Late LG chairman remembered as model leader

Late LG Honorary Chairman Koo Cha-kyung is seen in a 2020 video clip commemorating the first anniversary of his passing. Courtesy of LG Group

JINJU, South Gyeongsang Province — Late LG Honorary Chairman Koo Cha-kyung was highlighted as a role model for Korean entrepreneurs at an international forum on entrepreneurship in Jinju on Tuesday, which reviewed his business strategies and achievements.

The sixth session of the two-day 2025 Jinju International Forum on Entrepreneurship coincided with the 100th anniversary of Koo’s birth. The forum noted that, thanks to Koo and the founders of other major Korean conglomerates, including Samsung, GS and Hyosung, Jinju has become recognized as the birthplace of some of the country’s largest enterprises with global reach.

Speakers at the session emphasized how Koo strengthened LG by setting ambitious goals unprecedented in Korea during the 1970s–90s.

Jung Yeon-sung, chair of the Awards Selection Committee of the Korean Academy Society of Business Administration (KASBA), said Koo was both visionary and decisive in restructuring the conglomerate to align with global trends of the time.

“Koo’s entrepreneurship was a balanced mixture of his personal values (opportunity, challenge and innovation) and common values among Korean firms at the time (zeitgeist, fast pace, policy and manpower). He also demonstrated representative entrepreneurships from the country’s first generation of business moguls in the 1960s-80s and that of the second generation in the 1990-2000s.”

He continued, “Koo was a visionary leader ahead of his time. His leadership continuously evolved, first stabilizing the company’s organizational identity, followed by business development and market growth, then finally making his philosophical innovation top off those businesses,” he said.

Jeong Dae-yul, president of the Gyeongnam Chapter of the Korean Academy Society of Business Administration and dean of Gyeongsang National University, moderates the sixth session of the two-day 2025 Jinju International Forum on Entrepreneurship at Centennial Memorial Hall on the Gyeongsang National University campus in Jinju, South Gyeongsang Province, Tuesday. Courtesy of Jinju City

Kim Sang-joon, senior executive director of KASBA and director of the Entrepreneur Center at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, said Koo stood out among Korean business leaders because his strategic leadership “was grounded in a clear corporate theory,” which helped LG grow to its current global scale.

“Owner management, dominant across the largest conglomerates here, can be well represented by more than a chairman’s managerial style. It is a corporate theory engine that can further determine a company’s identity and strategic structure. So it is helpful to break down this corporate theory engine in general and develop it as K-management,” he said.

“In Koo’s case, he put forth ‘human and technology’ as that engine for LG. He loved to learn and valued technology and manpower as an entrepreneur.”

Koo, son of LG founder Koo In-hwoi, further advanced the company’s entrepreneurial spirit as LG’s second chairman, according to Kim. Kim further highlighted Koo’s key achievements during his tenure from 1970 to 1995, including restructuring the human resources division, prioritizing consumer satisfaction, emphasizing on-site operations and sharing management responsibilities with the company’s labor union.

“He proposed theories, put them into practices, then safeguarded those practices,” Kim said.

The forum on Monday inducted Koo into the Korean Business Hall of Fame.

Under Koo’s leadership, LG Group’s sales soared from 26 billion won ($18 million) to 30 trillion won, an increase of 1,150 times. The company also expanded beyond its core electronics and chemical sectors into component materials, securing its own technological competitiveness in today’s global market.

Koo passed away in 2019 after a long battle with chronic illness.