[New Year's Message] Remarks from CEOs of the 3 Major Telecom Companies... Emphasis on 'Innovation' (Comprehensive)

Yoo Young-sang SKT CEO "Technological Innovation... UAM Investment"
Koo Hyun-mo KT CEO "Telco-Based DigiCo Leap"
Hwang Hyun-sik LG Uplus CEO "Customer Experience & Digital Innovation"

The three mobile carriers emphasized "customer-centric management" once again in their 2022 New Year's messages to welcome the Year of the Black Tiger. From left to right: Yoo Young-sang, CEO of SK Telecom; Koo Hyun-mo, CEO of KT; Hwang Hyun-sik, President of LG Uplus.

[Asia Economy Reporter Minyoung Cha] "In 2022, we will once again leap forward as a digital platform company (DIGICO) based on our telco capabilities." (Koo Hyun-mo, CEO of KT)

The three major mobile carriers emphasized "customer-centric management" and "innovation" again in their New Year's messages for 2022, the Year of the Black Tiger. While expressing their commitment to strengthening the stability of their core wired and wireless businesses, they also plan to continue their efforts to move beyond traditional telecommunications this year.

On the 3rd, Koo Hyun-mo, CEO of KT, held a live online New Year's ceremony at the Gwanghwamun headquarters under the theme "Solid One-Team, Confident Growth," presenting stability, customers, and growth as the key keywords. At the event, CEO Koo stated, "The stable operation of telecommunications infrastructure is our responsibility and mission, and safety must be prioritized first," adding, "We must shift our business structure from a business model (BM)-centered approach to a customer-centric one and innovate the way we work to achieve growth recognized by our customers."

He continued, "We must remain faithful to the essence of the telco business, which is the power and foundation connecting the digital society, and achieve confident and solid growth as a digital platform company," adding, "Let's complete a successful growth story as a solid one-team." This is interpreted as a plan to stabilize KT internally after last year's nationwide network outage and to restore customer trust.

Hwang Hyun-sik, CEO of LG Uplus, now in his second year in office, mentioned "an obsession with excellence," continuing the "true fan" strategy, at the beginning of his New Year's message. In a video message to employees, Hwang emphasized, "Excellence means going beyond simply eliminating inconveniences to providing customers with special experiences."

Hwang also conveyed the message that churn rates must be lowered through differentiated customer experiences. To this end, digital innovations such as artificial intelligence (AI) and big data technologies will be applied to business operations, alongside agile organizational management. Plans include expanding platform businesses such as 'Idle Nara,' 'Idol Live,' and sports, continuously discovering in-house ventures, and pursuing new attempts in health and pet sectors.

SK Telecom views 2022 as the first year to prepare for the next decade. Yoo Young-sang, CEO of SK Telecom, wrote in an email letter to employees, "The AI revolution, comparable to the mobile revolution, will become visible across business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) transactions," adding, "The metaverse has entered an era of competing ideas, and the platform economy is expected to transition to a protocol economy where information and value are distributed to customers and participants."

In particular, future innovative technologies such as UAM (Urban Air Mobility), or flying cars, are expected to rapidly change the world. CEO Yoo said, "Cars that existed only in imagination, autonomous vehicles without drivers, robots that replace human work, and humanity's dream of space travel will become possible within the next 10 years." In fact, CEO Yoo recently launched a task force (TF) directly under the CEO for the UAM business.

Along with the core wired and wireless communication businesses, SK Telecom will maximize the first-mover advantage in various businesses such as 'T Universe (subscription),' 'Ifland (metaverse),' and 'Apollo (artificial intelligence (AI)).' CEO Yoo stated, "To prepare for the post-COVID-19 era, we plan to transform the way we work into a self-contained agile system." This means maintaining a distributed work system in the form of hub offices even after the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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