Hyundai marks 50 years with vision for lasting excellence, not fleeting top rank

Hyundai Corporation Group Chairman Chung Mong-hyuk laid out a vision to build a sustainably excellent company as the group approaches its 50th anniversary Thursday.

The group held a ceremony Tuesday at the Grand Hyatt Seoul, with about 600 domestic and overseas employees and global staff in attendance. The event was organized to reflect on the past 50 years and chart the direction for the next 50.

"Our past 50 years were not simply a time of growth — they were a time of transformation and overcoming many hardships," Chung said in his commemorative address. "Many companies have faded into history, but we have reinvented ourselves to become the Hyundai Corporation of today."

"The flexibility and resilience accumulated through that process are the greatest assets left to us," he said. "The company I want to build is not one that briefly tops the rankings, but a truly excellent company that can change and grow on its own in any environment and remain sustainable for the long term."

Chung outlined two strategic directions to drive the next 50 years: the co-integration of trade and manufacturing, and a governance overhaul of the company's NEST regional collaboration framework.

On the first front, the group plans to evolve toward a business model that organically combines its trading and manufacturing capabilities. Following last year's acquisition of auto parts maker Lucynova, it intends to pursue acquisitions of mid-sized manufacturers at home and abroad within five years, with an ambition to secure large-scale manufacturing firms over the longer term.

The group also plans to upgrade NEST, its global regional collaboration network operating since 2021, so that each of the 10 regional hubs can function as an independent headquarters — identifying business opportunities, making investments and driving growth on their own, much as the Seoul head office does.

Hyundai Corporation traces its roots to Hyundai Jonghap Sangsa, founded in 1976 under the late Hyundai Group Honorary Chairman Chung Ju-yung's philosophy of building the nation through exports. The company pioneered overseas resource development through the Drayton coal mine in Australia and the Marib oil field in Yemen, and went on to record five consecutive years as South Korea's top single-company exporter and become the first domestic firm to reach the $25 billion export milestone.

The company weathered the Asian financial crisis and a subsequent workout process before rejoining the Hyundai fold in 2009. Chairman Chung Mong-hyuk took the helm in 2010, ushering in what the group calls a second founding era. In 2016, a corporate separation established it as an independently managed group within the broader Hyundai family. In 2021, the company unified its domestic name under Hyundai Corporation, the brand already better known internationally.

The ceremony also featured an AI-generated video message from the late Honorary Chairman Chung Ju-yung. Drawing on his founding philosophy of "earning abroad to enrich home," he expressed gratitude to employees who had traveled the world seeking opportunities and building growth. "What matters is whether you challenged again despite countless failures," he said in the video. "If there is no road, make one." He added that he would be watching Hyundai Corporation's future unfold alongside them.

"If the past 50 years were a history of challenge and pioneering, the next 50 will be the time to turn the dream of a century-old company into reality," Chairman Chung said. "That is not a road any one person can walk alone — we will open the next 50 years by challenging and overcoming together."