[Companies Overcoming COVID-19] Koo Kwang-mo's 'Selection and Focus' Shined

Koo Kwang-mo, Chairman of LG
Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Changhwan Lee] LG Group's key affiliates are consecutively announcing surprise earnings that significantly exceed market expectations for the third quarter. It is being evaluated that the 'selection and concentration' management strategy of Koo Kwang-mo, LG Group Chairman (pictured), who is celebrating his 2nd anniversary this year, is shining.

According to related industries on the 12th, since his inauguration in 2018, Chairman Koo has undertaken structural improvements by reorganizing non-core businesses of major affiliates. LG Chem sold its LCD polarizer business, LG Electronics liquidated its fuel cell business and sold its water treatment business. Some non-core businesses such as LG Display and LG Uplus were also reorganized.

Instead, Chairman Koo made a bold move by spinning off the battery business, called the 'second semiconductor.' This is Koo Kwang-mo's 'selection and concentration' management strategy, which firmly grows businesses to be nurtured and decisively reorganizes unprofitable businesses.

Thanks to this, LG Chem's electric vehicle battery business, a representative future growth engine of the group, surpassed China's CATL and Japan's Panasonic to become the world's number one this year. The record-high third-quarter earnings announced by LG Chem on this day were also due to improved profitability in core businesses such as electric vehicle batteries and petrochemicals.

LG Electronics also saw its main home appliance (H&A) division drive record-high third-quarter performance this year. LG Electronics recorded sales of 16.9 trillion KRW and operating profit of 950 billion KRW in the third quarter. Both sales and operating profit reached all-time highs for the third quarter. The market succeeded with a focused sales strategy on key products centered on virus-resistant steam appliances.

In the home appliance industry, there is an expectation that LG Electronics may achieve the world's number one sales in the home appliance market for the first time this year, surpassing Whirlpool. With strong performances from the steam appliance trio?Styler, dryer, dishwasher?and other key home appliances, LG Electronics already ranked first in global home appliance sales in the first and second quarters.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.