To position LG as a leading “Smart Life Solution Company” and ensure sustained growth, we must revolutionize our operational approach. Embracing change is pivotal for enhancing our organizational capabilities and business competitiveness, enabling us to uncover new opportunities for customer value creation in a rapidly evolving global market.
Last November, our CEO William Cho established the Overseas Sales and Marketing Company to drive change and growth while enhancing our global brand power through customer-value creation. This initiative introduced the concept of an ‘Outside-In’ approach, shifting our focus from internal processes to actively gathering direct feedback from customers. Traditionally, we focused on product quality and timely delivery. However, we have recognized that in today’s competitive environment, these factors alone are insufficient for increasing market share and differentiating ourselves. Consequently, we began shifting our product development approach to evaluate ideas and proposals from the customer’s perspective and develop sustainable growth strategies based on this feedback. The Overseas Sales and Marketing Company plays a crucial role in executing these strategies.
From a broader perspective, the essence of the Overseas Sales and Marketing Company is the brand, underscoring the paramount importance we place on it. The brand is the cornerstone of a company’s existence, representing the value delivered to and perceived by customers, which in turn justifies the company’s existence. Additionally, the brand signifies profit, playing a crucial role in sales. Therefore, the primary objective of the Overseas Sales and Marketing Company is to enhance LG’s global marketing and brand management capabilities.
Our ‘Optimism your feed’ campaign, initiated this May, is an exemplary effort towards this end. We launched the campaign with the aim of balancing the ‘algorithm’ that keeps much of social media mired in negative content. We sought to induce changes in social media recommendation-algorithms by posting a playlist with optimistic content, thereby helping to create a more positive online environment. We see the campaign as a powerful vehicle for reinforcing our dynamic and youthful brand image, and as an innovative means of communicating our ‘Life’s Good’ brand promise.
Another key focus area of the Overseas Sales and Marketing Company is bolstering the sales capabilities of our members, a major driver of profit generation and market share improvement. This involves targeted adjustments to routine tasks and the implementation of innovative solutions to reduce inefficiencies. For example, by leveraging automated dashboards, employees can save time on repetitive administrative tasks, allowing them to enhance their skills and productivity. Such efforts enabled us to grow even during the pandemic and fulfill customer commitments despite logistical challenges.
At the Overseas Sales and Marketing Company, we concentrate on four key strategies for transforming our business operations. The first strategy focuses on creating seamless value through software skills. Last November, the company launched the ‘LG SW Reskilling Program,’ an in-house initiative designed to elevate our software development personnel. Initially available to employees at our Korean headquarters, this program provides intensive training in embedded software and data science. This initiative benefits both employees and the company by strengthening individual capabilities and career prospects while allowing us to deploy talent to areas of high strategic importance, thereby enhancing business competitiveness.
The second strategy involves streamlining the distribution process and connecting directly with customers through Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) business models. Our goal is to increase sales by leveraging our deep understanding of customer preferences and purchasing patterns.
Our third strategy is to expand our subscription services. By offering subscription options, we aim to lower the barriers to entry for high-priced products while delivering new customer experiences at the same time.
Lastly, we focus on providing solutions tailored for diverse B2B sectors. Our objective is to integrate our solutions with the hardware possessed by our business customers, thereby enhancing their revenue generation from end-customers. For example, when ads are shown on an LCD display, the value of the hardware increases. This kind of ad business can become a part of our B2B solutions portfolio.
While these four strategies may not immediately boost revenue, they lay the groundwork for sustainable growth and represent crucial changes in how our employees operate.
Every employee plays a significant role in shaping our brand and leading sustainable growth in the global market. We believe that all personnel are, in essence, brand ambassadors. We will continue to innovate how we work to achieve sustainable growth for the LG brand.
By Thomas Yoon, executive vice president of the Overseas Sales and Marketing Company at LG Electronics