GS Group chairman Huh Chang-soo has picked “change” and “innovation” as the management keywords for the future of the conglomerate, whose main businesses include energy, construction and retail.

“The business landscape is expected to change faster than ever before, affected by the mobile revolution and the advent of new technologies like the Internet of Things,” Huh said.

He made the remark to increase the sense of urgency for change among executives during the Value Creation Forum, an internal management session. About 400 executives from GS affiliates attended the one-day forum, held at the group’s headquarters in Yeoksam-dong, Seoul, Wednesday. 

GS Group said it designed the event to discover successful innovations made by affiliates and spread them across the group.

Facing the group’s prolonged business slowdown, the group chief stressed the duality of risk and opportunity.

“To turn a risk into an opportunity, we need to seek change and innovation, both of which are necessary, not optional, for survival in the future,” said Huh, who also heads the Federation of Korean Industries, the nation’s big-business lobby group.

The chief of GS Group urged participants to make projections of technology-driven trends and the future business landscape, and analyze customers’ needs as the first step in bringing change and innovation into the group.

GS affiliates, including GS Caltex, GS Retail and GS Construction and Engineering, presented their successful innovations, which was followed by a speech from Huh, the group said in a press release.

GS Energy, the holding company for the group’s energy businesses, presented the development of an innovative technology in nickel-based lithium-ion batteries.

GS Caltex shared its innovation in the project of upgrading its world-class crude oil refining facilities, located in its Yeosu Complex and cost-cutting measures in maintaining the facilities.

GS EPS, the power-generating arm of the group, boasted of its innovative technology to maximize the operations of its biomass-fueled power plant in Bugok Industrial Complex in Dangjin, South Chungcheong Province, the group said.

By Seo Jee-yeon  (jyseo@heraldcorp.com)