Presented by The Korea Herald, Korean Association for Social Contents Development, the Korea SNS Award seeks to acknowledge companies and institutions that are actively and effectively communicating with customers via social media. This marks the third year that POSCO has been recognized as a Grand Prize winner, as POSCO was awarded the title previously in 2013 and 2014. This year’s win is especially meaningful, as POSCO’s effort to create various content about steel using its blog and Facebook page was recognized.

Last month, POSCO was also honored for its social media activities by the International Business Awards (IBA). The program is operated under the Stevie Awards, the world’s premier business awards, which were established in 2002 to honor and generate public recognition of the achievements and positive contributions of organizations and working professionals worldwide.

POSCO submitted entries for the SNS category for the first time and received the Bronze Prize Stevie Award in two categories: “Metals & Mining” and “Best Blog.”

POSCO launched its corporate social media channels in 2012 to soften the rigid image of steel and engage the public in an approachable manner while strengthening corporate competitiveness. POSCO is committed to open communication through its corporate blog and Facebook page by sharing the company’s major management activities and interesting content about steel.

As a result, POSCO’s blog is visited by approximately 180,000 people per month, an unusually high visitor count for a B2B blog, while POSCO’s Facebook channel is consistently growing, with over 260,000 fans. Additionally, the company recently relaunched its global blog to enhance POSCO’s image as a global brand and leader of the steel industry.

Thank you very much for joining us today. Can you tell us about how you started working at POSCO?

I’d say I grabbed the opportunity at the right moment. I was working for a translation agency which I’d established after coming back from Taiwan, where I gave lectures at the Central Police University. One day, I saw an advert from newspaper saying POSCO was hiring overseas regional experts. It certainly drew my attention. Before applying for it, I was slightly hesitative because I heard POSCO was a bit conservative towards female employees. It took me some time to consider but eventually, I handed in my resume and got accepted.

It was a big challenge. Until then, I only had experiences at schools. Then, I thought it could be quite fun to work in a company. My career at POSCO began in the overseas investment and business department. There was a great degree of investments in China by POSCO during the time. My Chinese skill came in very handy and I was also an interpreter for the management. Later, I moved my post to Sales for heated carbon and stainless steels.

When did you feel most challenged while working at POSCO?

Few years ago, I was reassigned to Beijing Office when my parents-in-law were very unwell and my husband was the only child to look after them. Although my husband told me to seize the opportunity, I just couldn’t leave them behind and move abroad. I even thought of quitting the job because of this. But POSCO showed me a tremendous consideration and allowed me to stay put in Seoul. I am still thankful for POSCO as the company listened to my voice and understood the personal issue.

Could you share your ‘Know-Hows’ on communicating with young colleagues?

I often visit my junior colleagues’ Facebook accounts. You can see their thoughts and worries through SNS which can be quite helpful to understand the difficulties they are facing. Speaking with my eldest daughter is another way of enhancing my communication skills with young employees. She is familiar with thoughts of the young generations like her so I try to have more conversations with my daughter whenever I can.

What would be your advantages as a female leader?

I reckon my strongest attribute comes when I take care of each individual’s feelings carefully. Notably in marketing, which is my field, it could be a great boost if you care for clients with great delicacy so you can lead them into a right direction.

How do you keep the balance between family and work?

I personally think husbands should be great supporters. My husband is same age as I am and we are just like friends. We talk about concerns and worries about our works together. There are certain things you cannot share with colleagues but you can always speak to your spouse about, well, virtually anything.

Also, husbands need to help their wives to keep up with housework such as raising children. The majority of female workers tend to feel sorry for not being able to spend much time with their kids. But I think it really depends on how you put it. When my kids were about three or four years old, I always explained to them about what I was doing for work because I thought it was essential to let them know their mom was playing an important role as a member of society, not just working to gain financial rewards. We need to make our children to be proud of us, not neglected. Also, I try to emphasize their roles within a family for studying hard and being independent. My children have been behaving really well to me and I’m grateful for that.

Are there any advices that you would like to give to your female junior employees?

I’ve seen many women taking time-offs or quitting their jobs after getting married. I feel sorry when the female talents are forced to cease their careers because of the first 1 or 2 years of childcare after giving birth. When my children were babies, I was living with my parents-in-law and they brought the children up with so much love. Some say it’s hard to live with their parents-in-law but I think there are so many things you can learn and thankfully receive from them. We only need to talk and narrow down our differences and things will turn out to be fine.

What is your grateful moment as a member of POSCO?

I appreciate POSCO for trusting me and promoting my position to be the first female team leader, group leader and executive. The President of Overseas Corporation carries a tremendous responsibility of managing a corporate and I’m glad that the company offered me the role.

You’ve worked in marketing field for quite a long period. Do you have any special business skills to tip us off?

