Entering the New Year Address Season... 2023 Focuses on 'Customer, Technology, and Eco-friendliness'

Industry Leader No.1 New Year's Address by Chairman Koo Kwang-mo: "Creating Impressions That Change Customers' Lives"

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Sun-mi] The season for New Year's addresses by business leaders and CEOs has arrived. Corporate heads, who have emphasized customer experience and breakthrough technologies at the beginning of the year, are expected to deliver customer-centric messages prioritizing customers even in 2023 amid the high inflation, exchange rate, and interest rate economic environment. Among major business leaders, the first to release a New Year's address was Koo Kwang-mo, Chairman of LG Group.

On the 20th, Chairman Koo sent a digital video containing his New Year's address via email titled "Hello, this is Koo Kwang-mo" to LG employees worldwide. Emphasizing that members are the protagonists of LG and the importance of customer value, he conveyed the message, "When LG people who strive to practice customer value come together and continue to nurture the dream of customer delight, LG can become a lasting company loved by customers." He added, "My customers are all of you who create customer delight in the name of LG," and greeted the new year by saying, "Let us gather the customer value of every LG person worldwide to create moving experiences that change customers' lives."

Since his inauguration in 2019, Chairman Koo has continuously evolved and developed the customer value management message, emphasizing that the direction LG should take is the 'customer' through his first New Year's address. At the beginning of 2022, he proposed, "Let us create valuable customer experiences that cannot be returned to the previous state once experienced," highlighting the importance of viewing customers not as buyers but as users and continuously creating user experiences that impress customers.

In their upcoming 2023 New Year's addresses, heads of large corporations are expected to emphasize that companies face more challenging environments than ever due to COVID-19, uncertain global economic conditions, and geopolitical risks such as the Russia-Ukraine war. They will likely stress the need to unite employees' capabilities, customer-focused management, and technological innovation to overcome these challenges.

Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Han Jong-hee and President Kyung Kye-hyun stated in their early New Year's address that "innovation in technology oriented toward customers is the foundation that made Samsung Electronics what it is today," and "customers must become our most important value, and we must strive to deliver the best customer experience." Accordingly, Samsung Electronics achieved progress in new technologies such as SmartThings in home appliances and 3-nanometer semiconductors. Whether Chairman Lee Jae-yong, who was promoted and inaugurated at the end of October, will deliver a message to employees and customers in the 2023 New Year's address is also a point to watch.

The combination of technology for eco-friendliness is another aspect to look forward to in the 2023 New Year's addresses. SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, who emphasized carbon reduction commitment in his early New Year's address, is likely to highlight SK's efforts toward eco-friendliness again in 2023. Chairman Chey stressed in his early New Year's address, "We have set a bold goal to reduce 200 million tons of carbon by 2030, and we must all accept this new goal as our mission and do our best." In fact, this year, SK subsidiaries are fostering next-generation businesses such as electric vehicle batteries, hydrogen, high-efficiency semiconductors, waste-to-energy, carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS), and small modular reactors (SMR), while strengthening cooperation with new overseas partners like TerraPower, Plug Power, and Plastic Energy.

Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Eui-sun is highly likely to call for the unification of employees' capabilities, customer trust, and strengthening of eco-friendly management to leap forward as a top-tier eco-friendly car company in his 2023 New Year's address. In his early video New Year's address on a metaverse platform, Chairman Chung presented concrete plans to propose smart solutions in future business areas such as autonomous driving, robotics, and UAM (urban air mobility), and set the goal of becoming a "top-tier eco-friendly brand."

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