New KEPCO CEO Stresses
'Breaking the Mold'and Innovation

S.S. Kim announces his business plans at his inaugural ceremony

S.S. Kim, former vice chairman of LG Electronics Co., took office as the 17th chairman and CEO of Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) at an inaugural ceremony held at the KEPCO headquarters in Seoul on Aug. 27.
Chairman Kim delivered an inaugural speech in which he stressed field management and speedy management in order to ensure troubleshooting in the field. He also unveiled a plan to distance the company from its image as a public corporation and push endless innovative activities with the goal of making KEPCO a "great company"in the world.
Kim disclosed these and other ideas toward making KEPCO a driving force behind the continuation of national development and a reliable and trusted corporation beloved by people.
First, he pledged to make his staff the "right people"with a competitive edge -- gifted manpower with expertise, who have passion and capability that translates into action.
Second, Kim called for his staff to carry out value-added jobs and cut down on waste and reduce non value-added jobs.
Third, he urged his staff to maintain their job of supplying quality electricity to customers safely and differentiate the company from others through research and providing services to ensure customer satisfaction.
Fourth, the chairman vowed to build up a corporate culture in which his staff would pursue creativity and changes while executing actions with a strong challenging spirit.
Chairman Kim also disclosed his goal of making KEPCO a "great company"in the world through endless innovative efforts, ranking among the top in terms of power generation efficiency, electricity charges, technological prowess, the quality of services, customer satisfaction, business transparency and in-house systems among global power companies.
To this end, Kim announced the first task designed to focus on predicting future energy sources and developing new technologies by making investments into exploring and securing a stable supply of energy sources after working out mid- and long-term energy strategies.
Second, he said he plans to innovate customer satisfaction every year by scrutinizing whether service costs, existing networks and systems are optimized to make investments into power transfer and distribution efficient ones.
Third, the chairman said he plans to look into any overlapping work and confusions in the relationship between KEPCO and its subsidiaries in order to develop into a unified parent-subsidiary group.
Fourth, he called for shaking off its image of a public corporation. KEPCO executives and staff members must concentrate on going about their own business by reflecting on whether they were hindered by work regulations or restrictions and whether they tried to remove unnecessary restrictions.
Fifth, he appealed for strengthening the company's overseas presence. A company should grow more than 10 percent annually to become a promising corporation, he said, but KEPCO is grappling with a predicted growth in power sales at below 4 percent annually. KEPCO plans to concentrate on its investments into overseas projects by capitalizing on its excellent technological power and manpower in order to boost sales and create added values.
In an effort to translate these tasks into action, Chairman Kim said he will devote 70 percent of his working hours to working in the field and the remaining 30 percent in the office in order to ensure speedy management so that grievances and troubles can be fixed in the field immediately.
Recognizing that all things cannot be done unless management and labor form ties based on mutual trust and respect, he said he will redouble efforts to develop a management-labor culture based on co-prosperity by respecting labor's positions and proactively accepting forward-looking views. nw

KEPCO Chairman S.S. Kim