Old ways are out as Hyundai Card bets on digital technology

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Hyundai Card CEO Ted Chung is a maverick among the aloof, conservative business elites whose rigidly hierarchical corporate empires, or chaebol, dominate South Korea's economy.

[...] practices may not be unusual in Silicon Valley, but they're nearly revolutionary in South Korea, where many companies still send their new hires to military-style boot camps and top-down corporate management styles are the norm.

Hyundai Card is the financial unit of Hyundai Motor Group, the world's fifth-largest automaker.

Hyundai Card was run in the typically militaristic South Korean style when Chung took over in 2003.

The Associated Press recently spoke with Chung about his company's plans to launch a search engine service to offer personalized recommendations of restaurants, exhibitions, concerts or travels based on users' spending habits.

[...] this wasteful practice always topped the list of complaints in employee surveys.

If we have fixed lunch breaks and commuting times and everyone dresses in a suit and a tie, can we ask programmers to join us?

If we only value seniority and not personal talent, promoting everyone every five years, can we find the right people?

Q. What is the difference between Hyundai Card's digital strategy and those of your rivals?

Q. Some people think that you are freer to run the company the way you like than some other South Korean CEOs because you are a son-in-law of Chung Mong-koo, Hyundai Motor's chairman.

CEOs in South Korea or other Asian countries tend to stay quietly behind the scenes, and I'm not sure that is the right attitude either for markets or for shareholders.