LG looks to Middle East for ambitious expansion plans

How much of your business is in the Middle East?
The business solution company of LG has about $5bn of business globally, I think about 15% of our business comes from Middle Eastern countries.

Our global target is to grow our business to double the size within four years. We have a very solid, specific target to grow our business to a $10bn company by 2014. I think that Middle East growth would be on the same path or a faster path as we have more potential to grow in this market place.

What are your plans for this region?
At the beginning of the year we dispatched a couple of very dedicated people in sales and marketing, sales and engineering, and software development to this area to develop more specific solutions based on today's platform, how we can serve better for the customers in this region. So making a success in this region is very important. In the B2C business, LG has been growing quite successfully in this region.

How competitive is this market?
LG has the biggest market share at about 60%. We are probably the number two player in digital signage. In security camera systems we are a latecomer in that business so we are developing it very aggressively to become number one or two in the next four years. Even though the market size is smaller than other countries, the competition in this marketplace has been very fierce, but I've not seen as much of that competition in the B2B area.

How are market conditions generally?
In 2009 everyone was in trouble. In the earlier part of 2010 we thought we were completely coming out of the recession in my business, and it looked quite positive in the first quarter. But in the second quarter the market went down. If you look at LCD TV demand in most developed countries, the growth rate has been going down starting from the second quarter and it still continues. The first quarter was sunny and then all of a sudden it was cloudy for the second quarter and it continues in the third quarter. But I am having discussions with business leaders in other companies and they think in the fourth quarter there might be a turning point for business.

What are the challenges you face in this region?
Finding the right people in this region is more difficult than in other regions. I think since LG is a well known brand in the B2C area, it is not very difficult for us to expose ourselves as a new entry into the true B2B market, but finding the right people is the tough challenge for us.

What future trends do you expect to see?
Over the next few years I think the new trend will be the cloud computing and smart solutions. So there is smart TV, smart phones and smart homes; how we engage ourselves in that new trend is very important to us. We are working in various areas to fit ourselves into that smart trend. In cloud computing, we are working very hard on how we can take leadership since we do have a very strong background in the monitor market. What will be the new trends there? Our success may be highly dependent on how we can work smartly on those two new trends - smart appliances and the cloud.