A heartfelt management note from LG Group's Kwon Young-soo, inducted into the Korea Corporate Hall of Fame.

From a rank-and-file employee to CEO of LG Group, Vice Chairman Kwon Young-soo has led the organization through countless challenging moments, alternating between decisiveness and perseverance.
"I Wish You Well," which contains the essence of a management philosophy that he has honed through his own experiences of success and failure, shows that "management is about winning people's hearts" through the worries and challenges he faced in the field and the insights he gained through getting to know people.
The story he tells goes beyond the records of one CEO.
To all those who are wondering, "Where is the battleground before me?" amidst uncertainty and pressure, we offer the foresight and motivation to persevere and move forward.
This book is the only official biography that fully captures the 45 years of experience and is a message of encouragement to the younger generation.

After a few months, problems began to appear.
Each department needs to finalize its accounts at the end of the month before we can re-determine the budget, but it's always late.
The January settlement was supposed to come out after mid-February.

At that time, departments would write down each expenditure by hand and create vouchers.
When I took the handwritten voucher to the accounting department, they entered it into the computer.
Even if the accounting staff worked all night, it took a long time and there were bound to be many mistakes because the amount of vouchers was so large.
When you look at the way things are done, it's incredibly inefficient.
It's like doing the same thing twice.
It was a waste of manpower and time.
So, we created a system where each department would work on the computer from the very beginning when they wrote the voucher.
(…)
If we look at what we do, we can divide it into three categories.
First is the 'main task' that must be done, second is the 'auxiliary task' that is necessary to do the main task, and third is the unnecessary task, that is, the task that is 'lossful' if done.
To work more efficiently within a limited time, we need to increase the value of our work.
We need to examine what we're doing from scratch, analyze it thoroughly, eliminate any losses, minimize any ancillary work, and focus on the main task.
Innovation is also about avoiding repeating the same thing over and over again.
(…) By innovating the voucher system, the budget, accounting, and finance departments have all become more convenient.
By cutting out unnecessary tasks, the time was shortened by a third.
What would have taken three weeks was done in a week.

--- p.24~26, from “Doing What You Want to Do Leads to Innovation”

Among the psychological theories, there is the 'Johari's Window' theory.
The perception of one's relationship with oneself and others is divided into four windows.
That is, there is an 'open window' that I know and the other person knows, a 'hidden window' that I know but the other person doesn't know, an 'invisible window' that I don't know but the other person can easily observe me, and an 'unknown window' that neither I nor the other person knows.
It is said that among these four windows, the wider the 'open window' that both you and the other person know, the more a true relationship is formed.
If we apply this theory to conversation, we can summarize it as follows.
Let's say there are A and B.
The first relationship is when you only say nice things to each other.
We are never good at saying bad things.
The second relationship is one where A only says bad things to B, but B cannot say the same to A.
The third relationship is the opposite, where only B says bad things to A.
The second and third ones will often appear in unequal relationships, such as hierarchical relationships.
Finally, the fourth relationship is one where both A and B can say nice things to each other as well as unpleasant things to hear, and both can accept it.
When you reach this fourth relationship, you can have real conversations and build authentic relationships.

--- p.53~54, from “Realizing the Power of Teamwork”

Just as in war, understanding the terrain and occupying advantageous high ground is the shortcut to victory, so too must you occupy advantageous high ground in negotiations.
The important thing in this negotiation was price.
So I said, “I’ll sell it for $10 billion.”
It was more than 30 times the amount initially offered by the opposing company.
The reaction of the other party upon hearing this was as expected.

“YS, are you serious?”
“I’m serious.”
He must have decided that he couldn't talk to me anymore, so he asked me to call someone else.
So I made it clear that I was the one in charge of the negotiations.
When doing M&A, you need to give full authority to one person.
If the person in charge changes, the other side can play a trick on you.
The negotiator on the other side's side's face turned red and blue and he suddenly got up from his seat.
“Then we cannot negotiate.”
Then he grabs his bag and runs out.
(…) After about a week, I finally got a call from the other company.
“It’s an amount I can never accept, but let’s hear the story,” he said.
The spark of negotiation has been rekindled.
And the initiative has passed to us.
Because we have to start negotiations again at the amount we proposed.
When negotiating, the party trying to lower or raise the proposed price will try to come up with all sorts of reasons.
The side that made the offer defends by saying, 'I'll raise it a little' or 'I'll lower it a little'.
At first, we had to come up with all sorts of reasons to raise the price from the $200-$300 million that the other company had offered, but now we are in a situation where we have to find reasons for the other company to lower the price from the $10 billion that we have offered.
--- p.85~89, from “Even if the sky falls, there is a hole to emerge from”

