This month, LG CEO Cho visited the company’s key production bases in Asia, including Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia, directly looking into key factors of operational advancement strategies, such as quality enhancement, supply chain, cost structure improvement, safety and productivity of vehicle components, home appliances and TVs. Ultimately, the company aims to strengthen competitiveness and growth in key business areas and global markets.
“Let’s further strengthen our market dominance and solidify the foundation for sustainable growth by upgrading our locally-optimized operation methods and providing world-class quality, cost competitiveness and reliable delivery to our customers,” said CEO Cho. “We should look to pioneer future markets with our unmatched innovation and ability to overcome challenges, while holding firm to the belief that opportunities come from delivering exceptional customer experiences.”
The CEO began his Asian tour in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, where he was joined by the heads of LG’s Asian subsidiaries for a management meeting. There, he was briefed on the company’s regional performance and discussed the status of individual markets including Vietnam, which serves as a global production base for LG’s electronic devices and home appliances. He also had in-depth talks with the subsidiary heads on a variety of business matters, such as improving production efficiency, verifying mass production processes for new products, enhancing quality control and boosting growth through mutually beneficial partnerships.
Mr. Cho also stressed that, if there is even the slightest possibility of a quality-related issue during the production process, it is crucial to quickly pinpoint the potential problem and find an appropriate, workable solution as quickly as possible. He also emphasized the importance of boosting productivity through efficient management of stock and manpower as well as developing employees’ capability through expanding training sessions and up-skilling opportunities.
Departing Vietnam, CEO Cho headed to Thailand to visit the Rayong factory and its home appliance production lines. Next, he traveled to Jakarta, Indonesia to inspect LG’s Cibitung plant, which has become a major TV production base for the company’s premium product lineups, including LG OLED TVs. After Jakarta, the CEO made a stop in the city of Tangerang, meeting staff and looking over facilities at the local LG plant, which focuses primarily on refrigerator production.
“Our Vietnam and Indonesia subsidiaries now form a complete business structure, having recently added a local R&D subsidiary to the production and sales corporations already in place,” noted CEO Cho, who also called on all subsidiaries in the Asia region to accelerate their business management by implementing active localization strategies.
Mr. Cho was also interested in seeing the progress of the company’s eco-friendly smart factories in Asia – including the introduction of solar power plants and the establishment of automated informatization and intelligent systems. Leveraging its sixty years of industry-leading manufacturing expertise, and advanced technologies such as AI, big data and 5G, LG is currently building sustainable smart factories in several countries around globe.
While on tour, the CEO reviewed LG’s local sales strategies, including plans for online channel utilization and efficient inventory management.
In Vietnam, Mr. Cho discussed ways to better target the country’s large number of economically active young consumers including Generation Z. During his stays in Thailand and Indonesia, the CEO took the time to tour local distribution centers and sites where the company’s large-scale orders have been installed. There, Mr. Cho spoke about the need for both B2C and B2B businesses to focus their attentions on enhancing customer experiences.
As a region that boasts high economic and growth potential, Asia will be a strategic market for LG, enabling the company to further expand its market dominance by upgrading strategies specialized to each local country. Last year, the company achieved sales of more than KRW 7.8 trillion in the Asian market, continuously increasing sales by about KRW 1 trillion yearly with double-digit growth over the past two years.
From the start of the year, CEO Cho’s active efforts to visit LG’s many international production sites reveal his commitment to quickly respond to the fast-changing business environment and further strengthen business competitiveness based on customer experience innovation.
This year alone, the CEO has already spent more than 150 hours in the air visiting nine countries across North America, Europe, Asia and Central and South America – participating in major events, including CES 2023 and AHR Expo in the U.S.A. and ISE 2023 in Spain, and touring various LG facilities in Mexico, Brazil, Chile and Australia.
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