I focused on developing our small and medium-sized enterprise partners’ potentialities so they could overcome the market’s fierce competition. Also I put a lot of effort into understanding clients. Such efforts have resulted in improvements of the relationship between POSCO and the partners. For instance, there was a Japanese steel pipe manufacturer, which wasn’t participating in any meaningful business with us. Now, the firm has become one of our royal customers purchasing 90 percent of their purchases from POSCO. I managed to accomplish the success by researching their needs whenever I visited the firm. After a while, I realized that Japanese companies had limited knowledge of foreign trends and market condition as they were generally targeting domestic market. I provided them with information of export market because I was familiar with the area as a leader of the export team. The company could act faster than its competitors and generated profits with the resources I gave them and it naturally led to the firm’s trust in me.

Such achievement was feasible because I tried to assist them by developing their potentiality so they could overcome the market’s fierce competition. If I had only offered cheaper price or any other simplistic solutions, the success would not have been possible.

What are the essential attributes and attitudes you would suggest your fellow members to have?

POSCO is a manufacturing company so a firm discipline should be applied to all. Furthermore, our staff ought to possess a sense of ownership towards the company. You need to do your best, even if certain decisions could give you hard times. At the end of the day, you will realize it was worthwhile doing and satisfactory results will soon follow. This is a view I would like to put forward to, not only POSCO but also, our affiliates.

As for the last question, how do you see yourself after 5 or 10 years from now on?

If there’s an opportunity, I’d like to work as a marketing executive to develop myself by managing a broader region. Struggling markets like Japan at the moment would be the place I’d want to challenge. For a long term aim, my dream is to challenge myself as far as I can and keep advancing forward.

After the interview with Vice President Liang, POSCO could realize how important it is to love our work and devote ourselves to the company. This concludes our series of interviews with POSCO’s three female executives. POSCO wish their journey ahead would be leading them towards glorious success, setting the fine examples for POSCO and other female talents. As always, POSCO’s effort to cultivate female leadership marches on.

It’s a pleasure and an honor meeting you today. Could you briefly let us in on your career at POSCO?

I joined POSCO as the Head of the Global Leadership Center in March 2012 to manage the training programs for new/experienced employees and overseas resident employees in addition to operating G-JEDP (Global Junior Executive Development Program). To give proper training, it was essential for me to learn POSCO’s history and culture as quickly as possible.

When did you feel the most challenged as a female employee? And what did you do to overcome those challenges?

As a career woman, it was not very easy to keep a balance between work and life. It kind of became a routine of mine to bring some work home to finish it instead of spending time with the family. But my family understood my situation and gave me their full support. I also tried to be there for them both mentally and physically whenever I can.

When I first started working, it was difficult for me to find an appropriate mentor who would provide advices and feedbacks for my career development within the company. But I kept a firm belief in myself and paved my own way to continuously move forward.

Have there been any moments when you felt grateful to your colleagues?

Most importantly, I’m grateful to senior colleagues who gave me the opportunities to work with them and full faith in me. I also want to thank junior members, who have done terrific job without a complaint. Moreover, I’m thankful to POSCO for giving me a chance to re-launch my career here.

When I think about the times I have spent here at POSCO, it seems that every little thing that happened to me now and then was meaningful. Just like the little stars come together to form a constellation, all the experiences I’ve had at POSCO made me who I am today.

You have set a tremendous example as a female leader. What do you think are some of the strengths that only women have?

I reckon that our soft, delicate, warm personalities and our ability to be flexible and sympathetic can be our advantage.

Are there any advices that you would like to give to your female junior employees? 

Don’t try to do everything on your own. Ask for help.

Don’t give up your dreams easily. In our lives, there are big changes like marriage, childbirth, raising kids, and there can be problems at the office. They could be tough to overcome. But don’t try facing and solving all the issues by yourself. It will get you nowhere. It will just leave you completely exhausted and alone. Ask for help. Ask your family, colleagues and seniors to help you. They are more experienced and have more wisdom to guide you through tough times.

Most of all, it is important to know that female employees have their own capacity that differs from their male counterparts in certain areas. Instead of turning a blind eye on your abilities and advantages as women, put some efforts into embracing the differences so you can utilize your unique skills and make up for your weak points as women.

Could you share your ‘Know-Hows’ for communicating with colleagues?

Be like their god-mother and take care of them. Embrace them.

My juniors often call me their ‘Godmother.’ I try to give them my attention and care for each and every one of them. That’s why I have learned how to use the buzzwords and some emoticons when communicating with my juniors through SNS. On the top of that, I also send friendly e-mails or text messages to compliment, encourage and give advice to the young colleagues. My favorite way of communication is, however, speaking to them face-to-face so I can easily show my emotions.

As a respectable member of society and POSCO, what are the essential attributes and attitudes you would suggest your fellow members to have?

Be passionate in what you do. Enjoy your life. And a positive attitude would be the cherry on top.

I think it is essential have special love for POSCO. As we all know, POSCO is the company widely beloved by Korean people. And being engaged with the company to make POSCO into a top-notch organization are vital as well. To do so, we need to possess challenging spirits and willingness to oblige our duties and responsibilities. At the same time, enthusiasm and professionalism to be the best in your field is important. But please bear in mind that all of these should come with an attitude to enjoy life to the fullest and a positive attitude.

