The coronavirus had a tremendous effect on the direction and speed of humanity. After the COVID shock, the humanities urged an ecological shift toward recovery over growth and adaptation over efficiency, but the economy swiftly morphed onto a digital base and leaped ahead. With the full-fledged arrival of artificial intelligence, the labor market and stock market are roiling.
Humanity, which had been locked in a desperate fight with the virus, jumped straight into a war for dominance over AI and energy without a moment to breathe, and this world's entropy is soaring to the extreme. With Trump risk leaving us unsure of tomorrow's peace or tomorrow's oil prices, I wanted to hear from an influential leader in industry who has run corporations steadily for a long time.
Following former Samsung Electronics Chairman Kwon Oh-hyun, I asked former LG Group Vice Chairman Kwon Young-soo for a meeting.
I had just read Kwon Young-soo's book "I hope you do well," which faithfully records moments of various help and running starts. Above all, I was struck by how spectacular a "salaryman's life" can be. Each scene that unfolds as he moves his workplace—from electronics to displays, from chemicals to Uplus, to energy solutions and the holding company—overlaps with the landscapes of Korea's industrial history from high-growth years to the present, creating a peculiar thrill.
Budget Director Kwon Young-soo, the rookie who sparked innovation by replacing tedious handwritten vouchers with a unified electronic input system; Deputy Minister for overseas investment Kwon Young-soo, whose heart fluttered every morning to go to work even though he was on business trips more than half the year; the moments when Samsung and LG chased and overtook each other in a fierce race…
It was also interesting to imagine the on-site duel of two heavyweights, LG's Kwon Young-soo and Samsung's Kwon Oh-hyun, who showcased their own management styles as heads of displays in golden times that seemed misaligned yet meshed. Leadership of stature that makes differences and leadership of resolve that accepts differences took root in-house and forged distinct corporate cultures.
"Acknowledging ignorance" was the source technology of excellence that Kwon Young-soo saw through. Kwon graduated from Seoul National University with a degree in business administration and received a master's in industrial engineering from KAIST. On the strong recommendation of the father of a tutoring student, who was an executive at Goldstar, he first reported to Goldstar in 1981. He is now an adviser at LG Energy Solution, supporting the nurturing of venture businesses.
One morning in April, I was blankly watching crowds drunk on the cherry blossom ending outside the window when, suddenly, he walked in. He wore a handsomely worn secondhand leather jacket, jeans and black sunglasses, looking like someone who had just gotten off a bike. Pink petals fell from his shoulder. Even amid savage wars, the seasons were pushing forward with dazzling scenes of blooming and falling.
-Did you walk the flower path?
"Yes. I always come on foot. I walk 40 minutes twice a day."
The freshness of the waves radiating from his whole body raised my oxygen saturation.
-How are you living these days?
"I give a lot of lectures these days. I went to Busan for a book talk when I heard 50 readers had gathered, and I also give many lectures for new employees at midsize corporations and for executives at large corporations. The main arc is the same, but the context and view change each time depending on the audience."
-Isn't it hard to speak to an unspecified general audience?
"As a newcomer, when I saw higher-ups reading scripts written by others, I thought this: if I ever get to such a position, even if I make mistakes, I won't read a report.' I've been a CEO since 2006. I had many chances to speak. To those worried about speaking without a script, I assured them. "If I make a mistake, people will like it."
If you forget what to say, just ask, 'Hold on, what was I talking about?' Then people will pay even more attention."
-It's surprising that it's not "it's okay to make mistakes," but "if I make a mistake, people will like it even more"!
"The more at ease you are, the better the results. Let me use baseball as an example. A weak team somehow makes the Korean Series. You need four wins to take the title, and they win the first game. The club owner comes and says, "I'm grateful even for one win. It's fine to lose the rest." Hearing it's okay to lose, the players had nothing to fear, were emboldened, and finally won the championship.
"It's okay to lose." "If you make a mistake, it's even better." Surprisingly, this mindset is powerful. Of course, before a lecture I put a memo with keywords in my inside pocket. I've never taken it out, but it reassures me. When I'm reassured, more spontaneous thoughts and exciting episodes pop out in response to the audience. Just yesterday, while talking about "backbiting," I even asked about three things that don't exist in the world. Do you know what those three are?
First, secrets. There are no secrets in the world. Second, nothing is free. Third, there are no right answers. Today's right answer can be tomorrow's wrong one, and my right answer can be your wrong one. That's how varied the cases are and how fast change is."
His gentle tone opened my ears softly on its own.
-In an age that admires "supergap" class, you brought "superhumility." Humility is an attitude of throwing yourself into a larger context, and you seem steeped in other-directedness.
