
The company had appointed Jo Seong-jin as its CEO in 2016

LG’s smartphone business has not been doing good since last several quarters

LG Electronics’ net profits slumped more than 30 per cent in the third quarter this year. A report by Free Malaysia Today noted that the Korea-based consumer electronics giant has kicked out its CEO and some other executives from the company’s leadership.

“South Korean appliance giant LG Electronics replaced its CEO and a raft of other top leaders Thursday after net profits slumped more than 30 per cent in the third quarter and its smartphone division struggles,” read the report.

CEO Jo Seong-jin replaced

The company has replaced Jo Seong-jin with Brian Kwon as the CEO. Interestingly, Jo Seong-jin is known as washing machine genius in the Korean media. He is famous in the industry because of the fact that he does not have a college degree.

“We have judged we need a fast decision making process, rather than stick with management style drawn from past successes,” the company said in a statement issued to AFP.

Brian Kwon, on the other hand, is a graduate of top Seoul National University. He has completed his major in industrial engineering. Kwon has been associated with LG Electronics for last 32 years. Kwon’s expertise includes big data, artificial intelligence and cloud technologies.

LG’s smartphone business going down since last 18 quarters

Once a top brand in the smartphones’ vertical, LG has been struggling in this business, since last 18 quarters. The LG Mobile communications company reported sales of KRW 1.52 trillion (USD 1.27 billion) for the third quarter this year in a challenging global smartphone market.

“Compared with the previous quarter, operating loss, as per LG, narrowed significantly to KRW 161.2 billion (USD 135 million) due to production efficiencies and cost improvements,” read LG’s official statement.