LG Group: Leadership and Management Development

LG Group: Leadership and Management Development There is no company which is resistant to environmental changes, especially business environment. As the year comes by, new inventions or innovation will absolutely give impact on every type of business in the world. However, the causes of the impact, in other words, the root of the changes in the environment is not merely coming from company external territory; in most cases the impacts (either negative or positive) can come from external territory and internal territory of the company. This written analysis focuses on the LG Groups Chairman Koo who once stated and defined his vision for the LG group to develop and improve significantly and to be a leading company in its local market area (Korea) and the wider market scope, international market and increase its revenue significantly within 7 years period. This is known as LEAP 2005. Even though is not an easy task to do, he is much certain that the group can do that. He considers the past performance of the group and the major internal changes within the company will enable it to achieve what its chairman wants. The main key success, as the management agrees, lies on the future leaders of the group. There are several questions that arise as the result of the discussion between the management in relation with this key point, namely where and how to find these future leaders, what capabilities of competencies these leaders should possess how to develop these key competencies and so on. ANALYSIS OF LG GROUP SITUATION Briefly speaking on LG historical background, a common first impression on the company is that it has tremendous historical records in terms of business performance and business revenue. Citing the record, LG was established for the first time in 1947 as a small chemical company. As the time went by, there are expansions that the group has done. As a result the company got bigger and bigger. The applied several strategies that really work well are the main reason why the company grew bigger within a relatively short period of time. These days, LG is one of the strongest players in Indonesia industry. As the case of LG Group already describes, what is meant by LEAP 2005 desired by Chairman Koo reflects the his dream to make LG Group as the leading company in Korea and leading company in the world as well. This leads to for sure the increasing revenue to US$380 billion. To achieve this, certain development an improvement towards the company as an organization is an urgent necessity. The significant matter or points which are at the same time can be the conclusion of this brief analysis is that the improvement on internal aspects of organizations, which at the end should result in the transformation of LEAP 2005 into reality. Further, it is agreed that the management should focus on the human organization and make the first priority above all. The analysis is written as follow. LG GROUPS DESIRED CHARACTERISTICS OF HUMAN ORGANIZATION An ideal human organization that can facilitate the achievement of Chairman Koos LEAP 2005 vision of future definitely has three most fundamental characteristics namely: 1. Strong LG company culture/values, 2. Qualified competent people as its component, 3. Good managerial strategies and operations by the management. These all explains how the company will provide itself its needed sources to meet the requirements of the company to achieve the vision. Each of this characteristic can be described as follows. Strong Company Culture A company with certain strong culture (or some term it as values) can usually stand up against all turbulence that occurs during its operations. The LG Group itself has already passed some bad period with great success and continues showing positive progress. Addition to this, there is for sure changes of transforming (STABILITY, HARMONI, RESPECT) to the cultures (CHALLENGE, SPEED, SIMPLICITY, BOUNDARYLESSNESS). These changes are in line with the demand of business environment which requires a company to quickly adapt themselves to the changes. Competent Human Resources The core component of a business organization is the humans who move it and run the companys operation. The more competent the person of the company the more prosperous the company will be. If the all person in the company are competent in their own field it will lead to best product that the company produces. Furthermore, this will end up in the achievement of customer satisfaction target (consumers demand and wishes). This all will result in better competitive advantages that the company has. Good Managerial Practices by Best Management Company management can be is the back bone of the company. They are the key person who drives the company towards certain direction. They are the decision maker of in the company. The fate of the company is in their hands. The culture that the management builds inside the company will also influence the day to day operation of the company. In terms of external relation, the management acts as the representative of the company. The can influence the business partners as well as potential consumers. Specifically speaking, in relation with human resources, the management should provide strategies that relate to human resources management such as defining organizational strategy, defining organizational structure and man power planning, defining the critical jobs, defining the job description that matches with the companys competencies, setting competency model and implementing it in form of setting HR tools and functions such for performance appraisal and reward and compensation recruitment, promotion, training and development. The