"(Smiling) The hallmark of humility is listening. You try to listen before you speak. Since the other person is someone better than me, I'll first listen and learn. There's no end to learning. When I see people who know little and bluster, I think, 'Ah! How unfortunate…'
I believe humble people will shine even in the AI era. People who only talk about themselves can't ask questions. If you're humble, you can listen; if you listen, you can ask questions; if you ask questions, you can communicate. If you communicate, you can get help from others anywhere, anytime."
-When I saw the title "I hope you do well," I slapped my knee. It felt like a message from a religious figure rather than a leader of corporations.
"That was my life philosophy. 'I hope people I know are happy because of me.' I went to bed thinking about the book title, and at 4 a.m. a line came to me in a dream: 'I hope you do well.' I jolted awake and wrote a memo on my phone. I showed it to the publisher in the morning, and they liked it. Words that feel sincere have more power than fancy ones (laughter)."
-How broadly do you see the purpose of corporations?
"In the past, people thought making money, rising to powerful positions and succeeding was happiness. Now values have changed, and you have to be happy to be successful. A young person from an elite university opening a restaurant does it for happiness. You're successful if you're happy. I'm someone who feels happy when I make others happy.
Whether I know them or not, when I hear that an unspecified crowd did well thanks to Kwon Young-soo's help, I'm so happy. It's the same with running corporations. Because of me, if several thousand or tens of thousands of employees get bonuses, get promoted and enjoy happiness, that's good, isn't it?"
-The average salaryman works so they can eat well and live well.
"That alone is weak. You can't draw others' help with just that."
-Do you think you were lucky?
"(Smiling) Luck is the result of my usual behavior. Take even the phrase 'let's have a meal sometime.' If you say that to subordinates, they wait endlessly. I didn't make promises lightly, and I always kept the promises I made. That's the basics of a faithful person. People highly valued faithfulness, they liked me, and they appeared at every critical juncture to help. That's the pattern of a lucky person.
It was no different with partners. I didn't go see that public official or that executive when they were riding high. Why add me to the crowd? But when they were sidelined or out of a job, I went. I thought it was the right thing to do, and people feel grateful when you visit in hard times. The world is fair. You have to take the long view. In the end, those actions brought me more benefit.
When a sidelined person made a comeback, or when an unemployed executive had such character that they had strong influence over frontline staff, their one line—"Help Kwon Young-soo"—was immensely powerful. With people in government, customers, and partners, I viewed it as a symbiotic relationship. As this kept piling up, I received countless help. But you must give first, unconditionally. Only then will it come back."
Like sweet-and-salty, the flips between crisis and opportunity, bad luck and good luck, came as pairs and formed several cycles across life and career. After a business failure, I had a resignation letter in my pocket but was instead picked for a key post and put to great use; I also returned from big results overseas only to find my desk gone, leaving me baffled. There were many times to endure and many times to fight.
-When you were assigned to an unfamiliar place, what did you do first?
"Studied people. Like heading a ball on bare ground, I kept observing the people I needed to know. Each industry has different traits, so LG Electronics was used to a global competitive culture, while chemicals were mostly domestically trained, a bit rustic yet pure. Uplus was local but had a young feel, and the culture at Ensol was completely different technologically.
Including the holding company, I built up an enormous set of big data in my head. I had some eye for judging people, and when I built teamwork with good people, the company quickly changed. Good people are good ingredients. If the ingredients are poor, you make spicy fish stew out of fish, but you can't make a clear soup, right? With lots of good people, your room to maneuver changes dramatically.
Fortunately, word spread that my leadership was decent, and talent from other companies came to me of their own accord. During my display days, many came from Samsung Electronics; when I was at Uplus, many came from SK as well. Inside the company and outside it, it was people who brought luck."
It may seem complex, but the fundamental principle of management is ultimately succeeding by receiving others' help well.
-What specific help did you receive?
"It was when we were in the battery business. To achieve a proper transition, we needed good cathode materials. But the Japanese company that made those cathodes said it absolutely could not supply Korean companies. My staff all waved it off as impossible. Then, as if by a miracle, the knot unraveled. It turned out the leader of that cathode company was someone I knew. It was a connection from my display days. To secure the best LED chips, I had gone to Japan myself and opened a relationship.
Back then, too, they said he wouldn't meet me, but we ended up becoming as close as family friends who even went to the bathhouse together. Later, he even declared, "Mr. Kwon, I will not supply our LED chips to your competitor, Samsung," and kept that promise. In that way, the chairman of Nichia Chemical sent us cathode materials, and battery performance improved dramatically.
