LG Corp. Chairman and CEO Kwang Mo Koo delivers a 2026 New Year Address to employees worldwide on December 22

• “We find ourselves at an inflection point – It’s time to leap towards bold new innovations.”

SEOUL, South Korea, Dec. 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — LG Corp. Chairman and CEO Kwang Mo Koo delivered his annual New Year’s greetings via video email to LG employees worldwide on the 22nd.

LG has been delivering the New Year’s address at the end of the year, not the beginning, since the 2022 New Year’s address, so that members can calmly conclude the year and prepare for the new one.

LG employees viewed the New Year’s message through an email titled <Hello, this is Kwang Mo Koo)>.

Beginning his New Year’s address, Chairman Koo said, “It’s been a year of meaningful endeavors for change, guided by our unwavering commitment to our customers.

I would like to thank each and every one of you.”

• “We Find Ourselves at an Inflection Point Where a New Future Is Unfolding … It’s Time to Leap Towards Bold New Innovations”

Chairman Koo emphasized that LG is at an inflection point and it’s time to leap towards bold new innovations that go beyond the existing strategies for success.

Koo observed, “We are envisioning a future that only LG can create, turning that vision into reality, and moving forward, one step at a time. Yet even as we press ahead, the world around us is changing faster than ever … The rules of technology and competition are changing, and our customers’ expectations are higher than ever.” He added: “It’s time to leap towards bold new innovations.”

He continued, “Our innovation must go beyond improving today’s way of living. It should be about creating essential values for our future customers. To achieve this, we must hone the way we think and work. Let’s begin by prioritizing and focusing.” 

“First, we must find one core value that resonates strongly with our customers. It takes courage to let go of ten ordinary strengths and choose one core value that really matters – but that’s how we set clear directions for our innovation and pull together.”

“Once identified, let that be the uncompromising goal we push ourselves toward – to a level that others consider impossible. Such relentless focus will create an experience our customers will find ‘truly different’ and deliver exceptional value that raises the bar.”

Chairman Koo emphasized, “Today we find ourselves at an inflection point where a new future is unfolding. Shaping that future is both our responsibility and opportunity. So let’s prioritize what will bring smiles to our customers ten years from now,

and focus our actions today to make them a reality. I believe that’s the kind of innovation LG does best.”

• Global Experts Shared Their Perspectives on Shifts in Technology Paradigm, Competition, Customers, and Organizations.

The New Year’s address also included comments from three external experts who observed shifts in technology paradigm, competition, customers and organizations.

<Change in Technology Paradigm>
George Westerman, a Senior Lecturer at MIT Sloan School of Management, said, “Technologies like generative AI can be considered a general-purpose technology innovation. And when these technologies happen, it’s not possible to predict the level of change, but it is possible to predict that the change will be very, very large. If you think about what electricity did to society, if you think about what the internet did to society, we can expect that kind of change happening in work and in life over time.”

<Change in Competition>
Sunil Gupta, a Professor at Harvard Business School, said, “Every company, whether it’s a startup, a tech giant or a large established company, they’re beginning to realize that the foundationals of their business strategy are evolving and changing. And as a result, whether you have large capital or resources, the traditional approaches or the old approaches are no longer working and the time frame for them is getting shorter and shorter. So you have to think about breakthrough ways and new approaches to survive and thrive in this new world.”

<Change in Customers>
Miyoung Jeon, CEO of Trend Korea Company, explained, “Consumers now expect far higher standards of experience. They’re no longer comparing just price or quality – they’re looking for products that offer real value and meaning. Which is why now a brand can survive only if it can justify its prices through distinctive, compelling customer experiences.”

<Change in Organization>
George Westerman said, “This is a challenge when we have a radical change like AI is going to introduce. Because the large, successful organizations need to learn to change faster. Your competitors will be changing faster. Your customer expectations will be changing faster. Your investor demands will be changing faster. And large organizations need to develop that capability to change faster than you do now.”

• Beginning with the 2019 New Year’s address that emphasized ‘Customer’ as LG’s core direction, the message of customer value management has been consistently developed and refined in subsequent New Year’s addresses.

Since his 2019 New Year’s message, where he placed an emphasis on “prioritizing customers as a future direction of LG,” Chairman Koo has consistently refined his message of customer value management through annual addresses.

In 2019, he defined three unique customer values for LG: “transforming customer’s lives with satisfaction,” “being ahead of others,” and “continuously creating value.” In 2020, he called for a focus on identifying customer pain points as the starting point for realizing customer value. In 2021, he emphasized the importance of deeply understanding and empathizing with customers through micro-segmentation. In 2022, he proposed creating valuable experiences that customers would not want to live without.

In 2023, he asked each member to search for customer value they could create, inspiring employees to take the lead in value creation and prioritizing customer satisfaction. In 2024, he urged staff to commit themselves to creating distinguished customer value to position LG as the market-leading customer experience innovator. In 2025, he stressed providing essential and expectation-exceeding values to future customers with LG’s ‘DNA of challenge and change’ that has continued since its founding day.

About LG

Founded in 1947, LG is a technology innovator and global leader in consumer electronics, automotive components, ESS, and organic light-emitting displays (OLEDs). LG Corporation (LG Corp.) is the holding company for industry-leading LG subsidiaries, such as LG Electronics, LG Display, LG Energy Solution, and LG Chem, to name a few. For more information about the LG group of companies, visit lgcorp.com 

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SOURCE LG Corp.