LG Innotek staff explore new business ideas

LG Innotek said on Monday it is running an open audition program where its employees make proposals to explore new businesses.

Employees of the electronic components supplier present their ideas to “i-Lab,” short for “innovation lab,” through video conferences, and get “likes,” questions and feedback from other employees on a real time basis.

The 10 ideas that get the most “likes” will be reviewed by management, including the company’s chief technology officer, to be chosen as official i-Lab projects.

Those selected will be freed from the work they were doing during the project period to recruit their own team members and get specialized consulting to work on their i-Lab projects in separate spaces.

All employees who presented their ideas through i-Lab are invited to training courses offered by consultants on how to quickly develop concepts and ideas into business models, LG Innotek said.

So far, about 100 teams have proposed some 140 new business ideas such as home training robots and metaverse-based factory simulation through i-Lab.

The first batch of i-Lab projects chosen last year are currently being led by team leaders in their 30s and are scheduled to be completed in November to be transferred to relevant departments later to be turned into actual businesses.

Choi Min-yong, a specialist leading an optical solution project, said that previously, even if he had brilliant business ideas, he couldn’t do anything about it because he was too busy with existing assignments.

“Now that we get company support to carry out projects that we wanted to try, it’s clearly a good experience and an opportunity for growth,” he said.

LG Innotek plans to expand i-Lab and introduce a funding program next year to increase financial support.

“As we develop employees’ creative ideas into businesses, we will expand a corporate culture of daring to challenge. We will explore new items beyond hardware to blend metaverse, block chain and artificial intelligence,” said Kang Min-seok, CTO of LG Innotek.

By Kim So-hyun (sophie@heraldcorp.com)