``From Son Of a Farmer To A Great Industrialist Of South Korea``
South Korea`s original corporate visionary Chung Ju Yung always aspired to the Confucian values that Koreans hold dear. The founder of the Hyundai group, Chung (1915 ` March 21, 2001) made a reputation for himself as an earthy man of hard work and high-minded principles, a humble sage and imperious master. His feisty determination impressed former President Park Chung Hee so much that in the 1960s, the South Korean dictator tailored his policies to suit Chung`s grand corporate vision and thus forged the world`s most competitive shipbuilding and construction industries.
Born in Tongchon, now a town in North Korea, Chung began life as the son of a farmer and received only a primary school education. In 1933, he hiked 120 miles to Seoul, seeking to build his empire. He then toiled as a labourer and rice-vending clerk.
Chung then started an auto-repair shop with little more than a set of old tools. By 1967 his Hyundai (`Modern`) company was churning out Fords and had already sprouted an offshoot, Hyundai Construction, which became the nucleus of an empire that today manufacturers cement, semiconductors, automobiles and a wide variety of other products.