A recent event made me think about the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland, the foul-tempered personification of blind fury who screams, “Off with their heads.” Of course, the Queen of Hearts is just a figment of Lewis Carroll’s imagination, and I’m certain he never met the Korean executive team over at Hyundai.
Hyundai and its sister nameplate, Kia, have burned through some of the best and brightest executives in the industry. One of my best industry friends, Finbarr O’Neill, was the first to lead Hyundai out of the wilderness and into the mainstream. No one seems to remember his two predecessors, Robert Parker and Doug Mazza. They were abruptly replaced, and O’Neill is generally credited for taking brand perception from junk to quality.
If you are a top-performing corporate hero at Kia’s and Hyundai’s North American operations, history tells us you’ll probably be marched off the plank with the first misstep.
Read the whole article here at F&I Showroom
