GS Group Chairman Huh Chang-soo urged CEOs and executives of the group’s affiliates to create an organization that responds flexibly to fast market changes at a quarterly meeting in Seoul, officials said Thursday.

Huh referred to Thomas Friedman’s 2016 book “Thank You for Being Late” to explain that the group is facing challenges arising from market uncertainties in “the age of accelerations,” which is the reason why it needs to secure “strategic flexibility” to efficiently allocate assets and make decisions quickly.

“Amid uncertainties growing over geopolitical risks including North Korea’s continuous nuclear tests, the management environment we are facing today is changing in a more complex manner,” he said at the meeting.

“At a time like this, we need to have strategic flexibility to revise strategies rapidly and relocate assets according to the changes of the market.”


As part of efforts to secure flexibility in management, GS Homeshopping, the group’s cable TV shopping channel has been investing in startups under the project named “Grow with GS.”

A liquefied natural gas terminal built in Boryeong, South Chungcheong Province, capable of storing 3 million tons of LNG, is an example of how the group has been making efforts to create synergies between GS units. GS has started to supply fuel to the group’s power generation unit GS EPS from the newly built fuel storage facility. It also plans to supply 400,000 tons a year to GS Power, a power distributor, starting from 2018.

By Cho Chung-un (christory@heraldcorp.com)