LGT lost their red sparkly shoes and didn’t make the trip from Oz to the “World IT Show.” While I think the no-show was probably a mistake for the brand image, I thought they got a little too much flak for it from the industry press.
Asia Finance issued the following report yesterday. It’s amazing what companies have to put up with in Korea.
Blue is them, Black is me.
LGT Just Feigning R&D
-Company sites cost cutting as reason for ‘IT World Show’ no-show
-LGT Turning away from result-driving R&D investment
Criticism that LG telecom is neglecting Research and Development (R&D) investment while focusing solely on increasing its customer base is on the rise. This is a break from the vision of LG board chairman Bonmoo Ku as it diverges from the high level of aggressive R&D investment he had [previously] ordered for the corporation.
According to the industry (June 23), LG Telecom’s no-show at Korea’s largest IT event, the June 17-20, ‘World IT Show,’ held at the Coex [convention center] in Samsung dong, Seoul has been criticized as directly connected with a lack of commitment to research and development.
Okay, had to break in here for a second. “According to the industry?” WTF? Did the industry demigod prophesy this to him or what? Let me say here that I think this guy’s point is one for every marketing VP to consider when her company starts to tighten the proverbial belt. Not participating in the “World IT Show” definitely has consequences on brand image. But this journalist really sucks at his job – more on that in a minute. Oh, and just a comment on this guy’s writing – it’s so damned opaque that this thing took me 3 hours to convert into (somewhat) readable English.
[The fact] that major LG corp. player LG Telecom was the only no-show while for four days the top domestic ICT industry players including Samsung electronics, LG electronics, KT, and SK Telecom showed off their new technologies and cutting-edge products, was all the more regrettable.
Regrettable? To whom? You, lowly reporter dude? I’d say KT and SK Telecom are probably doing cartwheels. And why would you regret it? Are you an investor? What’s your beef? And don’t give me any nationalistic bullshit response about how it’s regrettable because a Korean company seems to be losing face (although that’s probably bullshit too, and I’ll get to that in a minute).
A source at LG Telecom said regarding [the absence] “Strategic judgment, including the need for cost savings, and no other motivation led to the decision not to participate in this year’s exhibition.” He also cautioned against drawing [any other] far reaching conclusions.
Okay finally, you talked to someone and did a little reporting. Thank you. And maybe you should listen to this guy. It’s like you’re driving the last nail into LGT’s coffin with this report. God man!
However LG Telecom’s failure to appear at domestic and international IT exhibitions large and small and its decreasing profile aren’t 2-day phenomena.
According to an industry insider’s assessment, although [it’s true that] LG Telecom’s investment budget is smaller than its competitors, because new technology is a weakness, LG Telecom has no choice but to shun exhibitions where [direct] comparison with industry competitors is unavoidable.
The industry insider said “participating in a domestic exhibition can require somewhere between 500 million won ($358,000 US) and 2 billion won ($1.5 million US), so it could be a burden,” but then retorted, “But isn’t it [more likely] that LG Telecom’s real Achilles heel is that their lack of a variety of applications would mean that they [simply] would have a hard time coming up with things to attract visitors attention?”
Okay at least you’ve stopped quoting the ubiquitous and omnipresent ‘industry,’ but ‘industry insider?’ Come on, be a little more forthcoming. The title ‘insider’ tells me nothing about his motivations. I doubt he even exists. He could be you, for all I know.
Although I’ve been reading Korean newspapers for a long time now, I still don’t understand how Koreans put up with this malarkey.
Concerns that LG telecom is focused solely on immediate results at the expense of investing in its future are on the rise.
Whose concerns? Who are you talking about? Again with your concerns? Dude, nobody cares!
LG Telecom decreased its [2009 Q1] operating development budget 24% [year on year] from 7.161 hundred billion won ($550 million US) to 5.414 hundred billion won ($416 million US). This year among LG Telecom, KT, and SK Telecom, LG Telecom has decreased its research and development budget by the largest percentage.
JinOh Kim (김진오기자 (기자로 자격이 없지만)) jokim@asiae.co.kr
This is my favorite part. By this guy’s calculations, LG Telecom would be a $479 Billion dollar company. He got the math wrong by a factor of 100. Dipshit. Also, I checked the numbers, posted here, and it looks as if LG Telecom usually made an unusually big R&D push during the 4th quarter of 2008. In fact, if you compare Q4 2008+Q1 2009 to Q4 2007 +Q1 2008, LG telecom actually posted an 8.2 percent increase in R&D spending. So the guy from LG Telecom was right. Sure, they’re cutting back on advertising. But that means one thing and one thing only as far as we can ascertain: they’re cutting back on advertising.
While this guy’s writing style and journalistic integrity are definitely not of the highest caliber, the concern he raises was likely to have been felt by any attendant at the World IT Show. You definitely don’t want your customers saying “What happened, I wonder if something is wrong…hmmm.” Consumers are jittery enough already in today’s economy. And if LG’s sole strategic focus right now is just getting people in the door (which might be perfectly legitimate, by the way), a conspicuous no-show at this exhibition was probably not the right move from a brand-image perspective. Even if they didn’t have much of a ‘wow’ factor with new technology, there’s no reason they couldn’t have piggy-backed with LG Electronics. And hey, as long as you give away some free shit at one of these things, you’ve done your due diligence on the customer’s part.
