LG Hong Kong’s Post

Transcript

Welcome back to Yahoo Leaders Decode. I'm your program host, Isabel Wong. Leaders Decode is Yahoo's brand new program featuring business leaders from all walks of life to keep you up to speed with the latest trends in the global economy. And for this episode, we are so honored to be joined by a senior leader of a global consumer electronics giant, Miss Yuri Han, managing Director of LG Electronics Hong Kong. Yuri is a strategic leader. With rich experience in the consumer electronics and home appliances industry, since joining LG in 2009, Yuri has been involved and LED countless important projects from LG's headquarters in South Korea, including product strategy, overseas marketing and business development. As of 2021, Yuri was appointed the Managing Director of LG's Hong Kong subsidiary alongside a female CFO and. Two female product directors, Yuri is the first female CEO of LG Hong Kong and under her leadership, with her firm grasp of Hong Kong's market dynamics, Yuri was able to successfully let her team to achieve remarkable results in this competitive environment. In this conversation, Yuri will be joining us to talk about the possible paths that corporations can take for ESG development as well as achieving. Carbon neutrality by 20-30. Yuri, thank you so much for joining us on the program. Thank you for having me today. Now to kick things off, I would like to 1st understand Le's commitment to ESG development. Why don't you start by giving us an overview of LG's ESG key initiatives so far? And also what's the motivation behind it all? The electronics blurred this logon is the life is good that is reflecting the company's vision of enabling people to fully enjoy life, foods precious moments through its consumer electronics products and service. Guided by this belief, and she has pursued the sustainability through steady progress in its ESG initiatives over the years, including establishing an environmental policy. Probably seeing sustainability reports and declaring carbon neutrality in 2021, energy identified 6 key ESG focus areas, such as addressing climate change and ensuring product accessibility, which it views not just as a stakeholder demands but as a critical business imperative for sustainable growth by embedding energy into it. Core Strategy Energy aims to create a better life and better future in line with its A brand purpose of Life is Good. Speaking of which, LG has set an ambitious target of reaching carbon neutrality by 20-30 across its global operations. Could you tell us how LG is going to strategize and come up with key initiatives to make sure that you guys are going to reach that target in 2019? Surgery Electronics set the goal to achieve carbon neutrality by 20-30, involving reducing carbon emission emissions from production and offsetting remaining emissions through carbon credit as over 2023. Videos the greenhouse gas emissions by around 60,000 tons and secured 560 K tons of UAN emissions credits to progress towards its 20-30 goal. And it's impressive to hear about all the concrete steps that LG is taking in order to reach that carbon neutrality target. But on that note, I'm also aware that LG OLED evo DVS have been getting eco friendly certificates for four consecutive years. So I'm wondering what kind of design and manufacturing innovations has enabled LG to maintain that level of sustainability. Our the LG alert evil TV. To start over the one of the flagship model in Hong Kong market and this already evil TV obtains certificates for carbon emissions and environmental impacts and recycled materials and demonstrating the company's commitment to its key ESG initiatives. Not only our OLED TV, but also we have many other appliance products, for example, the our washing machine. Ocean machine has aid that has the automatically measure their what is their current fabric and how about the capacity of the fabric. It automatically calculate and use the optimal level of the water when the customer is during customer is doing the laundry so it makes the water. Their consumption will be less and less and also our the Insta view that is our flagship the refrigerator and that is that we it cores the nickname is the knock knock. Then the meaning is that if we the customer outside, they knocked their refrigerator and they can see the inside from the outside. So normally most of people they open their refrigerator door because. They are just too searching what are inside, but it is the automatically consumed the electricity. So we did this non null function and they see the inside from the outside. We can reduce the elector CD around 32% a year. So the ages many overflow should models lead there are those ESG their principles and yeah then. We can execute in our real life. Wow. So that's one of the examples where consumer electronics can be sustainable and also fun, right. But I'm also wondering, how do you ensure all these sustainability features resonate with your consumers? What kind of strategies has LG employed to highlight the environmental friendly aspects of your product materials as well as designs? Yeah, as I mentioned, the life is. Your