Since the employees have reached the level of 'wanting to do it', there isn't much for me to do.
All I had to do was ask how I could help.
If there's one thing I did well in this whole process, it was finding the right place to win.
To make any business successful, you must first establish a strategy that can enhance the fundamental competitiveness of the business.
In other words, you have to carefully decide where to compete.

But if you look closely, it seems that 'yield' is the key competitive edge in displays.
Yield refers to the proportion of normal products that are not defective among the total production.
The higher the yield, the better the production efficiency and the lower the cost.
Creating a perfect production system without defects was the key to turning a profit.
At that time, our clients had at least three or four suppliers.
This is because only then can we control suppliers while appropriately distributing quantities.
Sometimes, they even beat the supply price.
(…)
What is it in the end?
In a fight with competitors, the question is who can make something cheap and with good quality.
Under the same production conditions, if we produce 100 units and our competitor produces 90 units, our quality is 100% and our competitor's is 90%.
That's where the game is decided.
In this way, we sought to find a competitive edge in yield, and through activities such as Maxcapa Minlos, Extreme Challenge, and creating a fun workplace, we challenged ourselves to achieve the world's highest yield.
And finally, I was able to become number one in the world.

--- p.150~152, from “Becoming the World’s Best”

When we found out that Volkswagen, our biggest customer, was negative about our product, we thought, 'We're in big trouble.'
Among the problems they pointed out, the most critical was the packaging.
We wrapped the battery material in a thin film like a ramen bag, and this is called a pouch-type battery.
The competitor's packaging material was aluminum.
Car companies are worried about the thin ramen packets being placed inside cars made entirely of steel.
In fact, our product has low strength, so even if the adhesive is good, there have been cases where the sides of the packaging would burst.

As a result, Volkswagen conducted several sample tests, but all failed, and it was only after much begging that we finally got a chance.
If we fail the test this time, we will face a crisis that could shake up our entire business.
The employees also became very anxious and despairing as they continued to fail.
So, there was a tense standoff between the opinions that "It's not too late to change to our competitors' way" and "We should continue to do things our way."
In times like these when we are lost and confused, the leader must make a firm 'decision'.
The conclusion I came to was, “Let’s just go with it.”
Instead, if we have been focusing on making up for our shortcomings up until now, we will now focus on maximizing our strengths.
Every product has its pros and cons.
If you keep thinking about your shortcomings, you will have no choice but to continue to be on the defensive.

--- p.201-202, from “Making a decisive move in a life-or-death situation”

The telecommunications business is a regulated industry where the government controls everything.
As a result, three of the 4Ps—product, price, and distribution—are identical, making differentiation difficult. SK Telecom, KT, and LG U+ all sell the same Apple, Samsung, and LG phones. The government sets their own rate plans, and distribution is predictable.
In the end, since they could only change their advertising strategy, they ended up focusing only on promotions, such as using expensive models for advertising.
That made me feel a bit suffocated.
I was wondering if there was anything that could differentiate it.
What I thought about then was content.
We decided to bet on content.
When I think about differentiation, I always think about what customers want but competitors can't.
Netflix just happened to catch my eye.
I thought that I could succeed in differentiating myself by working with this company.

But because Netflix was doing so well, I became a bit arrogant.
When they came to Korea, they said they would do it independently without cooperating with any telecommunications company.
I thought, 'I guess so, I can't help it.'
But the business is a bit sluggish.
While watching, I made an unexpected suggestion to Executive Director Kim Sang-bu, who was in charge of strategy.
“I think now is the time, as Netflix is ​​struggling.
Maybe you need help from a telecommunications company now, so let's contact them.
However, please demand that our company be the exclusive supplier.” When I said this, Director Kim and the employees went crazy.
“We’re number three in the industry, so why would Netflix give us an exclusive?”
“Yes, that’s right.
Let's try anyway.
“Can’t you even dream?”

--- p.278-279, from “Taking a Gamble with Content Differentiation”