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Elected as the Chief Director of Korea Specialty Chemical Research Federation
Mr. Byung-Koo Lee was elected as the first chief director of the Korea Specialty Chemical Research Federation at the inaugural general meeting on November 5th, 2008,With members of domestic specialty chemical companies, the Federation was established to lead the members to participate in domestic and international R&D projects to strengthen their competitiveness. And the Federation will initiate and financially support R&D projects for small and medium-sized chemical companies and participate in international joint R&D projects and the development of strategic technologies. In addition, the Federation plans to set up a branch in Germany, which will help domestic chemical companies to easily acquire European core technologies and strengthen their competitiveness.
2008-11-05 -
Message from CEO on Nepes 18th anniversary
I am very pleased to be able to celebrate Nepes 18th anniversary during this clear and fruitful season of the fall. First of all, I think this year is a very meaningful for Nepes because it marks the second year since we declared Nepes II and is the last toward a grown-up if comparing a person.Looking back upon the last 18 years, Nepes has grown in terms of quality and quantity; Nepes has 4 manufacturing companies and 7 factories in Korea, and 2 manufacturing companies and 3 joint ventures abroad. Based on strategic alliances with leading companies in Korea and abroad, Nepes has grown into a sound medium-sized company.I would like to give thanks to many who made it possible form the bottom of my heart. First of all, I believe that our success has been made by the grace of the God since we applied Biblical principles to our management philosophy and tried to practice them in everyday lives.And also, Nepes has been fortunate enough to have hard working executives and staffs like you. Nepes would not be as it is today without any of you. I deeply appreciate for your continuous effort and hard working.And I would like to thank our country too. Despite of all the trials and difficulties we have been through, the Korean government has offered lots of benefits and important opportunities to small and medium-sized companies like us.Lastly, I would like to appreciate our customers as well. They have given us not only nice jobs but also guidance and support so that we have improved.On the other side, I think that we should learn the lesson from the past. We have rapidly grown for a short period of time. The rapid growth caused some of side effect; huge financial damage and loss of great opportunity from careless decisions and emotional tension or even hostility between employees. For this reason, I would like to ask all of you to confess your fault in front of the God and to ask to be excused. And I hope that all of you have a chance to confess our wrongdoings and to forgive each other.Currently, we are facing a major economic crisis caused by the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis. This crisis is causing wide economic fluctuation and making us hard to predict the future. In this situation, if we were a bit slow, we would be eliminated from competition right away.In the past, we caught some of great opportunities, however, we will not be able to do in the future unless we are prepared in advance and catch them at right time. As you may know, Nepes launched a 5-year business plan by 2010 to achieve sales of KRW 1 trillion in 2010 and to get into 100 largest companies in Korea. Now, we have 2 years to make this "Quantum Leap" realized. At Nepes 20th anniversary in 2010, I truly believe we would achieve this goal.To make our dream come true, I would like to propose three practical ways.Firstly, in order to be flexible to frequent changes from business environment, all of us need to change in ourselves. In other words, we need to throw away old ways of thinking or working which we used to. I expect it is not easy. Most of us tend to refuse changes, because unfamiliarity from changes is causing fear, risk, or hard work. However, please remember the saying that the bitter goes with the sweet and pleasure goes with pain. Only if overcoming fear from change, you will get more confident in yourself and there will be a huge synergy between us. And ultimately we will be able to achieve our goal by 2010.Secondly, we need to sincerely pursue for "T(togetherness)-Management," to realize the management philosophy and the vision of Nepes. As an owner of Nepes, each of us should cooperate to achieve your objective in your personal life and in turn, to meet the goal of the company. Can anyone climb Mt. Everest by yourself? You can make it only with the help from others. Similarly, we can not do everything all alone. If you