The Late Doosan Group Chmn. Park’s Legacy Remembered

Late Park’s 100th birthday honored in ceremony with his invaluable management philosophy

Even if I would die tomorrow, I will still give myself to the development of industry and commerce of our country,” declared the late Park Doo-byung on July 11, 1973, at a ceremony for the start of his second-term as the 8th President of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI). Park is the first chairman of the Doosan Group which includes Doosan Heavy Industries, a major producer of parts for nuclear power plants.
Early in the year, he was diagnosed as suffering from lung cancer. But in March that year, he presided over a meeting of the civilian Korea-Japan Joint Economic Committee as head of the Korean side of the committee, showing that the Korean economic wellbeing was more important than his health to him.
Chairman Goboro Uemura of the Japanese side of the committee remarked that the late chairman must have thought that the committee meeting took precedence over his own health conditions and chaired the meeting although his life was at stake.
On August 4 in that year, he died at the age of 63. The Doosan Group observed one of the most significant events in its 113 years of history on Oct. 6 as it was the centennial of its founding chairman’s birth.
His management philosophy is being talked about as the model for today’s managements of large business firms to follow with the discussions on the social responsibility of large conglomerates in the country are being spread all over the country.
His management philosophy called for pursuance of profits based on righteousness. He often used to say businessmen should not always seek unjustified profits and such profit pursuance may bring harms to them in the end.
The late Park with the penname of Yongang unlike his father Maehun Park Seung-jik studied management and had been a modern business executive during his career. But he tried to follow his father’s footsteps as far as management ideals were concerned.
The late Park was the eldest son born in 1910 of his father who founded the Doosan Store. In 1936, he joined his father’s business, but later he set up a transport company with the name of Doosan Company. His father created the name of the company taking the letter “doo” from his son’s name and adding “san” or mountain to it, meaning a big mountain and gave it to his son.
The transportation industry was one of the new industries introduced in Korea, then, and also signified Doosan’s diversification of its main line of business from fabric material sales to a new business of transporting cargoes and also the emergence of the next generation to take over the Park family business.
The late Park had been a pioneer in many fields; He started sending the company’s employees to study overseas in the 1950s to such countries as Germany and the United States. “People move the Future,” the catchphrase that the Doosan Group uses in its ads actually was one of the many legacies left by the late Park, which also included honesty in his management ideals.
The late chairman also all businesses belong to society, not the owners and all owners should think the state owns their businesses, he stressed during his lifetime.
He began to engage in international affairs since he became as the 6th president of the KCCI in 1967 so much so that he became chairman of the Asian Chamber of Commerce Federation, for the first time as a Korean, establishing himself as a business leader representing Asia.
In 1978, the group set up the Yongang Foundation five years after his passing as per his will that education is the core of national development and started providing various scholarships, and supports to academic, cultural projects.
A ceremony to celebrate the centennial of Park’s birth took place at Doosan Art Center in the Jongno District,downtown Seoul, on Oct. 6 with some 500 people attending led by honorary chairman of the group Park Yong-gon, chairman Yong-hyun, other family members, both former employees and employees of the group. Former Prime Minister Lee Hyun-jae also was among the participants.
The foundation for the first time presented various art prizes to the awardees at a ceremony held on Oct. 5 at the center and prize money of 200 million won each to the winner in such areas as art, performance, fine arts and others. nw

Chairman Park Yong-hyun of Doosan Group gives a speech at a ceremony on Oct. 6 honoring the centennial birthday of his late father Park Doo-byung who was the first chairman of Doosan Group.