GS Chairman emphasizes innovation as key topic

Huh Tae-soo, the chairman of GS Group talks with Larry Leifer, the director of Stanford Design Center, at Stanford Design Thinking Symposium 2020 held at D.Camp located in Yeoksam-dong, southern Seoul, Tuesday. / Courtesy of GS

By Jung Hae-myoung

GS Group Chairman Huh Tae-soo is working to accelerate the group's progress in digital and open innovation.

On Tuesday, the chairman took a lecture session run by Larry Leifer, the director of the design thinking research program at Stanford University, under the subject of “Dancing with Ambiguity.”

The two-day event, part of Stanford Design Thinking Symposium 2020, was organized by Stanford University to introduce Silicon Valley's innovative methods of problem-solving.

Leifer has been introducing innovative methods to generate outcomes using sensitive and intuitive ways of thinking. He shared his knowledge and case studies with 100 chief executives of GS Group affiliates on this day.

With the investment corporation that will be established during the first half of this year in America, GS will interact consistently with Stanford University in order to make it a bridgehead for innovative culture and a driving force for new growth.

“In order to make corporations and society sustainable, it is important to share healthy influences with various business partners including start-up companies,” chairman Huh said to Leifer before entering the lecture.

“GS will actively introduce some open innovation methods by collaborating with other corporations and those certified by advanced companies in Silicon Valley to make it the driving force for innovation in the company,” he said.

Huh has also emphasized changes focusing on digital technology at the New Year's gathering. His statement seems to be another signal of his desire to motivate the executives and staff members to adopt an innovative mindset.

According to GS, this also implies that the current business administration environment is getting tougher, and his statement reflects the sense of crisis that it might fail to adapt to changes or fall behind global competition.

This also insinuates an urgent need for GS to act as the “first mover” to turn uncertainties and ambiguities into opportunities.

During his time as the chief executive of GS Home Shopping, Huh has been pursuing for “corporations that lead the flow.” He has been investing in mobile businesses after selling cable television companies GS Gangnam and GS Ulsan. Since 2011 he has invested in 500 different startup companies in and out of the country in order to find a new growth factor for the industry.