Competency Enhancement Program

15^th April 2012 (Sunday)

We reached Seoul Airport at around 1700, and since we were still waiting for another 2 participants from others region; we started to wander around Incheon Airport to get the first taste of Korea. Yes! This was my first trip to Korea and indeed a life time experience for me.

Once they arrived, we hopped onto a cab and we headed down to Yoido Hotel. After checking in, four of us just went down to have some snacks over at the tent run by Ajumma. It was a mouth watering extravaganza for us to plunge into some authentic Korean food. The weather was cold especially for us since we emerged from regions without four seasons. So we had some beer and soju to keep ourselves warm. 

After our dinner, we all resumed back to the hotel to re-charge ourselves, and rejuvenate for the next training day.

Nakji Bokum (Spicy Stir-Fried Octopus)

16^th April 2012 (Monday)

At 8.30am all participants gathered promptly and waited for Ms. Seon from HR to bring us to LG Twins Tower. We passed by the Yoido Park and we saw lots of cherry blossom trees, they were so beautiful. We were lucky to have had this opportunity to visit Korea at the Yeouido Spring Flower Festival.

The class commenced with Orientation and self introduction, and, on that day we had our lunch at LG canteen. Then following by business and strategies of LGI and understanding business group.  At the end of day, we met Mr. Kim Sang Hwi for dinner. We had the authentic bulgogy at불고기브라더스 and it is the first time in our life tried the raw beef marinated in pear juice.

After our dinner, Mr. Kim brought us to Namsan Tower, where we got up the mountain by cable car, Mr. Kim also bought the ticket for us to go up to the N Seoul Tower, which gave us a first hand glimpse of the panoramic view of Seoul. What an enchanting and breathtaking view....we were caught in a whole of super splendid delight.

On the way down from the N Seoul Tower, we saw lots of locks on the fence.  According to Mr. Kim, couples from all over come to this place to declare their love for each other with the symbol of a lock, promising that they will never break up. The locks had inscription on them with hearts and declaration of love.

17^th April 2012 (Tuesday)

Since Ms. Seon already lead us to the way to LG Twin Tower on the first day, the second day, we all resumed to LG Twin Tower on our own. We passed thru the Yeouido Park, and took a slow stroll step by step to inhale the morning fresh air.

We had a better view of LG Twin Tower because yesterday we went with the group and were in a rush.  

Our day training started with LGI Vision – “Global Business Challenger”, this included information on the essence of our business, the vision system of LGI and the way we should pursue the vision. After that, followed a lunch gathering at the invitation of the Management Planning Team member, we were treated to Korean Chinese food.

Our course continued with risk management training, introduction of LG and the “Jeong-Do” management.

We met up with Mr. Lee Jae Nam after our second day lessons. He walked us back to our hotel so that we could put our bulky study material in the hotel, and then we headed down to 진진for dinner. As Mr. Kim Wook was busy with another appointment he was only able to meet us in the restaurant. We indulged in the succulent BBQ pork and meat, and the northern style Korean dumpling, which were excellent tummy ticklers. After our dinner, Mr. Lee and Mr. Kim brought us to the park, where there were lots of people viewing the cherry blossom trees. We were not sure of the name of the park, what we could only remembered was the long path way between the Parliament house and Han River.

On the Monday and Tuesday training, not only did we gain a better insight about LG and LGI, but we also got to meet with participants from other region, at which time, we exchanged working experience and obstacles we encountered and the manner in which we solved these issues, some sightseeing around Seoul, we had the chance the meet up with all the ex Singapore FSE, all these of which made our experience a most memorable one.  Last and not least, the most valuable thing that I had experienced there was the sense of belonging and loyalty to LG, our Company. With this, any employee would be inculcated with a sense of commitment and belonging, thereby having a great impact on his/her future role as a member of a “United family”.

18^th April 2012 (Wednesday)

On third day of our training, the morning session was Paju Plant visit, because we needed to travel quite a distance, therefore we had to get up by 6.40am. The chartered bus brought us to LG Inotek and LG Display factory. After the factory visit we had our lunch at “provence korea", which comes with it a lovely country side view.

After our lunch we travelled down to Konjiam Resort and without checking in to our rooms, we first proceeded to our classroom. Today was a problem solving class; we had lots of activities and class assignments, with the instructor actively promoting a two way communication, activities, techniques and strategies needed to solve problems. The problem solving class ended at about 9.30pm.

In this third day training, we learnt on the various ways to tackle a problem, how to solve it and etc. Although it was a late night, all participants were still very much alert, and were requested to list down all of our achievements. By writing down same, I personally felt more confident when looking back at all of my own achievements.

19th April 2012 (Thursday)

The fourth day of our training - B2B business, in this training, we learnt more about all strategies that may affect B2B such as Market, products/ Services/ Customer/ Pricing/ Branding and keys to the success in B2B business. The class ended around 8.00pm and we had some small activities such as table ping pong, billiard.

What we learnt on the day such as how to differentiate between B2B and B2C and why do we need to set the Brand strategy in B2B business like B2C business.

20^th April 2012 (Friday)

This marked the last training session for LGIS staff. We had Sales Negotiation topic, in the class we first learnt what negotiation was, and how to make a breakthrough in negotiation beyond win-win situation.

On the last day class, I finally understood negotiation is not a simple subject.

After the class we had the group photo taken and we all took the bus back to Yoido Hotel. In less than 500m to Yoido Hotel, we could see lots of people jamming up the entire area, because it was a Friday, and lots of people rushed down to enjoy the Yeouido Spring Flower Festival. We reached our hotel at 11pm. Since, we did not have time to do our shopping; we took a cab down to DongDaeNum for our late night shopping. Once we reached there, amazingly that they were lots of people along the street, the shop/mall around that opened 24 hours/day, 7 days/week this street is full of Korean teens. We first went into Doota Mall, we were completely engulfed with various shopping choices located at a 9-storey mega-mall within which at least half of the stores had amazing heels/clothes/accessories that were just irresistible.  

After Doota, we walked over to an older building, namely Pyounghwa Fashion Plaza next to Doota, this older 2- and 3-story buildings had narrow walkways between the stores, poor lighting, exposed plumbing and conduits, and Ajumas ran the individual shops.

Over there we saw a man carrying a ‘chair’ behind him, initially we thought he used it to carry a child, but then we later realized that the chair was used to transfer goods to be delivered to stalls around there.

After our three hour exploring Doota and Pyounghwa, we finished off with a nice hot meal made by the local roadside cooks that was can only be described with one word, superb.   

Conclusion

The overall five day training program was excellent! It is an eye opener for us, besides helping us to exchange experience, strengthen our knowledge on certain areas; the most important part was building sense of belonging to the company, which would help to enhance overall effectiveness and royalty to LG.