make a decision by yourself without cooperation or discussion with other members of the company, you will lose opportunities in many times. It will do harm to the company itself. Consequently, working alone means being arrogant. It's silly. Your colleague next to you is there to help you and you should be there for him too.Success can be defined in many ways, but some people define it as ‘taking the initiative'. You can not take the lead every time for yourself because you are strong in some aspects but you are not in others. Therefore, you should cooperate to take the initiative all the time. By putting the slogan of ‘Cannot Do It Alone' into practice, we will be able to cope with the rapid changes in business conditions with strength, as one organization.Thirdly, we need to actively follow "Nepes Way" to feel proud of being a Nepes employee. And we need to strengthen Nepes culture with our unique and original ideas from enjoying it. Indifference is one of the most dangerous things to a community or a company. For the prosperity of the company, we should actively participate in company activities and events, through which we can openly express our opinions and improve our relationship with the colleagues. Daily music class, "I" training, monthly church service, work club activities, and trainings done in the Nepes learning center are good examples of the Nepes Way. They would be helpful for cultivating personality and making our working place more interesting and exciting due to deepened friendliness among colleagues. At the same time, we will be able to develop our problem solving skill through those activities.When we vigorously practice three keywords(Change=1W, T-Management, Nepes Way) mentioned so far into our daily lives, we will have many things to be thankful for. We will make wonder of taking the lead even in a difficult business environment and be summoned by the times. I am pretty sure that all of us will become the one that our country and the world needs in hard times.Finally, I would like to give my sincere thanks to all of you who have given so much of yourselves to make Nepes as it is today, and wish God's blessings for you and your families.Thank you very much.October 24, 2008
2008-10-24 -
Receiving honorary citizenship of Yixing, China
?On October 18th, 2008, the People's Government of Yixing, Jiangsu, China granted honorary citizenship to Mr. Byung-Koo Lee. Mr. Wang Jung-So, who conferred the citizenship on Mr. Lee, said that he was deeply impressed by Mr. Lee's management philosophy and hoped that Yixing could attract Nepes to the town regardless of whether it is for investment or not."
2008-10-18 -
Lecturing a “CEO Management Class” at Business School of Ewha Women’s University
On October 10th, 2008, as a part-time professor of the Business School of Ewha Women's University, Mr. Lee gave a lecture for his second semester. The topic was "The Key Words of Management." Mr. Lee delivered his management know-how to his students with introducing Nepes examples of cultivating leadership and organizational culture.
2008-10-10 -
Lecturing at the group leaders’ workshop in the second half of 2008
What is our future?The management philosophy conceptualizes the reason why we exist, what we should do during our lives, and what life is. That is, the management philosophy is connected with our personal vision and personal lives as well as the company vision and our working lives. If these two sides of life are not well connected, it is not easy for us to find pleasure or even to stay in the working place. Therefore, we should take the management philosophy as a foundation of our lives through constant learning and practice.Can not do it Alone (New person)Life is like a series of questions. In the process of solving these questions, you will find the reason why you exist. Problems you face are obstacles in your life, but you need to be wise enough to solve and transform them into stepping-stones for tomorrow. And then, how can you solve series of problems faster, more easily and effectively in this information age?Cooperation is one necessary condition. Cooperation starts from trust in your counterparts and trust comes from honesty and sacrifice(initiative). Don't start by taking one. Instead, give two first. Let's have a firm belief that once you give, you will be compensated.Intellectual capability is another . It comes from self-education through steady reading. That is the reason why we do the "I" training and trainings in the Nepes training center. Continuous learning improves your personal value and the value of the company as a whole, which will lead us to truly cooperate with the customers and finally make them to come to us by themselves.Physical ability is the last. Only if you are physically healthy, you can cooperate and improve your intellectual