LS Cable Seeks to Meet
Rising Demands Head On

Management reform and globalization are the keys to cable company's growth

Vice Chairman Koo Cha-yol of LS Cable Co. said the new year should see all of the company's investment projects, including those overseas, bear fruit.
In his New Year's speech, he said that various reform efforts should reach every nook and corner of the company's operation to strengthen LS Cable's competitive power.
Therefore, he said, the company's management direction has been set for the "Maximization of results creation,"the "continued spurring of globalization"and "reform in daily life,"calling for the all-out efforts and participation of officers and staff.
He said the company made quite a few investments to expand its global network. The second subsidiary in Vietnam, LSCV, was completed in October last year and is now producing power and communication cables. Another cable plant is being built in Delhi, India, on a 50,000-pyeong site. The company introduced the Six Sigma and SCM programs to strengthen the company's competitive power through reform activities.
Of the first management goal Koo said, "Maximizing results creation requires continuous reform of the operational structure of the company. High-value-added businesses should be spurred and new growth engines should become part of the company's growth businesses as early as possible."He added that the unprofitable parts should be turned around by setting up a new profitable model.
The second focus is speeding up globalization. "The company should work to firm up the foundations for overseas operations and strengthen its global competitive power in a bid to expand the weight of the results of overseas operations as a proportion of the company's overall business results,"the vice chairman said. "The company needs talented personnel to lead its global operations and must give them proper training."He said the new overseas subsidiaries should stabilize their operations as early as possible to secure their own bases for profitability.
The third change Koo spoke of was making reform a part of daily life. He said this was important, because reform cannot be done by simply building structures. "It has got to take root in the daily lives of every person working for the company. Everyone should think that he or she is the key player in the reform efforts and believe his changes will be connected to the company's profit,"Koo said. "reform for the sake of reform is a waste of time, but it is always significant when it is connected to making profits."The vice chairman said targets for reform and operational targets should always be associated with profit motives and they should be unveiled so that everyone in the company can work towards them.
This spring, he said, the company will move its head office to Anyang. The relocation is a step towards further growth for the company. The new location will provide the company with a chance to readjust itself in a new environment, making it tougher during the process of readjustment. "In that sense, the relocation will be a stepping stone to new possibilities and challenges,"the vice chairman said.
"Possibility has no limits. What is needed is confidence and the will to take on challenges. Let's all march with a new determination and passion to make the company a surprise to the world with the new year as a starting point,"Koo said.
The power cable industry benefited from the demand for electric wire during a worldwide construction boom in the 1990s and increases in IT facilities, in particular, fiber optic cables for the Internet infrastructure, which expanded an average of 27 percent annually from 1995 to 2001.
The industry fell into slump in 2001, but began to recover in 2005 helped by the growth of the transmission and distribution sector of the power industry, along with the rising demand for super pressure cables in the Middle East, Southeast Asia and South America and replacement demand for the product in advanced countries such as the United States.
The continuous rise in demand for power cables, taking up 64 percent of the world's electric wire market, will keep the industry an attractive investment target for investors around the world. The U.S. needs to replace many transformers as they are now more than 25 years old, according to a survey taken in 1998. Industry experts forecast some $8 billion will be spent to replace transformers in the U.S. every year from 2007. The EU is also going to see its demand for power cables rising as it is expected to spend 28 billion euros on the nine power projects it has been considering to expand power generation in the region. nw

Vice Chairman Koo Cha-yol of LS Cable Co.