LG Group chief holds marathon discussion with top executives


LG Group chairman Koo Bon-moo emphasized having a fully innovative mind to transform the conglomerate into a market leader during marathon discussions with the group’s top executives on Wednesday.

Koo told the 40 top officials at LG’s affiliates that they must come face-to-face with the challenges of gaining the upper hand and never stop trying white having an attitude of change at its two-day global CEO strategic conference in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province since Tuesday.

The event was attended by LG vice chairman Kang Yu-sig, LG Electronics’ vice chairman Koo Bon-joon, Kim Bahn-suk of LG Chem, Lee Sang-chul of LG Uplus and LG president Cho Ju-no among others.

“A year may seem long but it will pass by even before you realize it,” he said. “As we expect the business environment to be on the downside, I ask you to make the preparation measures from the beginning of the year.”

The event takes place shortly after Koo stressed in his New Year’s message that its employees must compete until the very end with determination.

Stating that the time has come to get the results from projects that must be accomplished, drastic and detailed changes need to take place to create differentiated products and services as well as values, to Koo said.

He also said drastic investments have to be injected to go ahead with new projects along with a courageous attitude and the right direction.

At the event which was designed to hold talks about market-driving leadership and the nurturing of entrepreneurs, LG executives of the group’s six affiliates engaged in panel discussions involving this year’s projects, organizations and human resources.

LG is currently in the stage of nurturing a group of about 2,000 people who are labeled the next-generation of entrepreneurs.

With the decision being reached to draw up an entrepreneur nurturing program at last year’s global CEO strategic meeting, it has picked about a pool of 100 CEO and project chief candidates from the level of project general managers.

The group also selected around 400 employees from the managers level to give them control of its projects and another group of 1,500 in the lower ranks for entrepreneurship training.

The selected pools of employees also receive coaching and mentoring from the high-ranking executives and get to take part in MBA programs at local business schools, said LG Group officials. They get the opportunity to get their hands on a variety of tasks, such as job rotations, to be better prepared as future leaders, its officials said.

In prior to taking part in the discussion marathon, Koo visited the LG Electronics’ exhibition center, which is now featuring the firm’s new products for this year, and stressed that good quality products must be released in the market before others.

By Cho Ji-hyun (sharon@heraldcorp.com)