LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo, center, walks with top executives of the company's affiliates at a workshop held at Konjiam Resort in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, Thursday. Courtesy of LG Group

By Kim Jae-heun

LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo and top executives of group affiliates discussed strategies for future businesses as companies are grappling with the increasingly unfavorable economic conditions, Korea's fourth-largest conglomerate said, Friday.

Koo and the heads of LG's units attended a CEO workshop at Konjiam Resort in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, Thursday, the first of its kind since December 2019.

About 30 top executives attended the workshop and reviewed the direction of the future portfolio for the next five to 10 years. In particular, they discussed how to formulate specific implementation strategies, especially from the perspective of future customers.

"When business is facing a difficult situation, we should not get carried away by it. We have to take initiative and action to make our own decisions on what is approaching," Koo said.

"We have to think from the perspective of future customers thoroughly when preparing for the future. We need to question ourselves about who our future customers are, what they really want and what kind of new value we want to create before answering them," Koo added.

Koo believes that clearly understanding customers' demands is crucial for coping with the current global economic situation, which is affected by the ongoing war in the Ukraine and the rise of the exchange rate, specifically the value of the U.S. dollar against the Korean won.

"Our companies' future competitiveness depends on how we provide differentiated value to customers through our brand, products and services.

Meanwhile, Joo Jae-woo, a professor in the College of Business Administration at Kookmin University, and Thales Teixeira, a former associate professor at the Harvard Business School, delivered opening speeches at the workshop.

Joo gave a lecture on the essential understanding of innovation in customer experience and design plans. Teixeira shared his ideas on how to increase execution power for the strategy of practicing customer value.

Furthermore, the CEOs of LG Group affiliates checked the results of their innovation activities that have been continuously promoted until now and discussed ways to create a customer-centered culture to reflect customer feedback instantly.