Volume 3, Issue 29

1
July 17, 2006
Volume 3, Issue 29
CEO Message
Be Crazy About Our Customers
One thing that all great people have in common is
that they are crazy about something. In this
case, crazy means that they have reached a
certain level they have immersed themselves and
are focused on their work to a great extent.
Since we must place the customers first in all we
do, we must be crazy about our customers. We must
create a customer-mania.
CEO LG Electronics
From the CEOs Book Review of Customer Mania
LGE Pride
LGE Comes Out a Winner at the World Cup
Italy was not the only winner in the 2006 World
Cup in Germany LGE also came away on top. LGE
was the No. 1 seller of PDP TVs in France and
Italy, and greatly increased market share in
other Western European soccer strongholds such as
the host country, Germany, not to mention Spain,
Netherlands, Portugal, and the
U.K. Market research firm GHK reported that LGE
had a market-leading 19.1 share in France,
besting No. 2 Phillips by about 1, and a 25.5
share in Italy, beating out No. 2 Panasonic
(16.7) in PDP sales for May. LGE is expected to
have increased those numbers during the World Cup
in June. LGEs market share increased on strong
sales of its Time Machine TV, which LGE marketed
in various print and broadcast media. James Kim,
head of LGEs European HQ, said, LGEs
flat-panel TVs have been in the spotlight in
Europe, greatly helping LGEs brand image here.
.
LGE to Receive Royalties After Winning Patent
Lawsuit
LGE has gained a favorable position in
negotiations with PC manufacturers to license the
use of its patented PCI technology after a judge
in a U.S.
Court of Appeals ruled that these other companies
were indeed using a patented technology. This
means LGE will potentially earn up to 200
million annually in royalties. The Peripheral
Component Interconnection (PCI) technology, used
in computers worldwide, is the standard for
linking the microprocessor with peripheral
components, such as LAN, memory, and
Click to Read Full Story
graphic cards. Now that LGE has been recognized
as the rightful patent holder, we will begin
royalty negotiations with PC companies who use
this, said J.H. Lee, head of LGEs Patent
Center. The judgment overturned an original
ruling that LGE appealed in 2004.
.
Customers Are No. 1!
Customers Are Beginning and End of Management
I
n the current difficult business environment,
companies are competing simply to survive. They
fight over limited market share and try to gain
customers in a variety of ways. For LGE to
succeed in achieving the Global Top 3 by 2010,
our whole organization must be focused on the
customer. Thus the CEO, S.S. Kim, proclaimed
Customer Oriented Management as
one of our three key initiatives in 2006.
. In that
New Year Message, he stated The customer is the
beginning and the end of management. For the
Blue Ocean Strategy to succeed, a culture that
puts the customer first should be shared
throughout the whole organization. We must
provide the value that the customer needs in the
best
environment and be the first to create value that
is differentiated from other competitors.

. Later,
in June, the CEO again mentioned the importance
of customers when he introduced a new Customer
Complaints Management System (CCMS). He said We
are a company who has set Creating Value for
Customers as our management philosophy. This
means we must place the customer first in all of
our business activities.
. If we are to
succeed in turning LGE into a customer-oriented
organization, we must focus our efforts on Value
Innovation from the Blue Ocean Strategy. This
means that we do not focus on the competition
when making decisions, but rather look at it from
the
Customer is No. 1!
Introduction / Background

• Issue 29

Case Studies
Virgin Atlantic Airlines

• Issue 30

• Issue 31

Nordstrom's
Coca Cola

• Issue 32

Home Depot

• Issue 33

customers perspective. We must think like the
customer, and make decisions that the customer
would want in other words becoming crazy about
the customer. To facilitate this move towards
Value Innovation, four cases will be presented
about top-notch companies. Three of them will
explore successes and one will be about failure,
but they are all designed to help us learn how to
be more customer oriented in our work.
.
LGE Knowledge Quiz
Information is an important asset in LGE. What
are the three ways we must protect this
information?
Published by LG Electronics / Corporate Culture
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