capability.To solve series of problems wisely, these three conditions should be balanced off. And you should share the value increase from solving problems with your colleagues.Creation of advent future(New dream)Nepes 2008 T-Management Scheme suggests the creation of customer value (Value), the creation of advent future (Process), and the maturity of human value (Personnel).What is the advent future'?We have conscious and sub-conscious. The potential of our spirit is huge. The sub-conscious is called ‘tacit knowledge', which is very powerful. However, it is generally said that we only use 5~6% of our sub-conscious during our lifetime. If thoughts in your conscious are carved in your sub-conscious, they will come true in real life. In other words, if you are concentrated and carve your dream in your conscious as if it was happening right now, it will get crammed into your sub-consciousness and it become real.When setting a stretch goal in our business plan, it is important that you believe the goal will be met. It might be vague in the beginning, but if you keep shaping a clear picture of it in your mind, you will never fail. When you are planning, you should always do with confidence in that the plan will definitely be achieved.The same goes for praying. If you pray to God for what you want with all your heart, it will come true. If it doesn't, you must have doubted, or the plan might have not been concrete, or you might have not been focused. Think of the goal concretely, imagine that it has been realized, and act accordingly. Like the phrase in the Bible, ‘Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you,' you must not have any doubt at all, and imagine that your wish has really come true.Start to imagine sales have doubled. And use this rule when you give instructions to your subordinates. The more concrete your instructions are, the more persuasive they are.Measuring the value (Success experience)Insufficient skill in measuring the value is one of our weaknesses. It is common that we measure the value when everything is done. However, not only consequences but also process is part of success experience. And a big success can be accomplished with a series of small successes. Following this philosophy, Nepes is offering classes such as 6-sigma or presentation skill up and so on. However, simply taking such classes is not enough. Instead, you need to measure the value by yourself through looking at the trend. You can understand whether you have improved, or worsened only in comparison with the general trend. Therefore, you need to collect data enough to figure out the trend and measure the value comparing with it. That is the reason why ERP is important. You can easily collect and utilize data using ERP to measure the value and choose a direction. Once the value is measured correctly, you can fully enjoy yourself and fairly be compensated. Therefore, you need to be sensitive to the numbers all the time. You need to try to memorize them and pay careful attention to them. We need to know how much volume we produce and how much profit we earn this month. Numbers are the important tool for value measurement.
2008-08-01 -
Won the 10th Business Creation Entrepreneur Award
Receiving the medal of Business Creation Entrepreneur Award; From the left, Mr. Byung-Koo Lee, and Mr. Seong-Kook Kim, Chairman of the Korean Academy of Human Resource & Organization and Professor in the Business School of Ewha Women's University The BOD of the Korean Academy of HR & Organization chose Mr. Lee as the winner of the 10th Business Creation Entrepreneur Award, highly complimenting his achievement of establishing and growing Nepes for the last 18 years. The award ceremony was held at the New World Hall of Ewha Women's University on April 26th. The Korean Academy of HR & Organization is a research society consisting of around 60 professors and researchers in the fields of HR, organization, strategy, and labor.
2008-04-26 -
Appointed as a part-time professor of the Business School of Ewha Women’s University
Mr. Byung-Koo Lee was appointed a part-time professor of the Business School of Ewah Women's University. On March 12th, he gave his first lecture to 180 students on the topic of "Purpose-Driven Management". Ewha Women's University presented a plate of appreciation to Mr. Lee in that despite of his busy schedule, he accepted the position to train promising students who will lead the Korean economy in the future. Mr. Lee said, "I will do my best to achieve the educational goal of this university to foster students to the creative entrepreneurs."
2008-03-12 -
Elected as the Chairman of Korea Specialty Chemical Industry Association
On February 22nd, the Korea Specialty Chemical Industry Association had the 22nd general meeting and appointed Mr. Byung-Koo Lee as the Chairman.
