I will become a CEO who breaks the existing framework and innovates. > Press Release

Written: July 7, 2016 (Thu) 10:29

(My Story) Season 2-(12) Choi Seong-kyu, CEO of Elpowertech

I will become a CEO who breaks the existing framework and innovates

Sales that were only 50 million won in the first year of establishment have exceeded 20 billion won in 15 years. Exports are also cruising toward 10 million dollars. This is the story of Elpowertech, a transformer manufacturing company that has achieved a 400-fold growth myth.

CEO Choi Seong-kyu, who graduated from university with a degree in instrumentation and control engineering, established Elpowertech in July 2000 after learning design and manufacturing at a wire company. The reason he founded a transformer manufacturing company is surprisingly simple. It was because he thought it was cool to do manufacturing without being the end consumer. “It looks cool. I thought there’s nothing I can’t do.” Currently, Elpowertech’s export market is widely spread, but it started in Japan. In 2006, when KEPCO’s transformer purchase volume sharply decreased, they decided that this could not continue, so they turned their attention to overseas markets. They successfully made a soft landing in the Japanese market by focusing on large-capacity inverter special transformers (VVVF), and took their first steps as a global powerhouse. From then on, things were smooth sailing. In 2011, they achieved the $5 million export tower and transformed into a representative export company in the transformer industry.

As dramatic as the company’s growth story is, CEO Choi’s activities as a manager are also dramatic. He started as the chairman of the Central Union in 2008, and in April 2011, he took on the chairman of the Western Union. He has been quietly holding the position of industry leader since the Western Union changed its name to the Transformer Business Union in 2013. He was also selected as an ‘Innovation Leader Leading Korea’ in 2011. Furthermore, he is also famous as a manager who practices ‘noblesse oblige’ (moral obligation corresponding to high social status). CEO Choi is a career and entrepreneurship division of the ‘Next Generation Leader Development Mentoring’ operated by the Korea Scholarship Foundation. A sharing member is a person recommended after a strict career screening and deliberation by the Mentoring Management Committee among social leaders. He has been working as a sharing member for five years and has been sparing no effort in providing advice and support to the ‘learning member’ college students (mentees) by leveraging his 30 years of business experience. It is a kind of talent donation. He says, “These days, there are a lot of talks about Hell Joseon and dirt spoons, but I think it is time for our country to think about wealth redistribution. The company did not grow and become large because I was smart. It was all received from society. I think it is natural that we should give back to society.” The Transformer Association, of which CEO Choi is the chairman, is evaluated as a small but strong organization in the electric power industry. This year’s KEPCO unit price bidding scheduled for the end of August is the biggest issue in the transformer industry. He is determined to do his best to secure a reasonable order in this bidding as well. CEO Choi said, “Whether it’s a company or a union, you have to constantly break the existing framework and expand flexible thinking to survive,” and pledged, “I will always study and become a CEO who challenges innovation.”

Reporter Song Se-jun, Electric Times 21ssj@electimes.com

[This post was copied from the press release (Korea) by the top manager on 2022-08-25 11:21:28]