The power of Kim Kong!
“Our company’s philosophy is partnership, innovation, and empowerment and personally I feel that this kind of philosophy is important”

(column by Meena Shukal)

In today’s day and age, India is a term synonymous with nirvana or total salvation and we are not even talking about the spiritually inclined here. It’s nirvana for the plethora of MNCs across the globe desperately seeking a market that’s teeming with growth opportunities where they can ensure longterm prosperity. But it was not always this rosy. In the initial years of liberalisation, a number of foreign companies entered the Indian market, with little or no knowledge of its dynamics, leading to disastrous consequences. A few of them did their homework well and now stand perfectly poised in a nation that boasts of a booming middle class of over 300 million. LG Electronics India (LGEIL) is one such phenomenal success story. The consumer electronics giant has decisively trounced its competitors to emerge the leading consumer durables player in India. And a lot of credit for that goes to its enterprising Managing Director Kwang Ro-Kim.

In the course of our interaction with Kim, we were equally impressed by both his impeccable business acumen and his humble nature. Also visible was the sheer pride and passion with which he leads LGEIL. “Our company’s philosophy is partnership, innovation and empowerment, and personally I feel that this kind of philosophy is important,” accepts Kim. And he has stood by this philosophy throughout. He successfully led the early localisation of R&D and production. By employing global best management practices, he ensured that LG successfully led the price war in the Indian consumer durables sector. Employing an intensive distribution strategy, LG took its products to the Indian hinterland, a strategy that has proved immensely profitable.

Kim obtained his B.A. degree in Law from Seoul National University, Korea. Kim joined LG in 1974 and has been widely accredited to have found LG in India. He played innumerable roles in the company. He served as the head of the regional division in Central & South America in 1992 and head of the Cooking Appliances Division in 1994. He has been at the helm of LGEIL since 1999. He also directs the overall business operations for the LG Group in India including LGEIL, LG Engineering & Construction, LG International and regional subsidiaries.

LG is one of the fastest growing consumer durable companies in India providing premium technology as well as value for money products to its customers. When asked the secret behind LG’s success in India, Kim proudly asserts, “It’s quality. Quality is the most important factor and without it we cannot persuade or convince the customers to buy LG products.” According to Kim, the Indian consumer is much more multifaceted than any other consumer elsewhere. He affirms, “There is a perception that Indian customer is only price conscious but this is not so, they are also concerned about the quality. This is evident as many Chinese brands failed in India because they didn’t offered quality. They (Indian customers) are concerned about price as well as the quality.” Kim further asserts that under the LG brand, the company offers an extensive range of products for all customer segments.

LGEIL under Kim has achieved a stupendous turnover of Rs.75 billion for the year 2005 and aims to achieve a turnover of $10 billion by 2010. Eyeing the markets in South East Asia, Africa & Middle East, LGEIL has set up its Greater Noida manufacturing plant. In 2005, LG had also come up with its second green field manufacturing unit in Pune and turned it into an export hub (for manufacturing GSM phones). The company’s expansive & strong distribution channel has been a major success factor. LGEIL has a network of 47 branch offices in larger cities, connected to 86 central area offices in small towns which are connected to 72 Remote Area Offices for rural areas.

Kim personally ensured that LG sets benchmarks in terms of manpower efficiency w.r.t. the industry. He firmly believes that the strength of LG is empowerment of workforce, which is the culture at LG. It is now a company almost exclusively managed by Indians as there are very few Koreans (only about 20) and total employees are more than 2700, which means nearly 99% of employees are Indian. Kim religiously credits the success of the company on the Indian employees. He propounds, “We give them full empowerment, authority and full responsibility to take a decision and to implement it. It was they who did the good job that is why LG is number one in India.”

In 2005, the company adopted the ‘Blue Ocean Strategy’ to position itself as one of the top three consumer electronic firms by 2010. In order to achieve this, the company has identified specific product segments that will fuel its growth. Having successfully captivated the mass market in India, LG is also now trying to move up the value chain with premium products. The South Korean giant is also moving towards IT & communications as its future growth areas in India. Kim elucidates, “I feel that it is the right time to go and focus on new fields like IT and communication. IT means PC and communication means mobile phone. We want to be the number one in IT and communications space.”

Kim emotionally shares with us that the nine years of his experience in India have been truly wonderful. He gave his Indian colleagues full responsibility and trusted them from the very beginning; and in turn they did a good job. And this would be his suggestion to every company coming to India. Kim divulges, “My personal vision is to make the Indian operation much longer and successful with the help of India employees.”

Kim is the father of two boys, one is a doctor and the other is in Dental College (both went to the United States after finishing high school in India). When we asked him how he would like his children to shape up their future, Kim (in line with his principle of empowerment at the workplace) states, “I prefer they take their own decisions about the future.” Despite his busy schedule, Kim ensures that he keeps up his passion for playing tennis every morning. Also, he is a regular at the golf course on weekends. As we moved towards the end of our highly interactive and knowledgeable session, we asked Kim how he would like to be remembered by his Indian colleagues and employees, and his answer was very straightforward, “That I am the founding member of Indian operations, that’s it!”

That was in fact the only time we got the extremely modest Kim to speak up a few words of self praise. And in those few words, he actually articulated what the name Kwang Ro-Kim means to LGEIL. It means quality, empowerment, innovation & success in a market that brought some of the best MNCs down to their knees. With Kim as the guiding light, LGEIL looks set to combat the roughest of seas ahead...

(End of Meena Shukal column)