP could create a few trillion won worth of values or degenerate into a normal system."He reflected on KEPCO's achievements made during 2006, saying that his company made many feats in history of power industry with the inauguration of the independent business entity system and ERP. On an overseas front, KEPCO won the Edison Award, EEI's coveted award, last year for the second time following 1997, and the Korean utility giant was chosen as the Asia-Pacific top power company by Platts magazine of the United States. In Korea, KEPCO won a customer satisfaction award for a record of eighth time in a row; ranked first in government management assessment for the second straight time last year; was chosen as the Ombudsman Grand Award Winner last year-end; and placed first in a government innovation survey.
However, Chairman Han warned that "If we rest on our laurels, we will face a stark reality of being engulfed into a swirl of change and falling behind in an era of an unlimited competition."He also stressed that KEPCO will put more energy into pursuing ethical and love-sharing management. "The first thing to become a full-fledged global leader is to ensure ethical and moral management. Even though our company has seen integrity degree climbing higher as our government integrity degree measured at 9.08, the existing ethical management system needs to be further upgraded to be more clean and transparent.
KEPCO will fulfill its corporate responsibility to society by conducting social contribution activities on a gradual basis, while strengthening steps to provide support for ensuring co-prosperity with SMEs, serving as a backbone of the Korean economy, he said. nw

KEPCO Chairman-CEO Han Joon-ho