LG to make India Asia's training hub

In a bid to strengthen its hold on the Indian market, Korean conglomerate LG Electronics plans to set up learning and design centres across India. The curriculum for the LG learning centre is being worked out in consultation with LG’s global learning centre in South Korea.

The centre will help employees hone their skills across departments such as industrial design, marketing, lifestyle research, economic and market research among others. The company plans to bring on board specialists in these sectors as faculty for the same.

“We will have one learning centre by the end of the year in either Pune or Noida,” Moon B Shin, managing director, LG Electronics India, told Business Standard, adding: “India has a crucial role to play and train other subsidiaries in the future.”

“The future challenge for any company is enhancing organisational capability. We wish to provide our employees global opportunities,” Dr Y V Verma, director of human resources at LG India, said. The training centre will, however, be customised to cater to the Indian market to start with considering LG plans to invest in product innovations, designed to suit the needs of people across the states.

While 2009 will see the first batch at the managerial level, the courses will eventually be extended to employees across the organisation. “The people who perform better will be given opportunities to work for other subsidiaries,” Shin said. He hopes that the learning centre will eventually be converted into a full-scale university that will help make India a training hub for LG employees across Asia. “We want to grow the centre as a hub for all Asian subsidiaries.”

LG Learning Center in Korea offers programmes such as a custom-designed global MBA programme from Thunderbird School of Global Management. The LG Electronics programme is the first Thunderbird created for a corporation using its unique objectives, strategies and outcomes.

Talking about the LG strategy for 2009, Shin said that LG will continue to invest in lifestyle research to bring out products that suit the various lifestyle needs of the Indian consumers. In spite of a slow year for consumer electronics industry in 2008, LG managed to clock revenues of Rs 10,730 crore a 15 per cent growth over 2007, in line with its 2006 growth rate.

The company was able to maintain a net profit margin at 4 per cent of sales. While last year the company spent around Rs 360 crore on advertising and marketing, this year the amount will be around Rs 400 crore. “We hope to leverage our association with ICC,” Shin said.