promise goes beyond our slogan. It's a commitment to sustainability across products and operations that as I mentioned that our washing machine and refrigerator is one of the examples and another one is our the arrow furniture. It is the one of air purifier and this cute and young products actually wholly made by the recycle the plastic. Actual electronic recycle the products and through the those water and energy savings as well as shift Tutu circular economic process principles energy demonstrates its holistic approach to environmental environment and improving quality of life for people. And also they're planning. Obviously, it's not enough to just be sustainable, you have to. Communicated effectively. So how does LG communicate these features effectively with their consumers? Actually are taking comprehensive approach to effectively communicate and educate consumers on their sustainability features of its products. The communication extends from B2B and B2C level. For example, we have participated at the ESG for climate. Actions International summit organized by Word Degree organization just this June on BTC level, we are strengthening our communication on promoting the use of Cinque to achieve a more sustainable living life. Absolutely. Now we're shifting gears a little bit because I know that a few years ago. A significant leadership change by appointing you as the Fast female CEO. So I'm curious to know what prompted this shift towards greater gender representation at the top ranks in the company. Research has consistently shown the benefits of gender diverse leadership, including improved financial performance, innovation and decision making like cognizing this Asia has made the concrete efforts to further or more inclusive and equitable culture, intentionally developing a pipeline of a highly capable woman leaders for senior roles and. I think they're in Hong Kong, the Hong Kongs, they're one of their very their strong points is the diversity and this diversity already built it in our Azure Hong Kong subsidiary. For example that our female and males portion of staff is 55 to 45 and among our leaders is the around 60% is male and 40. Person, he's already female. So I think this diversity in energy, electronic energy Electron is a Hong Kong and or the Hong Kong in Hong Kong, I think it is one of the very strong power they're in our business. And now as a senior female leader in the business, how have you worked to promote greater diversity, equity and inclusion across the organization as leadership? Team that has achieved significant gender diversity energy has made a concerted multi phased efforts to promote diversity, equality and inclusion principles across the entire organizations and this includes establishing a strong top down commitment from C-Suite where leaders have consistently communicated. The business case and moral imperative for building a more diverse and inclusive workplace. This messaging is lean forced through leadership training, performance metrics and visible advocacy. We believe our coming monitor from the top has enabled the meaningful progress in this DNI journey, right. Obviously it's one thing to talk about diversity in the workplace, but can these values really be integrated? To drive business success and how do you do it? By cultivating our leadership team and workforce that reflects our diverse global customer base. We are better able to develop products, service and customer experience that resonate more deeply feeling improve the satisfaction and loyalty. As a global consumer electronics company, it's important that our leadership team mirrors. Gender compositions of our workforce and end users. Bringing more women into toddlers supports us to better understand and cater to the uniqueness and preference of our female customers. That's definitely a very powerful testament to the impact of diverse perspectives. And now, finally, before we leave the interview, what advice would you have for companies and industries who are looking to follow suit and integrate? Achieve more gender parity in senior management. Commitment must come from the top and see sweet leaders consistently communicating the business case and holding the company accountable through clear goals and metrics. I think companies needed to proactively identify and develop and advance high potential woman. Through targeted recruitment, mentorship and leadership programs, ultimately, gender parity should be integrated as core constellation across every facet of the business, from product design to customer engagement to supplier partnership. Yuri, thank you so much for joining us on the program to share your insights and expertise with us. It's definitely encouraging to hear companies like LG walking the talk on sustainability and diversity. Thank you for having me. Again, it's my pleasure. And that's a wrap for this episode of Yahoo Leaders Decode. To tune into more unique insights from business leaders from across different industries, please visit us at hhk. yahoo.com. And do stay tuned for the next episode of Yahoo Leaders Decode. Until next time, keep innovating and leading with purpose.