2008-02-22 -
Message on Nepes 17th anniversary
On October 24th (Wed), the 17th anniversary ceremony was held in the grand conference room of the Seoul Office with all members of Nepes, including Mr. Lee, watching through a video conference system. Starting with worship service to give thanks to the God, the ceremony proceeded with awarding workers for long time service, conferring a certificate of sponsorship for Severance Marathon and scholarships to promising youths in Chungbuk province, and closed with CEO's message. In his message, Mr. Lee, declared a new code of conduct to attain the goal of ‘getting into 100 largest companies in Korea' by making sales of KRW 1 trillion in 2010 and emphasized that Nepes has been passing through the turning point toward Nepes II.As you are well aware of, the current business environment is going very bad. When we first started business, there was no competition because our products were unique in the Korean market. However, now we have a lot of competitors and severe competition remarkably lowers our profit margin. Under these circumstances, if we are slow not enough to catch up good opportunities, we will be eliminated from the completion right away. Our business environment is in the midst of rapid changes. With the development of China, the price of raw and auxiliary materials is surging. Due to these factors, it is difficult for us to keep growing with profitable business models. In the past, we could see great opportunities coming and catch them. However, from now on, it will be a different story. Unless we are well prepared in advance and catch them at right time, we will not be able to survive. As you may know, Nepes launched a 5-year business plan to 2010. This goal is to achieve sales of KRW 1 trillion in 2010 and to get into 100 largest companies in Korea. Now, we have 2 years to make this "Quantum Leap" realized. On Nepes 20th anniversary in 2010, I truly believe we reach this goal. To attain this goal, we must complete the following three missions:Firstly, all of us need to have loyalty. Everything you have, such as talents, time, abilities, home, money and human network and so on, should be directly or indirectly dedicated to your job. People with loyalty don't care about whether the performance from a job is big or not. Even you achieve small, the same compensation like self-satisfaction and self-fulfillment will be followed. Therefore, to achieve good performance in a job, you should devote yourself to what you want to do and dream of. This attitude is called loyalty to a job. It is needed for us, for Nepes community and for the country.Secondly, we need to cooperate with each other. T-Management scheme, the means to realize the management philosophy of Nepes, represents cooperation. You alone can not do everything from beginning to end. Success can be defined in many different ways, but some define it as ‘taking the initiative'. The only way to take the lead is to cooperate. We always need to keep the slogan of ‘Cannot do it alone' in mind. Cooperation comes from the attitude of giving first before taking. This philosophy forms a foundation for a matrix structure of our organization and the strategic alliances like when we get on the western technology platform and when we make a joint venture. We should adapt ourselves to this philosophy so that we will be able to confirm our belief.Thirdly, we need to be honest when working. Honesty and transparency are essential for being trustworthy. The more credible we are, the easier we can cooperate with. One of reasons why we covered the exterior wall of the Seoul office with glass is to symbolize that we are transparent. I think that honesty makes us more reliable and cooperative, which in turn, we get to confirm our belief. If we faithfully follow the above three keywords of loyalty, honesty and cooperation, we will have many things to be thankful for. Personally, we will get to recognize the true purpose of working and find new meaning for our lives and ultimately, the goal and value of our lives will be changed. And I'm sure that we will be summoned by the times and that all of us will become the one that our country and the world needs in difficult times.I would like to give my sincere thanks to all of you who have given so much of yourselves to Nepes, and I wish God's blessings to you and your families.Thank you very much.October 24, 2007Byung-Koo Lee
2007-10-24 -
Contributing to set up of the ‘Hospital of Love’ in Cambodia
On March 14th, the ground-breaking ceremony for ‘the Hospital of Love' sponsored by Mr. Lee was held in Siem Reap, Cambodia. This is the second time that he sponsored for setting up the hospital, following in Vietnam in 2004. Mr. Lee and eight Nepes employees with best performance joined the ceremony. And community leaders, residents of Siem Reap and Mr. Haeng Sang-Rim, President of Cambodia, joined as well. During the ceremony, Nepes distributed rice, T-shirts, and towels to the residents. This is one of examples Nepes takes responsibility to societyThe Hospital of Love is another incarnation of Mr. Lee's sharing philosophy of giving hope to the ones in need and inspiring them to voluntarily improve their living conditions rather than simply providing financial support. The Hospital in Siem Reap will be operated by International Love Mission for the first 5 years and managed by the Cambodian government afterwards
2007-03-14 -
New Year’s Speech, 2007