With that battery, we broke into Volkswagen, and riding that momentum, channels to European automakers opened up and we ranked No. 1 in the world by order amount. It was a miracle made by people."
The powerful unblocked clogged paths in one stroke, while ordinary men and women pooled small contributions to do the same. The relationship capital Kwon Young-soo built with his characteristic faithfulness and sincerity had such high purity that it created "voluntary benefactors" everywhere.
But when dealing with the arrogant, he applied pressure so rough it was scary. During the IMF crisis, an anecdote about a negotiation that successfully concluded with foreign capital attraction by selling LCD equity is an example. The European company that was the joint-venture partner at the time lowballed the valuation from the outset with an absurd price.
-How did you handle opponents who looked down on you and played tricks?
"You have to seize the initiative somehow. When I felt this wouldn't do, I took a decisive shot. For example, if the other side first presents my value at rock bottom, I have to keep offering counterarguments. I get pushed onto the defensive. That's when you need to go big. The price we were offered then was $200 million to $300 million, but I called our company's value at $10 billion. After making a bold opening move, I responded calmly. In the end, we attracted the largest single foreign investment in the country."
But that wasn't the end. On the day of the MOU signing, the other company brought a contract slashing the agreed amount and demanded signatures unconditionally. "It was a national default situation and a deal the government was watching, so we had no choice but to sign through tears at the time."
-When you get stabbed in the back, your head must go blank.
"To solve an incident, I thoroughly put myself in the other party's shoes. I imagine who conceived and pushed such an outrage. Perhaps the M&A executive came up with the idea, and the CFO turned a blind eye reluctantly. But as far as I knew, that CFO had decent character. He probably approved with discomfort. I then set my target as the CFO and sent a chilling letter.
'Your conduct is an unprecedented outrage in M&A history and will ultimately be exposed to all. Your company will be branded and its reputation cracked. From the moment of the joint venture, as the 52% ownership company, we will harass your employees to the extent permitted by law.'"
He said he had DNA inside him to fight to the end for unjust matters and win compensation. He reported upward ready to resign and, as if possessed, wrote the letter. "A week later, we received a reply that they would return 70% of the cut amount."
-Your nature seems like both water and a blade.
"I'm firm when I need to be. But I don't use it often. The baseline is 'let's all do well together.' Passion and teamwork are key, but I was rather thorough in everything. You can be thorough and warm. Firmness is a bit different; I learned it fighting in the global battlefield. I had to be on high alert. Through various experiences, the decisive part of my DNA developed. But there's something more important than decisiveness."
-What's more important than decisiveness?
"Earnestness. I believe in the power of earnestness. Firmness and earnestness are connected, so if you make a firm decision gained through earnestness, it's likely the right answer. Conversely, if earnestness is low, it may not be the right answer. Thus the power of decision and earnestness are proportional."
-How are earnestness and desire different? For example, leaders and high performers have a strong desire to be No. 1. How can that desire be converted into the team's earnestness?
"When LG Display became No. 1 in the world with 100% production yield, and when in secondary batteries we ranked No. 1 in order backlog with a "clean sweep," the situations were a bit different. In the former, eliminating defects is the key; in the latter, improving product capability is the key. At first, when we met Volkswagen at the battery business headquarters and heard the problems with our product, it was sheer despair. My staff were all crestfallen. With an earnest heart, I made a decision.
"Let's go our own way. Don't follow the competitor's aluminum packaging; stick with the thin pouch-type battery. Instead, raise the energy density enough to offset our product's weaknesses. It's better to attack than to be attacked."
After gaining agreement, I assembled an engineer dream team. I gave that team 100% autonomy, and at a decisive moment I procured the optimal material called "cathode." Compared with the competitor's solid metal packaging, ours was like thin ramen-bag packaging, but we raised the internal battery's energy density by 30%."
-So it was a combined product of earnestness and luck!
"Right. By contrast, during the display days, "let's be No. 1 in the world once" was a matter of mindset. It was important that the hearts of the Paju plant workers change from "we can do it" to "we want to do it." How does that thought arise? It comes when it's fun. So we started the "make a joyful workplace" project. We provided breakfast, improved nighttime lighting, built a ping-pong room, relaxed the dress code…
Then faces gradually brightened. With energy coursing through the plant, the union stepped up first to say, "Let's try to be No. 1." The production executive vice president also got excited and said, "We'll raise profitability with 100% production yield." I wore jeans, and at year's end we formed an executive band and went around playing drums for cheering performances (laughter). When I walked across the yard, employees ran from afar saying, 'Let's have coffee, let's take a photo together.' That momentum led to No. 1 in the world."
