New Breeze in LG Electronics' Organizational Culture... "Blocked Communication is the Cause of LG Electronics' Damage" (Comprehensive)

President Jo Ju-wan: "Let's Change Even Things We Thought Couldn't Be Changed"
Established 8 Core Values and 11 Guidelines to Transform Organizational Culture

On the 3rd, CEO Jo Joo-wan and employees communicated openly in real-time online about the direction and practical measures of the new organizational culture during the 'REINVENT Day,' where CEO Jo Joo-wan introduced 'REINVENT LG Electronics.'

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Sun-mi] ▲Blocked communication causes damage to LG Electronics ▲The switch of “joy” must be turned on to ‘know well,’ ‘do well,’ and ‘grow’ ▲Do not place rank above thinking ▲Meeting rooms are not places to give the right answers but to share thoughts ▲Trim the fat from reports and build the muscles of action ▲LG Electronics is not a dinosaur; it flies like a butterfly and stings like a bee ▲“Will that work?” cannot beat “You’ll know if you try!” ▲Discuss fiercely, execute persistently, and lead decisively ▲Learn, erase what you learned, and learn again ▲Know customers even better than customers themselves do ▲If you can’t trust, it’s not LG Electronics; if you can’t trust, it’s not a colleague (11 execution guides for changing LG Electronics’ organizational culture)

On the 3rd, LG Electronics CEO Jo Joo-wan and employees held ‘REINVENT Day,’ an online real-time event to openly communicate about the new organizational culture’s direction and practical measures. This was to enable members themselves to create enjoyable changes and reboot the new LG Electronics.

Since early February, LG Electronics conducted a survey targeting domestic and overseas employees, which revealed many opinions that urgent improvements were needed in communication difficulties, reporting for the sake of reporting, and slow execution. Based on these thoughts from members, eight core values (Communication, Agility, Challenge, Joy, Trust, Customer, Future Readiness, Fierceness) were selected to bring about changes in work methods and organizational culture, along with 11 ‘Reinvent LG Electronics’ execution guides to implement them.

Starting ‘REINVENT Day,’ CEO Jo said, “While preparing for this ‘communication,’ I really pondered how we could genuinely experience true communication together,” adding, “I am very much looking forward to this time of exchanging opinions and questions with members in real time.” He emphasized that through the employee survey, they understood various concerns about organizational problems and changes, and based on these thoughts, created eight core values and 11 guides to bring about changes in work methods and organizational culture.

In particular, regarding one of the 11 guides, '“Will that work?” cannot beat “You’ll know if you try!”,' he explained, “LG Electronics is a company with a long tradition, so there are hardly any methods or tasks we haven’t tried before,” adding, “Therefore, when trying something new, there are opinions like ‘Ah, we tried that before and it didn’t work, will that really work?’ but instead of doubts and concerns, it means ‘Let’s try it once, let’s do it properly.’”

Eight Core Values to Achieve Organizational Culture Change

Among the core values derived by LG Electronics members, ‘Communication’ and ‘Joy’ mean respecting each other’s diversity and creating a culture of working joyfully through effective communication. The related execution guide, ‘Blocked communication causes damage to LG Electronics,’ means avoiding euphemisms or withholding words out of politeness during communication to prevent misunderstandings, and encouraging honest and active expression of opinions to create a transparent organizational culture. Also, ‘Meeting rooms are not places to give the right answers but to share thoughts’ means that meetings are a process to bring out all ideas, not just results, so members should let go of burdens and freely exchange thoughts to create synergy.

‘Agility,’ ‘Challenge,’ and ‘Fierceness’ mean drastically reducing formal reporting, recognizing challenges for innovation, and boldly and swiftly executing decided matters. The related execution guide, ‘Trim the fat from reports and build the muscles of action,’ encourages reflecting on whether habitual reporting is done out of inertia and whether the reports are truly necessary. Additionally, through the guide ‘LG Electronics is not a dinosaur; it flies like a butterfly and stings like a bee,’ the company expressed its will to move faster and more agilely than anyone else, based on accumulated know-how and data, rather than moving slowly or as usual.

‘Trust,’ ‘Customer,’ and ‘Future Readiness’ embody the commitment to continuously learn and research about customers and grow together with them. Since CEO Jo Joo-wan’s inauguration at the end of last year, LG Electronics has been pursuing customer ‘F (the best) · U (unique) · N (new) experience.’ The guide ‘Know customers even better than customers themselves do’ means being able to propose solutions even for inconveniences customers have not yet thought of. It emphasizes that all thoughts and actions must start from continuously researching customers and from the customers themselves.

During the online meeting, CEO Jo urged, “Companies leading change have strong organizational cultures,” and said, “Let’s create LG Electronics’ own agile and joyful organizational culture to lead the future.” In a CEO letter sent to all employees, he repeatedly emphasized the execution of organizational culture change, saying, “Let’s change what can be changed. Let’s also change what we thought couldn’t be changed. Let’s be reborn as LG Electronics.”

Meanwhile, prior to ‘REINVENT Day,’ at the end of last month, CEO Jo and top executives held a workshop to share the ‘Reinvent LG Electronics’ execution guides. At this meeting, the management strongly agreed on reducing reporting and shared the intention that leaders would take the lead in driving organizational change.

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