LG Electronics (LG), the world's fourth largest mobile phone manufacturer, yesterday appointed a new president for its business in China, as part of the company's new global sales strategy.

 

The company announced in a statement that Nam K. Woo, former president and chief executive officer of LG's Digital Display and Media Company, would replace Jim Sohn as the new president of LG China.

 

In order to ensure a steady growth of the LG's future business, Sohn will work as an adviser for a period.

 

The appointment aims at pushing LG China's focus on high-end products, which the company is promoting all over the world.

 

Last May LG officially launched its new high-end development strategy, the "Blue Ocean Strategy," which highlights high-end products with unique values instead of competing by reducing costs and prices.

 

Under this theory, the company expects to become a top-three consumer electronics manufacturer by 2010.

 

LG plans to double its sales volume, profit and shareholders' benefits by 2010, with 30 percent of its sales volume and half of its profit being derived through the so-called "Blue Ocean Products."

 

Woo said the LG China would sharpen its competitive edge by carrying out the "Blue Ocean Strategy" in terms of products, business modes, management and human resources.

 

In its 12-year-history in China, LG has mainly produced and sold low-and medium-end electronic appliances.

 

Besides launching more high-end products in the Chinese market, the company will also up investment in its research and development (R&D) sector in China.

 

The new appointment is expected to counteract the strategies of the company's rivals, like Samsung and Sony, which appointed new senior officials in China to underline the country's role in the global market.

 

"It is an urgent task for us to promote China's position in LG's world business," the statement said.

 

(China Daily January 11, 2006)