KT CEO Koo Hyun-mo.

(from left) KT Senior Executive Vice President Jeon Hong-beom, and KT Executive Vice President Kim Hyung-wook. (Photos: KT)

New KT CEO Koo Hyun-mo says he is “starting the engine of speed-oriented management” after the reorganization of the company. Change and innovation are management keywords that the CEO utilized in his first reorganization.

To make KT a younger and smarter organization, Koo promoted a large number of employees in their 40s, and drastically cut the number of executives.

Key themes of KT’s reorganization and executive shake up were the fast and flexible reception of customer demand, the promotion of future business for digital transformation (DX), and the completion of a legal compliance-based management system.

These keywords sit well with three key tasks suggested by Koo for KT’s new future - fostering core talents in the AI and cloud fields, self-innovation and social value.

In order to transform KT into a customer-centered organization, Koo changed the sales and product and service development divisions into seven divisions – the customer, enterprise, AI/DX convergence business, network, IT, management planning, and management support divisions.

The Customer & Media and Marketing Divisions were combined into the Customer Division focusing on the development and sales of media platform products and services such as the wired and wireless business, IPTV and VR (virtual reality) with a focus on the 5G and Giga Internet Service.

Five offices were also reorganized into three offices (the Compliance Committee Office, the Legal Office, and the Ethical Management Office).

The division in charge of corporate customers (B2B) and global customers (B2G) were merged, and the Corporate Business and Global Business Divisions were integrated into the Corporate Division.

Koo set up six regional headquarters to stabilize service and technical support by absorbing 11 regional customer centers (sales) and six network operation centers nationwide.

In addition, by creating the AI/DX Business Division, KT will actively integrate AI, big data, cloud, and internet of things (IoT) technologies into 5G communications.

DX stands for digital innovation. For this, Vice President Jeon Hong-beom was appointed as the head of the AI/DX Convergence Business Division. Vice President Jeon led collaboration with the Software Development Department as a head who was responsible for building digital innovation business models.

Koo will make the temporary Compliance Committee permanent.

Executive director Kim Hyung-wook will head up the Future Value Task Force, a new organization directly under the CEO that will support Koo’s three core tasks.

The Future Value Task Force is the control tower of innovation that takes the initiative in the transformation of KT.

KT has recruited a large number of experts and talented young people to make the organization slim and reinforce its expertise.

KT promoted experts and talented young people to rev up its future growth engine.

The average age of KT executives dropped. Twenty-seven percent of those promoted to executives were 50 years old or younger. But they were promoted not due to their ages but due to their performances and ability. KT wants this change to give more motivations to all employees.

Koo graduated from the Department of Industrial Engineering at Seoul National University and received master's and doctorate degrees in management science from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST).

In 1987, Koo joined the KT Economic Management Research Institute as a research fellow and worked at the Business Structure Planning Office, the Group Strategy Office, and the Corporate Center at KT. Koo served as a chief secretary, a vice president, and a president under former chairman Hwang.

As a longtime KT man, Koo has a deep understanding of KT’s business through his experience of managing strategic mergers and acquisitions and subsidies.

Koo is scheduled to take office as KT president in late March. Nicknamed “The King of Communication,” Koo has had many tea times with employees including executives. Koo once said that he preferred listening to speaking.