The Hindu Business Line : `Quick decisions and quick action made LG a top brand'

`LIFE'S Good', the LG Electronics promotional slogan, could well be the personal statement of Mr Kwang-Ro Kim, Managing Director and President, South West Asia as he bows out of the Indian office of LG Electronics by the end of the month after almost a decade's innings.

Said to be heading for key responsibilities in LG's global operations, India seems to have been good for Mr Kim on both professional and personal fronts.

On the professional front, he has seen his "baby" (as he calls the Indian business) grow and bloom into a market leader in its segment. The Indian subsidiary of the Korean white goods major, under his leadership since 1997 when the Noida facility came up, has not only marked its presence with the maximum domestic sales but has turned into an export hub catering to markets in Africa, South-East Asia, and the Pacific.

In fact, it has carved out a significant place for itself in the parent company's overall business strategy.

"I created this company out of nothing, of course I will miss it and all the friends I have made here," says Mr Kim, but he knows that he is leaving behind a substantial entity that has many more challenges before it. "I would love to come back to the facility 10 years from now and see how it has changed."

LG Electronics India Ltd today dominates the white goods segment.

And what are Mr Kim's managerial qualities that have enabled him to build a formidable brand?

"Quick decisions and quick action," he says, while admitting that on the managerial level he is prone to rotate his managers around if they do not perform.

He does not believe that being in the company for a long stint is a virtue; instead, performance is his main criterion, which he monitors closely by a hands-on approach. "When I visit the branch offices, I gather the performance of managers. Ours is a very active company, our managers also need to be very, very competitive," he asserts.

However, Mr Kim seems soft on the blue-collar worker and has never had any labour tensions in his facility in all these years. "We have a unique working culture. We empower our workers to take their own decisions. The Indian worker is very hard working and if you treat him well, he too will respond. Small spending bring big results," he says, explaining how all workers are given a morning snack when they get in and that they really appreciate it.

Mr Kim himself is a very disciplined man. He starts work at the crack of dawn, getting into office at 6 a.m. He plays tennis at the facility's tennis court from 7 a.m. to 7.30 a.m. and starts work by 8 a.m.

His evenings are reserved for all his meetings and social catching up, for which he loves to frequent Indian restaurants, with Dum Pukht and Bukhara at the Maurya Sheraton being his favourite eating joints.

Holidays mean new destinations like Australia, where he spent his last vacation. In India he has travelled widely and visits the remotest areas on work, but for an Indian sojourn he prefers Goa, Srinagar, and the backwaters of Kerala. Being fond of non-vegetarian food, Mr Kim loves the all-Indian tandoori chicken and "jhinga" (prawn) preparations.

How did his family adjust to India? "Mine is a global family, as I've worked all over the globe," he says, recalling his three years in Dubai, five years in the US, six years in South America, and a year in Germany.

And when it comes to human resources, his theory goes that the human being is the same across the world. "The country of origin is not important, so I've never thought of employees as Indian, American or European," he says. The bottomline for him is cold competitiveness.

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