human organization with the above mentioned characteristics that LG Group have and will help the company to achieve the LEAP 2005 vision will face obvious problems related to the organization and business the period of the vision achievement progress, they are for example the impact of paradigm or culture changes towards the company, process of setting up the companys core competencies, the changes on business orientation and target (e.g., business goals, from international to international (global) player, the internal (company value) and external cultural change, the demand of new employees to fulfill the need of increasing work load and competent employees, to prepare human resources management system and its tools in line with the company development. As the human resources management plays significant roles the process of translating the chairmans vision in 2005 they should be discussed further in details. The overall implementation of strategies, policies, programs, and or practices by Mr. Y. K. Kims LG Human Resource Team that can help Chairman Koo transform his LEAP 2005 vision into reality must link to how the management organizes and manages the human resources that the company has. These could be the strategies of attracting best new employee, develop the star performers (or other may call high potential) in terms of soft and hard skills or competencies, retain the best performers, manage work effectivity etc. LG GROUP STRATEGY: DESIRED CHARACTERISTICS FUTURE LEADERS As explained before, the key success of the company in transforming the vision LEAP 2005 into reality relies on how the organization prepare and develop the future leaders of the company which will determine how the company will operate and run in the future. These leaders will be having several capabilities as what Chairman Koo desired so that these competencies will enable them to perform well. First and foremost, these leaders must possess a sense of competition for global perspective. This competency strongly connects with the capability to fight and compete with the world class companies. Secondly, this has a relation with how wise and strategic a leader can create a global management system. Finally, a sharp sense of global perspective will assist a leader on how to create a world class business. The other attributes that a future leader must hold is his ability to maintain the quality of the company output. In relation to this they must have capability to create maximum value for customer. In other words, the satisfaction and loyalty of the costumer towards the company has to be the first priority and target for the future leaders that the group will need in the future. As important as the focus on outputs (products) the leader must also embrace the values that have been the LG values directly given by the Chairman. The two other values that basically are the required attributes for all future leader of LG to have are the skills (managerial) to conduct the business with integrity and the good level of contribution towards social development. Practically speaking, when it comes to day to day business activity, the basic capabilities for them to master is that the knowledge on what and how the company process runs. Thus, when there is a problem in certain area of the business, they can quickly tackle down the problem and solve it. Finally, they must have what so called global orientation and global leadership capabilities. These will define the company orientation in the future as well as solve the problem that may occur such as significant and drastic different environmental and business condition changes. LG GROUP STRATEGY: HUMAN RESOURCES APPLIED STRATEGY To discuss the case of future leaders in more detail, the whole process of preparing the future leaders can be described in more specific process and stages as follow: To identify and attract the best leaders. Here research I believe will benefit the company much in the sense of tracking the best candidates in the future. Nowadays, competition is occurring not only attracting best costumers/consumers but also in attracting the potential competent employees. To select, recruit and hire the future leaders. The activities are the follow up of the research conducted in the first phase. Citing the case of LG, the company will need a really significant number of employees, both Korea and Non-Koreans. These involve certain strategy to achieve best output in terms of attracting future leaders with competent capabilities. To train and develop the future leaders of the company. Here, a training center such as what Dr Lee runs with his LG Academy plays an important role. Their task involves defining the current employee competencies required for better performance and a set of competencies on which they can focus assessment and development activities in the future. This also one of the main concerns of the management. They see training and development for technical competencies as the main component to achieve the LEAP 2005 To provide motivation, appraise, and rewards as implementation of strategies to retain the competent company future leaders. The company should not reenact what so called as Bamboo Ceiling which most Japanese company once faced. The management must develop clear and transparent career path for all employee. The assessment for promotion should also be made fair so that all employee can see the progress of their career and most importantly, and equal opportunity for career improvement must exist in the company. This will guarantee the all employee can achieve higher position as their performance says so. In regards with the future plans in LEAP 2005 vision, the company plans to attain 50 % of