How Korean electronics giant LG is changing its dress code to compete with Silicon Valley

LG makes smartphones that are on sale globallyAP

• Korean electronics giant LG is opening artificial intelligence labs around the world, including Toronto and California. 
• LG CTO I.P. Park said the company is quickly changing to compete in a global technology market. 
• One example of changes at the Korean giant? Employees don’t have to wear a tie anymore. 

Lots of the world’s best software comes out of Silicon Valley’s legendary relaxed offices: Think Google’s campus with beanbag chairs, free snacks, and engineers loafing in hoodies. 

This isn’t how big Korean technology companies typically operate, but to compete with software giants in the United States, they’re starting to loosen their ties — literally. 

“Headquarters has got some Korean culture, some global Western culture. It’s changing — we’re adapting to the global standard as we speak. We’re changing very fast,” LG Electronics President and CTO I.P. Park said in an interview with Business Insider earlier this week. “I’m dressed sort of semi-casual. When I go to my CTO organization in Korea, we wear casual 100%.”

“We don’t wear ties anymore. Even if I go to the LG Electronics headquarters office, we don’t wear ties, which means that our culture is evolving very fast,” he continued. 

Park is leading the charge to put more emphasis on R&D and software. He’s been overseeing an expansion of LG’s artificial intelligence labs in countries around the world. Earlier this week, LG announced a five-year partnership with the University of Toronto to establish a Canadian AI lab focused on algorithms.  

LG President and Chief Technology Officer I.P. Park and University of Toronto President Meric GertlerLG

Park says that machine learning is the key for LG going forward, and he expects it to touch everything that LG does, from smartphones to TVs to washing machines.

LG has set up several AI labs, including locations in Santa Clara, California, South Korea, India, and Russia. LG also opened a huge new campus in Seoul, called the LG Science Park, earlier this year.

If you’re a young engineer and you want to try to work for LG, Park recommends to learn broadly.

“I were to say a few words to younger guys I would tell them to learn as much as possible about everything instead of just focusing on one thing,” Park said. “You need to know technology, you need to know finance, you need to know business, you need to know marketing.”

And if you do snag a job at LG headquarters, you might not need your own tie anymore. 

“If you were to visit LG five years ago, everyone was wearing ties. Meeting culture and everything was much more traditional. Now things are moving very fast because we need to adopt fast-changing innovative technology globally. You’ll see the best of both worlds, traditional Korean, and Western,” Park said. 

LG Science Park in SeoulLG