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In the last decade Hyundai Corp. has gone from zero-to-hero in the U.S. auto market. Frank Ferrara, now executive vice president of customer satisfaction for Hyundai, is fourth from from left. (Hyundai)<\/p>\n
In the last decade Hyundai Corp. has gone from zero-to-hero in the U.S. auto market. At the 2000 Detroit Auto Show I rolled up an imported Hyundai Accent\u2019s windows with manual, door-mounted cranks. Since then, Hyundai has rolled up market share as one of America\u2019s fastest-growing brands \u2014 producing polished, stylish vehicles like the U.S.-made Santa Fe SUV and Sonata\u00a0sedan What happened? In part, Hyundai went native.<\/p>\n They put down roots in California, built a tech center in the Big Three\u2019s backyard, hired good ol\u2019 boys to build cars in \u2018Bama, and recruited Toyota\u2019s top American executives. One of those execs is Frank Ferrara, now executive vice president of customer satisfaction for Hyundai.<\/p>\n Born in Brooklyn, Ferrara was raised on the other side of the world from his Korean employer. Sixty-three years later, he is a key Hyundai honcho. Brooklyn\u2019s got Seoul. The East River meets the Pacific. That\u2019s a global automaker. Ferrara is head poobah for dealer customer service and parts activities. From the luxurious backseat of a Hyundai Equus cruising to a Phoenix strategy conference, the 28-year Hyundai veteran talked with me about transformation, Toyota, and woman drivers.<\/p>\n HP:<\/b>\u00a0Hyundai is perceived differently from a decade ago. How did that happen?<\/p>\n FF:<\/b>\u00a0It begins with our Chairman Mong-Ku Chung, who basically took over our corporation in 1997. It was his laser focus on quality. He elevated quality management to a president\u2019s position by 2000 and within a couple more years elevated that to a chairman\u2019s level so the quality guys really had the authority to say \u201cStop!\u201d \u2014 we\u2019re not launching this vehicle until we get this right. (Then) we won the\u00a0J.D. Power quality award in 2004<\/a>and that became a rallying cry for the entire corporation \u2013 a focal point that said here is what consumers want. We hired J.D. Power a long time ago and got them involved early in the vehicle development process to help us identify the issues in a vehicle that might not be consumer friendly. We\u2019ve talked a lot about Toyota\u2019s issues in recent years as they took their eye off the ball because they wanted to become #1 in volume. We\u2019re going to focus on quality and the rest will come naturally.<\/p>\n HP:<\/b>\u00a0Hyundai followed Toyota\u2019s model of building \u2018em where ya\u2019 sell \u2018em. How has manufacturing in the U.S. changed Hyundai?<\/p>\n Ferrara:<\/b>\u00a0The reality is that unions in Korea are pretty tough. They really drove some of the activity to move production out. (Korea) had a number of years in the mid-\u201890s where we had an annual strike. And you also had issues with currency fluctuations (and) a realization that we needed to get closer to the customers. We have design centers globally now \u2014 in Germany and here in Irvine as well as Korea. And once you get factories then you have quality teams in factories and . . . more people in the local market feeding back to corporate in Korea.<\/p>\n HP:<\/b>\u00a0How is the American consumer different?<\/p>\n Ferrara:<\/b>\u00a0We\u2019re in the middle of this shift from the auto as a mechanical vehicle to being an electronic machine. Americans have a lot more content in (their) cars. There\u2019s the old story about how Germans were criticized for not putting multiple cup holders in their cars. We live in our cars. We want to eat breakfast in our cars. And lunch and dinner. And women are a big part of our market. When I first started at Hyundai women didn\u2019t drive in Korea.<\/p>\n HP:<\/b>\u00a0Is Hyundai looking for more U.S. opportunities? NASCAR for example?<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/images.intellitxt.com\/ast\/adTypes\/icon1.png\")
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