Word: kim
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...Call Kim Ssang Su a man of the people. On a chilly night in the picturesque mountains south of Seoul, Kim, CEO of LG Electronics Inc., holds aloft a paper cup filled to the rim with soju, a clear, sweet potato--based Korean alcohol with a vicious bite. Surrounding him are a dozen of the 300 LG suppliers' managers whom Kim has spent the day lecturing and rallying. They have also been hiking up a snow-covered mountainside--necessary training, he says, for the grand plans he has for South Korea's second largest electronics firm...
Eight tables and countless cups later, he is red faced, still screaming chants and bear hugging an unfortunate reporter. When dancing girls in short skirts and blond wigs start jiggling to ear-numbing Korean pop music, the tireless Kim, 59, cavorts in a mosh pit of drunken workers near a makeshift stage. Later he ascends the stage himself, microphone in hand, to croon out a popular oldie called Nui (Sister). "We love our CEO," says Kim Young Kee, an LG executive V.P. "He shows us a good time...
CEOs rarely stoop to carouse with the common man in an Asia dominated by secretive business clans and elite old-boy networks. But Kim is no ordinary Asian boss. He began his career 35 years ago as a nondescript engineer at an LG refrigerator factory, climbed the ranks and claimed the CEO post in October. Now he aims to duplicate the same feat with LG--lifting a consumer-electronics company little known outside Asia into the stratosphere of global brands with Sony, Panasonic and Samsung. "I want to go down in LG history," says Kim. "After death, a tiger leaves...
...seem odd that at this crucial time LG has turned over its top job to a farm boy from a tiny village in eastern South Korea. Kim Ssang Su spent his childhood knee-deep in the family's rice paddies. Even now, Kim is a bit of a fish out of water. He took over from the debonair John Koo, a senior member of LG's prestigious founding family. Kim has never worked outside Korea or, before becoming CEO, even at LG's glitzy Seoul headquarters, known locally as the "twin towers." He had spent his entire career buried...
...would be wrong, though, to underestimate Kim, who has become near legend in Seoul for the turnaround he engineered at LG's appliance business. When he took over in 1996, LG was making washing machines and refrigerators that seemed little more than cannon fodder for low-cost Chinese companies like Haier. Kim sliced costs by moving production of low-end products to China. He proved there is room for innovation in basic white goods, introducing, for example, appliances like air conditioners that can be controlled from the Internet. The result: sales reached $4.7 billion last year, more than twice...