Superstar!Dear members of NEPES!The first morning of Jeonghae Year, the year of the golden pig, said to come once every 600 years, has dawned. Greeting the New Year full of hope and expectation, I hope that all of the executives and workers and your homes are blessed with health and happiness.Looking back at the last year, the company achieved growth of over 30 percent, despite many difficulties. In addition, the company developed new products such as functional chemicals, Biotechnologies and coatings, which will become our future driving force. We operated our factory in Singapore, established new visions and have steadily practiced T-management based on the accomplishment of our goals and managerial ideologies. In 2006, NEPES won the Silver Tower industrial medal granted to the best performing venture businesses, a first for a component material maker.I want to thank all the executives and employees for these favorable results in 2006. Without your devoted efforts, NEPES could not have achieved its present status. And similarly, if you had not recognized, trusted and believed in me, I couldn't have been an effective CEO. I especially want to offer my heartfelt gratitude to all members of NEPES, who have worked passionately, if invisibly, with a strong sense of duty and an unyielding spirit.For us, the year 2007 is very important in that we will be preparing a stepping stone from which we can accomplish our vision of `` an organization advancing the future.'' However, we expect to continuously be faced with a number of obstacles that will hinder our growth in the coming year. So many obstacles will be waiting for us. The value of our currency is soaring, our customers are continuously pushing forward vertical integration, an increasing number of competitors are emerging, and the political atmosphere is unstable due to North Korea's nuclear weapon programs and the presidential election. To wisely overcome these difficult managerial conditions, and to continuously develop by using them as opportunities to grow, I am going to select the following as my key words for management in 2007.First: self-innovation or creative innovation.To be able to take the shocks that are coming up as an opportunity, it is important for us to lighten our bodies. By utilizing indexes such as ROA and ROI, we should maximize the efficiency of the operation of our resources, such as investment, inventory, costs and manpower, and enhance our competitive edge through innovating in the non-cost aspects of competition.In addition, by introducing and making use of the 6 sigma method to improve our capacity to cope with the changes in business environment, we will more practically build a risk management system, steadily secure the future driving forces and daringly push them forward. To this end, we will expand new business which can generate synergies with existing ones in multiple ways, and advance the business structure by securing more than three new products for each business in preparation for the future through expanding applications based on already introduced new products and our technologies.Second, expansion of the culture of execution-oriented Culture.Even if we have broad knowledge, it is dead knowledge if we don't practice it. For creative innovation, all members should be able to speak to each other frankly regarding obstacles by joining the work sites, actively setting up plans and preparing solutions together. We should become really creative members of NEPES, who always have a critical mind that asks ``Why?'' more than three times, and make new things after digging deeply into the essence of our duties. To spread the culture of execution-oriented Culture, it is necessary for us to understand management and the purpose of driven life. Even those with high abilities and special passions may experience negative changes to their entire life if they have the wrong way of thinking in terms of being considerate of others. We know this too well. As good reasons give birth to good results, all members will realize the real value and meaning of the life only when they make the utmost effort to produce good results.Leaders of new business organizations, in particular, should know that they can get help from the people who surround them only when they do their best sacrificing themselves. Only through experience and knowledge, obtain at the work sites in the process of working hard, can they have a sense of confidence and feel happiness and satisfaction.Third, expansion of global talent.This year, we plan to step up education to prepare for the future by building middle managers into global talents through strengthening their capacities. For this purpose, we will supplement our systems of evaluation and education, and operate programs to cultivate core talents. We will then help executives and managers widen their personal relationships, and correctly understand members in and outside of the company, and the pool of human resources and the business as well. We will also practice T-management by stationing people in the appropriate position. Additionally, we will reform the personnel system according to the principle of T-management by reestablishing a transparent, fair and predictable evaluation and compensation system, slimming down the organization and building a self controlling organizational structure, in which every member of the company exactly knows his or her responsibilities and rights.To carry out the above-mentioned three keywords will bring us mental and material abundance, and will help us form more decent personalities and give us acute foresight. In addition, we will be able to find the values and meanings of life, and will feel the overwhelming growth we have achieved.Dear members of NEPES!We will have to try to attain the top competitive edge by further developing differentiation strategies that center around our current core capacities, and by strengthening our new driving forces through ceaseless efforts. This year, the company will daringly invest in R&D, education and informatization to expand production facilities and growth potential, and further strengthen marketing and R&D through expanding global networks. As well, we will certainly supplement various systems to perfect the T-management system. Finally, I pray to God so that all of your own hopes will be achieved, and your homes will be full of happiness and health.I'll serve you !!Thank you.Jan. 2, 2007Chairman Byung-gu, Lee
2007-01-01