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<p>Many years ago ( although it doesn't seem like it, it was the
early 1990s) the company I worked for was acquired by Hyundai.</p>
<p>In many ways, those were the best years of my professional
career:</p>
- The owners left the US management in place. Even as a wholly owned
subsidiary, we ran our own show. The 'big boss' only ever visited
our plant in Wichita once, and he was impressed by what he saw.<br>
- Engineering salaries were more than competitive, especially for a
company in Kansas!<br>
- The corporate attitude was 'if our products are substandard, we
will improve them so we can dominate the market, or we will get
out.' <br>
- The best of Korean management philosophies were brought in, not
the stuff that didn't work in the West.<br>
- Profit sharing extended to everyone, not just the senior
management. It went all the way down to the engineers, assemblers on
the line and the facilities maintenance crew. The compensation
formula for everyone below 'senior director' level was exactly the
same. <br>
- Since the company was effectively privately held (the Chung family
held tight control over Hyundai, which owned 100% of us) there was
no BS with financial reporting, insider trading, or news blackout
periods.<br>
<p>The only reason the company left the Hyundai corporate family was
the Asian financial crisis of the 1990s. Our company (we built
data storage systems) was a solid, saleable asset with a good
quality reputation, purchased by a US company fairly quickly.
Chairman Chung needed cash!<br>
</p>
<p>The downside of the 1990-2000 period for us was a time when we
should have had a color LED sign on the building with the
corporate name (something I actually suggested to the general
manager; he got a good chuckle out of it). With selloff,
acquisition, another selloff, and a renaming we changed the logo
on the front wall 5 times in about 9 years.<br>
</p>
<p>Mark J<br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 6/6/2020 10:51 AM, cgs wrote:<br>
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<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:6fabf4dd-0fa3-5d29-a0c6-7256aea0c0a7@gmail.com">
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<font size="+1">Hyundais are not so bad. They can last for 100,000
miles...almost as long as a good tractor!</font><br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 6/6/20 10:26 AM, Cecil Bearden
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:66ad3de5-2f59-5c64-594c-8a09d942d994@copper.net">Remember
back when gas was over $4/gallon. You could fill up a Hyundai
and double the value... <br>
Cecil </blockquote>
<br>
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