the whole revenue from international market the number of non Korean employees will increase significantly. In the practices, the company and the management plan to fill 3 or 4 business presidents with non-Koreans out of 50 positions and give 20% portion of all executives at the office at Seoul. To maintain the unity and fairness of the management approach, the team could take the same approach to the both Korean and non-Korean employees. However, the customization may take place in accordance with the background of culture of those two groups. However, in general the common strategies must be implemented to both groups. What must be emphasized is the output which is all employees can implement the strategies in to the business and provide the desired outputs. CONCLUSION In summary, by analyzing the case of LG Group: Developing Tomorrows it can be concluded that a company business activity can not be separated from internal and external influences. Internally the management may have a set of future plans and strategies or even vision that must be implemented and transformed by all company components. Externally, the changing business environment in each different period often requires the company to constantly prepare a set of strategies to cope possible problems and stay survive in the midst of uncertain condition. Here, the human resources team plays an important role since a competent future leaders are the key person that can manage the company through the hard time that may happen in the future. It is the responsibility of the human resources team to attract, develop, and maintain those future leaders for the sake of company stability. Comparative Film Analysis: Shutter Island and Insomnia Comparative Film Analysis: Shutter Island and Insomnia Shutter Island Insomnia. Movies such as Shutter Island and Insomnia both display attributes of neo-noir and classical noir films which contain a great deal of tension and suspense. The detectives in both films are determined to find clues and answers that uncover the truth. In their attempts to uncover the truth, both detectives experience hallucinations and flashbacks from their traumatic past. Each mystery involves an investigator or detective who has the overwhelming desire to uncover the truth. There are often many distractions and misdirections that the detectives must overcome in order to solve the mystery. The misdirections of the cases are frequently caused by false or inaccurate leads, but each detective examines every lead they receive and treat it as being potentially helpful in solving the case. The Shutter Island and Insomnia films possess distinct similarities and disparate elements in the characterizations, social issues and cinematic effects. Film-noir is a movie genre based in the 1940s and 1950s that generally feature characteristics of mystery or crime dramas. The elements of film-noir consist of black and white produced stories that involve violence, crime, femmes fatales and skeptical detectives who seek the truth of a mystery. Neo-noir is classified as a sub-genre of crime and mystery stories which heavily rely on the influence of film-noir movies. The term neo-noir describes any film coming after the classic noir period that contains noir themes and the noir sensibility (Conard 2). Neo-noir movies often share a similar resemblance to film-noir genres in regards to the plots, themes, characterization and cinematography. Shutter Island is a psychological thriller based in 1954 that gives the impression of a classic film-noir. Mark Conard states in his book, The Philosophy of Neo-Noir, You know a classic-noir when you see it, with its unusual lighting, tilted camera angles, and its off-center scene compositions (Connard 1). The detective in Shutter Island is Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio), a federal marshal who travels to the island with his partner, Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo), to investigate the escape of patient in the mental institution. As Teddy Daniels further investigates the mystery of the island, he loses control in grasping the real truth as his perceptions are blurred by hallucinations and conspiracy. As the story unfolds in Shutter Island, the viewer is taken on a psychological trip through the cognitive processes of Teddy Daniels mind. It is apparent to the main character and the film viewers that there is a secret hiding within this mysterious island. The story provides a solid discernment of Teddy Daniels mind as his sense of reality and fantasy is blurred. Throughout the film, Teddy experiences delusions that are derived from his traumatic past as an American soldier fighting Nazis in World War II, and the death of his wife. The exploration of Teddys mind provides pure entertainment for the viewer as it is difficult to distinguish fantasy from reality while experiencing everything through Teddys eyes. The realism in the mystery of the patient that escaped the island exists on an imaginative state which is exposed by the truth during the end of the film. The main character in the Insomnia movie is Will Dormer (Al Pacino), a veteran LAPD detective whose exhaustion is intensified with exposure to the unfamiliar northern Alaskan landscape where there is constant daylight. Dormer and his partner, Hap Eckhart (Martin Donovan), receive the disturbing details in the autopsy of a teenage girl that was murdered in Alaska. The autopsy revealed that the girl was extremely beaten and her hair had been brushed as well as her nails clipped by the murderer after her death. One of the most significant scenes is when Dormer and his partner are investigating the girls murder. They begin a foot chase with a suspect after