EMRO (058970), a developer of supply relationship management (SRM) software, has appointed a former executive of its parent company Samsung SDS (018260) as its next chief executive. Under the new leadership and with backing from Samsung SDS, EMRO plans to focus on cultivating a new customer base in the U.S. market.
EMRO announced Wednesday that it has named Cho Sang-won, a former executive director at Samsung SDS, as its incoming CEO. Cho earned his bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and joined Samsung SDS in 2011. He was promoted to the executive ranks in 2020, serving as head of the planning team in the management support office and head of the digital SRM team, among other roles. Cho began working at EMRO this month and has effectively started managing the business. EMRO plans to formally complete his appointment as CEO through an extraordinary shareholders' meeting and board meeting next month.
The leadership change is expected to bring EMRO's business operations into closer alignment with parent company Samsung SDS. One of the key business objectives for EMRO under Cho's leadership is expanding its customer base in the United States. Until now, EMRO has primarily marketed its SRM offerings to the manufacturing and automotive sectors, but the company has set a goal of acquiring new clients in the business-to-consumer (B2C) sector in the U.S., including in apparel and food and beverage.
The strategy for expanding into the North American market centers on customer acquisition through o9 Solutions. o9 Solutions operates the supply chain management platform "o9" and counts major global retail brands such as Nike, Walmart and Starbucks among its clients.
As a first step, EMRO will roll out a major update this month to "Cadensia," its SRM software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering supplied through a partnership on o9 Solutions' o9 platform, including the addition of development procurement features. EMRO has been supplying Cadensia through the partnership on o9 Solutions' supply chain management platform since December last year, under a tripartite agreement with Samsung SDS and o9 Solutions. Previously, Cadensia included only procurement management features for mass-production items that had completed productization, but the new features will allow procurement management services to be used from the product development stage, in line with demand from local companies.
EMRO plans to use the feature update as a springboard to step up sales to North American retailers through the o9 platform. With Cho having overseen overseas sales and marketing for Cadensia during his time at Samsung SDS, his expertise is expected to add further momentum to the company's overseas business.
