Koo Kwangmo: "LG Is Life Itself... Our Goal Is a Better Life for Customers"

"The value we must create is not technology, products, or services themselves, but a better life for our customers."

On April 16, at the 2026 LG Awards, a customer value achievement ceremony held at LG Inhwawon in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province, LG Group Chairman Koo Kwangmo emphasized, "The reason for LG's existence is captured in the words left by the customer evaluation panel: 'LG is life itself.'" He added, "If we focus on the single goal of a better life for our customers, we will be able to deliver a better tomorrow than today."

At the LG Awards held on the 16th at LG Inhwawon in Icheon, Gwang-mo Koo, CEO of LG Corporation, is seen giving a congratulatory speech while mentioning the impressions left by the customer judging panel. LG

Since taking office, Chairman Koo has attended the LG Awards every year, personally reviewing on-site innovation cases and encouraging the challenges undertaken by employees. Now in its eighth year, the LG Awards honors outstanding cases that have achieved results through customer value innovation over the past year. From 2019 to this year, the event has produced more than 4,700 awardees and 583 outstanding projects.

This year, the awards recognized a total of 730 recipients and 91 outstanding projects, including initiatives that went beyond solving customers' pain points to provide differentiated customer value and enhance the completeness of customer experiences, as well as cases that achieved breakthroughs and results surpassing the competition. The ceremony was attended by 550 people, including Chairman Koo, LG's top management, representatives of the customer evaluation panel, and awardees. More than 1,000 additional employees joined the celebration of these innovative achievements via live online broadcast.

Among 217 project submissions from all LG affiliates, a comprehensive evaluation by customers, employees, and experts resulted in the selection of 91 outstanding projects: four Customer Delight Award winners, 33 Customer Satisfaction Award winners, and 54 Customer Empathy Award winners.

This year's Customer Delight Award-winning projects delivered tangible business outcomes in the ABC (AI, Bio, Clean Tech) sectors, including contracts worth trillions of won, process innovation, and enhanced cost competitiveness.

The Cathode Material 2 Team at LG Energy Solution earned the top honor for developing the "world's first particle boundary-coated 95% high-nickel cathode material."

The "Telematics 5 Project" team at the VS Business Division of LG Electronics was recognized for developing the "Smart Antenna 5G Telematics" module for physical AI mobility, also marking a world first.

LG Energy Solution won the top award for the second consecutive year in the smart factory category by implementing the "next-generation cylindrical battery smart factory" based on intelligent autonomous manufacturing (AX).

At the LG Awards, Koo Kwangmo, CEO of LG Corporation (left), congratulates Penny Butler, Senior Director of AVEO, the first overseas recipient of the Customer Satisfaction Grand Prize in the individual category. LG

This year's top-awarded projects also stood out for spreading an organizational culture of innovation across borders. Penny Butler, Senior Director at AVEO, the U.S. oncology subsidiary of LG Chem, became the first overseas individual recipient of the Customer Delight Award. While there have previously been overseas local employees among team awardees, this is the first time an individual has stood alone on the podium.

This year, LG expanded opportunities for various employees to participate in the LG Awards by increasing video participation and real-time chat rooms, and hosted a celebratory performance by the in-house LG Philharmonic Orchestra. In addition, LG plans to invite the families of Customer Delight Award recipients to the "Hall of Fame"—a commemorative space for past top award winners.

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