– Preferential treatment to waste treatment engineers and relevant specialists…empowering its business development team
Hyundai Corporation (HC) has decided to put more emphasis on business development to break away from its existing trading-centered business structure. To develop into an investment-oriented trading firm, HC is seeking investment opportunities at home and abroad not only for trading but also for completely new business spheres.
Against this backdrop, HC has added new projects to its business portfolio every year since it was renamed Hyundai Corporation in 2021. The same year, HC newly included “automobile/electric vehicle component and eco-friendly/composite material manufacturing and marketing” and “energy infrastructure establishment” in its business portfolio. Eco-friendly recycling/investment business and robotics were added as new projects in 2022 and 2023, respectively.
HC has more actively secured human resources for its new businesses. To this end, it included business development in the spheres for the open recruitment of college graduates. For instance, last year, it employed new talents only for global business and management support but this year, newly added business development to its business realm, clearly exposing its intention to employ relevant human resources.
◇ Preferential treatment to environmental engineering and recycling specialists and keener attention to recycling-associated business development
According to Hyundai Corporation, its business development team is responsible for business feasibility and marketability analysis and project management. Preferential treatment is given to engineering/farming degree holders and waste treatment specialists, as well as those with experience in relevant projects.
In particular, environmental, and recycling engineering degree holders were also included in those subjected to preferential treatment. In farming, Hyundai Corporation Holdings, a holding company for Hyundai Corporation Group, is operating farms in the UK and Australia (mushrooms), and Cambodia (mangoes).
Hyundai Corporation’s New Projects
| Year (ordinary general shareholders’ meeting) | New projects |
|---|---|
| 2021 | – Vehicle and auto component manufacturing and marketing – Electric vehicle component manufacturing and marketing – Eco-friendly and composite material manufacturing and marketing – Energy (hydrogen, etc.) infrastructure and relevant projects |
| 2022 | – Waste resource-based eco-friendly recycling and relevant projects – Investment in new technology and venture capital firms and relevant projects |
| 2023 | – Industrial and logistics robot manufacturing/marketing and relevant projects |
Against the backdrop of environmental and recycling business projects having yet to be fully implemented, Hyundai Corporation is seeking new business opportunities in the sector of battery and solar panel reuse and recycling.
In Korea, the number of waste batteries is projected to rise from around 8,300 this year to 80,000 in 2029, with the number of waste solar panels jumping from 1,223 tons to 6,796 tons during the same period of time. Adding eco-friendly recycling to its business objectives, HC is preparing to advance into relevant markets that are expected to expand at home and abroad.
HC has indirectly advanced into waste battery markets by making investments in the sector. In November 2021, it invested KRW 5 billion to secure 45% of the stake in KCA New Growth Sector II (private equity fund). At that time, the limited partnership succeeded in securing KRW 11.1 billion worth of funding to acquire 280,000 RCPS (a 3.06% stake) of SungEel HiTech.
SungEel HiTech equipped with technologies to extract key metal from secondary cells for recycling has seen its corporate value climb due to the expansion of EV markets. The value of Hyundai Corporation’s stake in KCA also swelled by almost three-fold from KRW 4.9 billion to KRW 14.4 billion at the end of the third quarter of last year.
Hyundai Corporation’s HR Recruitment
| Business areas | Job descriptions | Preferred qualifications | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Global business | Global business (auto, smart mobility, energy, machinery infrastructure, petrochemical, steel, etc.) – Business-related product development & trading – New item and partner search – Market trend research | Proficiency in a second foreign language (Chinese, Spanish, French, Japanese, etc.) | |
| Business development | – Business feasibility and marketability analysis – Project management | – Engineering (environment, industry, recycling, etc.) and farming specialists – Master’s degree or higher – Certificates in waste treatment and relevant areas – Experience in business development project | |
| Management support | Finance | – Financing and operation – Risk management | – Relevant certificates – RD specialists – Master’s degree or higher |
| HR | – Recruitment and HR system planning and operation – Global training program planning and operation – HR analytics (HR and HRD data gathering and analysis) | ||
◇ Executive Director Yeo Young-chan from Bae, Kim & Lee LLC, a key player in the business development team
Hyundai Corporation newly established its business development team in 2020. By 2019, HC maintained its management system where each trading headquarters is responsible for discovering trading-related new businesses. In 2020, it set up a business development team in charge of pioneering new markets. The business development team is under the control of the general business division but operates independently from each trading headquarters (vehicle components, commercial energy, machinery/shipbuilding, petrochemicals, and steel).
It is Executive Director Yeo Young-chan, in charge of business development and legal affairs, that has headed the team since it was established. He was born in 1974 and worked as a lawyer for Bae, Kim & Lee LLC from 2005 to 2013, joining Hyundai Corporation as a legal affairs officer at the end of 2013.
Executive Director Yeo was responsible for legal affairs by 2019 but has also served as director in charge of industrial plant business development since 2020. He graduated from Indiana University Maurer School of Law (Bloomington) and functioned as a lawyer for Bae, Kim & Lee LLC for a long time. However, he also earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Seoul National University and has been widely known to show a special interest in business development.
Against this backdrop, Hyundai Corporation selected him as the leader of the industrial plant business development team. It was officially renamed Hyundai Corporation in 2021 and has since allowed Executive Director Yeo to continue to head the team in recognition of his achievement and commitment.
The Bell
March 21, 2023