being shot at in the thick fog. Dormer sees a silhouette of a person that looks like they are aiming to shoot so he fires a shot at the person without hesitation. He runs toward the body and realizes that he has shot and killed his own partner because he couldnt see through the thick fog. This symbolizes the protagonists clouded judgme nt and is the beginning of his slow descent into insanity. Dormer deliberately lies to the police about what really happened and explains that the girls murderer had shot his partner because he is afraid of the consequences. Dormer is dishonest about shooting his partner and goes through great lengths to cover his own tracks instead of having full focus on the murder case he was assigned. The primary suspect of the girls murder is novelist Walter Finch (Robin Williams) who witnessed the accidental shooting of Dormers partner. The well-being of Dormer declines further as he experiences extreme sleep deprivation, hallucinations and flashbacks of accidentally shooting his partner. The characterizations of the protagonists in Shutter Island and Insomnia have analogous qualities as they attempt to uncover the truth in each mystery. The protagonists in both films are persistent investigators who are losing their grasp on reality due to traumatic experiences. Dormer and Teddy share mixed emotions including anxiety, guilt and panic. The protagonists in both movies are manipulated psychologically by the antagonists who drive them to do things that they normally wouldnt do. Dormer and Teddys memories and troubles from the past have a significant affect on their attempts of solving the mysteries. Although there are many similarities in both films, the cultural and social issues in each film are quite different. Shutter Island was set in 1954 and deals birth of psychiatry experiments and the traumatic events of World War II. The scene where the camera pans over the American soldiers as they perform an execution of Nazi soldiers in the Liberation of Dachau conveys the barbaric nature of World War II. Teddy experiences many flashbacks of these events and the guilt starts wearing on his sanity. The social issues in Insomnia deal with murder in a community and corruption within the police force. The murder has a drastic impact on the isolated Alaskan town where everyone knows one another. While investigating the murder, many of the officers are faced with the difficult decisions of lying, framing suspects by planting evidence or clearing their own names by destroying evidence. Dormers guilt of shooting his partner sends him into severe sleep deprivation where he seems increasingly delusional as the film goes on. Cinematic effects such as camera shots, lighting and sound design are utilized in both films to convey the pure emotions of the characters in the films. The best thing about Insomnia is that despite director Christopher Nolans soft spot for moody-blues obfuscation, he has the good sense to keep his star in practically every shot, said Peter Rainer, a New York Magazine writer, on the film critic website, rottentomatoes.com (Rotten Tomatoes website). Insomnia made an effort to zoom in on the protagonists emotions and at times showed the point of view shots to express the sleep deprivations and hallucinations from the eyes of the main character. There was high contrast lighting used in setting the mood in the Insomnia film. Even though a lot of this movie was shot outside in the constant daylight setting of Alaska, low-key lighting such as heavy fog and silhouettes were used to symbolize the level of clarity in Dormers mind as he continues to lose sleep. The sound design used in Insomni a was used to create tension and suspense in the film. The cinematic effects and setting used in Shutter Islandenhance the symbolism and themes in the film. Similar to the Insomnia films camera shots, Shutter Island also uses the zoom-in camera effect to display the emotions and thoughts of Teddy. When Teddy is experiencing hallucinations of the past, the camera shots and lighting flash to indicate that he is dreaming or seeing flashbacks. Film critic, Lisa Kennedy, from rottentomatoes.com states, What is real? What is delusion? What is montrous? What is decent? Shutter Island may not shatter the heart but these are gnawing achievements for a movie about madness and paranoia (Rotten Tomatoes website). Fire was used as a key lighting to symbolize Teddys insanity in the film. Fire is the symbol of Teddys imagination, while water is used to symbolize the true reality of his past. The sound design of Shutter Island correlates with the intense instrumental music to portray the suspense as used in many film-noir genres. ParralaxView.org explai ns noir sound design on their website, The sound of noir-plaintive sax solos, blue cocktail piano, the wail of a distant trumpet through dark, wet alleyways, hot Latin beats oozing like a neon glow from the half-shuttered windows of forbidden nightspots (Parralax View website). The Shutter Island and Insomnia films display similarities and differences in the characterizations, social issues and cinematic effects. The protagonists in both films are determined to find clues and answers that uncover the truth. Both detectives experience hallucinations and flashbacks from their traumatic past in their attempts to investigate the truth. There are often many diversions that the detectives must overcome in order to solve the mystery. The cultural and social issues in each film were contrasting even though there are many similarities in both films. Cinematography was successfully utilized in each film with camera shots, lighting and sound design to display the pure emotions of the characters in the films.