Hanjin Group, the operator of the country’s largest airline Korean Air, has released a biography of the group’s late founder Cho Joong-hoon, the firm said Monday.

The group held a ceremony to commemorate the publication of “Business as an art,” which depicted Cho’s management philosophy and foundation spirit as part of a project to mark the company’s 70th anniversary.

“The biography contains hitherto unpublished stories and pictures that help the readers understand Korea’s economic and diplomatic situation, such as relations between Korea and Japan,” a Hanjin official said.

Founded in 1945 with a secondhand truck, the father of current Hanjin Group chairman Cho Yang-ho, transformed his company into a global transportation conglomerate that now has 39 companies with over 36,000 employees.

According to the firm, it has been working on the biography since 2010 to document the story of the company’s development from its birth as well as its contribution to the country’s transport and logistics business.

Cho, who passed away in 2002, focused on one major industrial segment, transportation, while expanding the group’s business portfolio into maritime and aviation sectors by establishing shipping and logistics company Hanjin Shipping and Korean Air.

In one of the chapters, the book describes how Cho’s shipping company transported military supplies while his construction operation developed ports for the Korean Navy and military contract vessels during the Vietnam War, the group said.

By Park Han-na (hnpark@heraldcorp.com)