LSIS Chairman Koo Ja-kyun (Photo:LSIS)

LSIS achieved another feat, this time being designated one of the world’s top 100 most innovative organizations for 2015 by Thomson Reuters, the world’s leading provider of information for businesses and professionals. The Korean company earned the honor for the fourth time in a row. LSIS’s strategy to drive the exploration of new growth engines through based on huge investments and new patents have paid off, and as such, the company has earned a reputation as one of the most innovative companies in the world, specializing in such green businesses as electricity, smart grids and EV parts. 

LSIS Chairman Koo Ja-kyun stressed innovation in 2008 when he took office as vice chairman and chief executive. To this end, he set “Innovators of Innovation” as LSIS’s corporate vision with the goal of rising to be a leader in innovation beyond the provision of more-than-expected values to customers. Koo fired the first salvo for innovation by restructuring the company’s business portfolio, which focused on supplying power facilities to subsidiaries of LS Group. 

First, LSIS designed a smart grid business based on electricity, automation and green businesses, including photovoltaic power, as new growth engines. The company has attempted to transform LSIS into a green company aiming to raise energy efficiency by more than 50 percent, and with nearly no green house gas emissions. Koo and LSIS focused on investments to secure related patents to gain green business growth momentum.

Securing its own technology is essential for corporate survival. LSIS has launched an offensive to secure standard patents of the green business segment, including EV parts and smart grids, on top of its exiting mainstay businesses, electricity and automation.

To this end, LSIS set aside more than 6 percent of each year’s annual sales to be put into R&D activities. The company has come up with such diverse patent reward systems as the Patent Award of the Year. The IP Center is responsible for the implementation of core IP strategies, including the strengthening of IP capabilities and the development of human resources. 

LSIS’s investments into intellectual properties have begun to reap benefits. 

In 2010, LSIS became the first company to acquire a green technology certificate when it developed a photovoltaic power inverter and making the feat of obtaining 26 green technology certificates. LSIS has registered some 497 Korean patents and 923 foreign patents. The company’s participation in nine research tasks, including EV parts, charging infrastructure and high voltage direct current (HVDC) has led to a network of 171 core patents. The application of patents on building intelligence system (BIS), eco-friendly electricity gadgets, power IT, EV parts and photovoltaic power facilities stood at a whopping 22,829 for the past six years since the inauguration of Koo as CEO. 

‘A Company with a Soul Will Never Fail’

LSIS Chairman Koo declared value-based management based on the company’s new mission, vision and key values, to become a company with “a soul and a philosophy of value.”

On Jan. 22 at the LS Tower headquarters in Anyang, Gyeonggi-do, LSIS held a "value-based management declaration ceremony. The company also announced “Futuring” smart energy as its new mission and G365 as its new vision to maximize customer values and become a leading global heavy electric company.

Value-based management refers to the idea that “a corporation, like a person, has a philosophy of values, and that all its members should embrace a single philosophy of value to create a company with a soul.” By adopting value-based management, the company vows to single-heartedly pursue the company’s mission, the specific goal of its vision, and its key values to become a great company.

LSIS Chairman Koo led the presentation and emphasized the need for value-based management. “We need to lay the foundations from which to take a great leap forward to becoming a leading global company. All our members should have a single unified heart, spirit, and philosophy of value,” he said. 

He continued, “A company with a soul, and a company with a philosophy of value will never fail. Last year we marked the 40th anniversary of the foundation of our company, and we set 2015 as the starting year for the growth period and as the year of value-based management for the next 40 years.”