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LG chairman urges affiliates to box out competition with sustainable advantages

Published: 27 Mar. 2025, 17:23

LEE JAE-LIM
[email protected]

LG Chairman Koo Kwang-mo at the executive-level workshop held in September 2024 [LG]

LG Chairman Koo Kwang-mo urged top executives to pursue sustainable competitive advantages to steer the group through challenging market conditions in a high-level strategy meeting with affiliates including LG Electronics, LG Display, LG Chem and LG Energy Solution.

Executives collectively acknowledged in Thursday’s meeting that the group is now facing structural challenges as well as uncertain internal and external conditions. Koo emphasized the need for prioritization.

“The reality is that we can’t excel in every business,” Koo said. “That’s why it’s crucial to make strategic choices and focus our efforts. We need to prioritize businesses where we can build sustainable competitive advantages and high entry barriers — and ensure that our capital and execution plans align with those priorities. The same goes for research and development, which is the cornerstone of our future competitiveness.”

LG has defined AI, biotechnology and cleantech — referring to technologies that reduce environmental impact — as future growth areas. During LG’s general shareholder meeting on Wednesday, the chairman emphasized that its battery business would ramp up, indicating his determination to overcome current industrial challenges, including aggressive competition from Chinese firms and the slowdown in EV demand.

Koo shared former Chairman Koo Bon-moo’s New Year’s address in 2017, when the first Donald Trump administration was launched, which also included a request that the leadership make fundamental changes in business structure and operations in line with a rapid change in the business environment.

“Looking back, the pace of change in the business environment was faster than anticipated, while our own transformation efforts lagged,” the current chairman remarked, urging for change as “the golden time is quickly running out.”

The meeting was the year's first of its kind — held quarterly to align management issues and discuss corporate strategies — coming on the 78th anniversary of LG’s founding.

BY LEE JAE-LIM [[email protected]]