The foundation of leadership that draws out No. 1 in technology and No. 1 in manufacturing was no different: in the end, it's about winning hearts. Living off others' excellence.
-You said you "saw the way when you became humble" while selecting the U.K. plant site. What do you mean?
"We had to find land in the U.K. to build a microwave factory. I met an engineer at Heathrow and we just drove around starting from the western Wales region. It was my first time in Britain, my English wasn't great, and I didn't know microwaves. At first, we were treated well and laughed our way around, but gradually we lost any sense of where to go and a wave of anxiety hit.
But at the moment anxiety turned into earnestness, a question popped up. Are we the first to build a factory in the U.K.? NO! Then where did the excellent companies before us build? Research showed Toyota's and Samsung's factories were in one location. There! We went there, found a good plot, and signed the contract in one go. Back at the company, people made a fuss that 'on his first trip to the U.K., Kwon Young-soo found a prime spot blessed by nature' (laughter).
Here's the crux. When you're at a loss, admit you don't know and find someone who did it first—then copy them."
At this point, humility and earnestness felt like the user's superpowers.
-I first learned that humility isn't a static passive voice but such a dramatic active one.
"Ha ha. You squeeze it out. The solutions that flash into mind are gifts from earnestness. But earnestness doesn't give everything. As Chairman Kazuo Inamori, whom I like, said, the standard is "do what is right." When the thought of benefiting others is combined with earnestness, your vision becomes clear."
-In your corporate life, you experienced unfair demotions and inexplicable promotions. How did you steady your heart then?
"There are injustices you can accept and those you can't. I endured when I could; I fought when I couldn't. For example, when I was president of displays and No. 1 in the world and then was assigned as head of the battery business, it was a big shock. My rank dropped and the treatment changed so much that my secretary cried. After two days of deliberation, I accepted it. My interpretation was this: 'It's a business the chairman treasured, so he entrusted it to me because he believed in me!' This kind of injustice, if you endure it, returns as a savings deposit in the future."
The more we talked, the more amazing it was that non-competitive words like help, earnestness, consideration and humility fit so well in a competitive society. A true master of management who draws out maximal potential by not viewing people as resources. From time to time, we exchanged frank views on the big tech industry's scouting wars and Korea's stock market, where only semiconductors are booming.
-Is there a secret to not being swayed in good or bad times and lasting long?
"Individuals and corporations are no different. My management philosophy is ichung-deuksil: listen well to others and win their hearts to last long. If you go fast without winning hearts, you get exhausted. What's the use of a fast start? If hearts don't follow, you have no choice but to rest midway. Conversely, even if it takes time to start, once you win hearts, you quickly gain acceleration and ultimately win. First-generation founders know this, but second-generation CEOs, out of anxiety, try only to go fast, which is unfortunate."
Samsung, which leads industries with fast systems; Hyundai, which charges ahead with bold execution; LG, which wins hearts with humane treatment and harmony… We look into the cultures embedded in these leading Korean conglomerates. And talking with Kwon Young-soo, it felt that victory was fully possible not only with a genius's first strike of "I'm the first to do this," but also with a pursuer's humility of "someone must have done this first."
The economy cycles through booms and busts and at times brings supercycles beyond imagination, but he said the "working heart" to help others has never once changed.
-At this point, please tell us about the daycare. The incident at LG Energy Solution that you said brightened the company's mood.
"(Smiling) Employees said they really wanted a daycare. But by law, a daycare has to be built on the fifth floor or below, and space in the building up to the fifth floor was all taken. Giving up made sense, but the faces of young employees kept coming to mind. I couldn't let it go, so I met the building management head and said this.
"I know it's not possible. But is there really no way? Our employees are so earnest about this. Please think it over just once more. I'll wait."
I forgot about it, but about a month later, I got a call. The management company on the third floor said they would move. They chose to accept inconvenience and made the impossible possible. I was truly grateful. I was truly grateful they didn't overlook my earnestness."
-From whom did you learn the most?
"Chairman Koo Ja-hak. He had a cool-headed and strong entrepreneurial spirit. From Chairman Koo Bon-moo, I learned how to win people's hearts. He truly worked hard to win hearts."
-Lastly, how should ordinary people define work in the AI supergap era?
"It's not complicated. Work is the act of making what doesn't work, work. If it happens by leaving it alone, it's not work. If it doesn't work, don't give up; think 'that's natural' and untie it one by one, and fulfillment will come. If you do it too easily, that's not a calling but odd jobs.
To pull it off somehow, it's important to find work that excites me rather than work society prescribes. And when you do it, don't toil alone—get help from others. In the end, the hearts I've won accomplish big things that seem impossible. I wish you the best!"