Thank you very much for today’s interview. As for the last question, please tell us about your future plans and dream.

I want to develop and renovate the Corporate Future Creation Academy to meet the global standard so that we could train highly talented individuals. I personally believe that the achievement we can gain will lead POSCO and its affiliates to be the finest of all in the field. To this end, I’ll be doing my best in everything that I do here.

In light of such trends, we would like to introduce one of POSCO’s innovative way of working, ‘Smart Workplace’.

Innovative Working Experience with Cutting-Edge IT System

According to Gartner, a worldwide information technology research and advisory company, the importance of internal/external communication and cooperation is expected to reach up to 90 percent of the entire business operation by 2015. Also, corporates often face management issues involving several interactive factors. Therefore, the need for sharing and blending professional knowledge suggested from the inside of organization is increasingly desired. Moreover, there is a growing number of concerns over the balance between work and personal lives of employees.

Does it sound too good to be true? Well, for POSCO, this is something not for the future, but for the now.

POSCO’s Innovative ‘Smart Workplace’

POSCO aims to generate smart and creative business operations, hinged on sharing the knowledge of our expert employees without any unheard voices. This innovative platform is afoot to gather various experiences and ideas, freely submitted by POSCO’s employees with no limits of time and space.

POSCO Chairman Chung Joon-yang meets Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Google, in November, 2011

Since 2011, POSCO has strategically cooperated with Google and collected various ideas from POSCO’s own employees to materialize a unique way of working. It is labeled ‘Smart Workplace’, combined with social media, mobile devices, cloud computing and numerous state-of-the-art IT technologies. It has been in operation since December, 2012.

Cooperation and Communication Beyond Time and Space

The ‘Smart Workplace’ interconnects and analyzes POSCO employees’ personal profile (department, responsible task, past record), interests and expertise. With this function, the system allows appropriate project partner searching and coordinates effective cooperation. The information is also shared with other organizations for smooth communication and monitoring amid multiple work places. Also, every outcome of the cooperated operation is managed via the category of ‘Essential Achievement’ for the participating personnel and the supervisors, promoting the settlement of employee engagement and transparent evaluation.

Moreover, the participants are able to jointly create an online shared document through E-mail, Messenger, SNS and Video conference. The infrastructure provides an environment for interactive, real-time communication amongst the involved staff cooperating with each other. In doing so, POSCO’s employees, with the expert knowledge are capable of cooperating freely with one another. Their time is also managed more effectively as the system saves a great deal of time consumption, usually taken for meeting, travelling, instruction and briefing.

Online Cooperation utilized by PC video conference

The video conference via PC is noteworthy as there are more than 3,000 on-line meetings held every month. Such active usage of the online communication and cooperation has resulted in a 14 percent decrease in long-distance business trips and reduced about 30 percent of wasted costs for travelling.

The online scheduling is also being actively used. A productive environment has been settled where the supervisors and staff can easily communicate and focus on their tasks by exchanging directions and cooperate online. POSCO says the numbers of document prints are now cut down by 77 percent and the briefings involving printed documents have also been decreased from 71 percent to 20 percent.

The system’s automatic and real-time translator also contributes for sharing information in different languages amidst POSCO’s staff. Any contents in text-format can be translated with the translator’s ability of processing 66 languages. As you might have guessed by now, it also saves time as there’s no need to spend time and costs for translation.

From ‘Smart’ to ‘Speed’ Workplace!

The ‘Smart Workplace’ provides an environment for mobile work and telecommuting, enabling the staff to undertake giving directions, receiving reports and every other task which they are responsible for, from the outside the office.

Working in ‘Smart Office’

After the introduction of ‘Smart Office’, 90 percent of POSCO employees handed in positive reviews. They also stated that the ratio of cooperation enhanced by 81 percent. The time required for approval and authorization by the superior employee has also been reduced by 63 percent. The faster speed of job accomplishments was feasible as supervisors could get on with their assignments while also moving one place to another.

‘Knowledge Share’ is another major feature of ‘Smart Workplace’ we shouldn’t neglect. Every form of the data related to utilization and information sharing amongst employees is stored in the contents storage. The documents created by the Unified Contents Management System are numbered 11,400 daily on average. 85 percent of them are shared for cooperation purposes.

Furthermore, on the basis of ‘one blog by one person’ campaign, working, education and creative activities insights are accessible to all employees whom have registered. The active knowledge spillover and communication is also continued in the SNS environment.

POSCO is planning to extend its unique working style to the firm’s domestic and overseas affiliates and corporations. In terms of communication and cooperation, the participation from POSCO’s subsidiaries and partners will continuously be promoted. On the foundation of ‘Smart Workplace’, a platform for communication and cooperation, POSCO’s innovation for enhancing the ways of everyday work continues.