Koo Kwang -mo, chairman of LG, 4th anniversary.

The 29th is the 4th anniversary of the inauguration of LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo. In the past four years, LG has disappeared the defeatism of the second place, the indecisiveness, and the slomers, and instead, future-oriented words such as first-class, pragmatism, new LG, and customer value are taking place.

In the business world, if Koo actively develops the future food business for the past four years, he has succeeded in improving his constitution from B2C company to B2B. In particular, through the 'selection and concentration' strategy, the company is boldly organizing the so-called marginal projects such as mobile phones and solar businesses, and instead, investment in robots, OLEDs, AI (artificial intelligence), and bio is increasing. He is also actively engaged in mergers and acquisitions to expand new growth projects, batteries and electronics. This is the reason why the management is called 'young manager' with the bold decision and pragmatism.

■ 'Selection and Focus' and improved earnings

Chairman Koo Kwang-mo took office on June 29, the same year, as the successor to former President Ko Bon-moo, who suddenly died on May 20, 2018. For the past four years, Koo has set a strategy to boldly fold the deficit business, actively invest in the future, and strengthen his room. As a result, the company's external scale has grown together, leading to the largest sales and the largest operating profit.

According to the Fair Trade Commission, the total amount of fair assets of LG Group last year was 167.5 trillion won, up 36% from 123 trillion won in 2018. LG Group's market cap also gained gestures. LG Group's market cap, which was 88.7 trillion won at the time of the inauguration of the former chairman in June 2018, recorded 19.7 trillion won as of June 27, growing 121% in four years.

The sales of seven listed companies increased by 28% from 138 trillion won in 2019 to 179 trillion won last year. Operating profit also grew 244% from 4.6 trillion won to 15.8 trillion won.

LG Electronics, the flagship subsidiary, surpassed 70 trillion won in sales last year with sales of 74.72 trillion won last year. Among them, LG Electronics' household appliances business achieved sales of 27 trillion won, surpassing the US for the first time last year, ranking first in the world. LG Display succeeded in turning to the black in three years, achieving sales of 29.87 trillion won and operating profit of 2.22 trillion won last year.

LG Group is a major source of imports, including LG Electronics, LG Chem, and LG Uplus, including electronics, chemicals, and telecommunications, as well as LG Display, LG CNS (IT Service), S & I Corporation (Real Estate), and LG Management Development Institute ) LG Sports (Sports Service) and LG Holdings (Real Estate Rental) have a total of 73 subsidiaries.

■ Mobile phone, solar, deficit business bold organization… I took a stall

Chairman Koo Kwang-mo is reorganizing LG Group's business portfolio and focusing on growing new foods, the future business. This is why LG Group is more active in selling, withdrawal, acquisition, and merger over the past four years. Since the inauguration of Chairman Koo, LG has been sold or withdrawn more than 10 projects.

Among LG's withdrawal, the mobile business (MC division) is the most representative example. LG Electronics officially announced in April last year that it will withdraw from the mobile phone business that has been hanging for 26 years and completely ended in July of the same year. The mobile phone business made a deficit for 23 consecutive quarters and reached a cumulative deficit of 5 trillion won.

In addition, LG Electronics sold the Water Treatment Project in September 2018 ▲ LG Fuel Systems Clearing, a subsidiary of the fuel cell business in February 2019, ▲ Withdrawal of the solar panel business due to the deterioration of the business environment due to the low-cost offensive of Chinese companies in February 2022 ▲ 2022 In March, the company decided to end the 'Aluto' project 'Aluto'.

LG Display withdrew from the OLED business for lighting in April 2018, and in December of the same year, LG Uplus sold the electronic payment business for 1.3 trillion won. In June 2020, LG Chem sold the LCD polarizer business for 356 billion won, and in February 2020, the Beijing Twin Tower in China was sold for 1.3 trillion won.

In May last year, five: LX International (former LG Corporation), LX Hausys (former LG Hausys), LX Semicon (former Silicon Works) LX Group was separated from the company. This is also a decision based on the 'choice and concentration' strategy. After separating the LX Group, LG is in charge of electronics, chemicals, telecommunication services, and LX is in charge of semiconductor, logistics, and corporate business.

■ EV battery, battlefield, robot, AI, bio… Active investment in future business

Chairman Koo began to grow strategically through the merger and acquisition (M & A) and joint venture (JV) as a new growth engine for electric vehicle batteries and automotive electronics.

In August 2018, LG announced the acquisition of 'ZKW', a vehicle headlamp company within two months of his inauguration. In July of last year, LG Magnie Power Train, a global third-largest auto parts maker, Magna International, and an electric vehicle powertrain (power delivery device) joint venture.

In addition, in September 2021, the company acquired the Israeli car cyber security company 'Cyvelum'. On the 27th, it completed the battlefield portfolio by acquiring 60% of the share of Apple Mango, an electric vehicle charger company in collaboration with GS Energy and GS Nex1. LG Electronics plans to internalize charger development capabilities through this acquisition and build an electric vehicle charger production line in LG Digital Park, Pyeongtaek-si, Gyeonggi-do.

LG's electronics business is expected to be synergy with the battery sector. In December 2019, LG Chem established 'Ulium Sells', a battery joint venture with the US, ▲ In April 2021, LG Energy Solution invested 1 trillion won in establishing the second joint venture of GM and EV batteries. Not.

LG is also making bold investments in artificial intelligence, robots, bio and clean tech. LG decided to preemptively invest 106 trillion won, the largest since its inception in Korea by 2026, and focus 48 trillion won in R & D. In particular, 43 trillion won, which is 40%of the total investment, will be executed in the future growth field.

For example, LG is accelerating the study of the LG AI Research Institute, which was launched in December 2020. Regarding Bio, LG Chem is developing innovative drugs such as cell therapy, and plans to expand new drug pipelines entering the clinical development stage.

In the field of OLED, which was invested early, earnings began to appear. According to Omdia, LG Electronics shipped more than 4 million OLED TVs last year, and the first quarter of this year was 92,600 units, up 17% from the previous year. LG Electronics' market share accounts for 62%in the global OELD TV market.

** ■ Global economic crisis, full-scale management evaluation starts now...

Chairman Koo Kwang-mo is expected to have a cool management evaluation from this year. In recent years, major large companies have entered the emergency management system, facing unprecedented uncertainty management environments such as global inflation, logistics costs, rising raw material costs, and exchange rates.

Chairman Koo also convened a presidential meeting on the 23rd and ordered emergency management. In addition, LG has been conducting a strategic report for about a month, starting with LG Electronics' HE business headquarters on the 30th of last month. The Strategic Report Meeting also plans to check the mid-to long-term investment and take the solution.

According to the business community, Chairman Koo has conveyed the meaning of valuable customer experience by strengthening 'customer value' to overcome the crisis even in an uncertain economic environment.

Since his inauguration, Koo has emphasized 'customer value practice' as a management philosophy. At the regular shareholders' meeting in March, Chairman Koo emphasized that uncertainty is increasing, but we will respond to change with the top priority.

In the second half of last year, Chairman Koo said, There was a prospect that the competition for survival of the company after Corona was more intense. It is more important and urgent to level up qualitatively.