The baton has changed hands at LG Electronics India and the new man, Moon B Shin, has his job cut out. His priority is to change LG’s image from a mass brand to a premium one while transforming the Indian arm into what he calls a ‘Q’ or quality-culture driven organisation.

This would be backed by strong product innovations through the Blue Ocean strategy. In his first free-wheeling chat after taking over as the new chief of the Indian operation, Mr Shin told ET he would like to maintain the basic management philosophy of his predecessor, KR Kim, who led LG Electronics from scratch to a Rs 8,000-crore-plus entity during his 10-year tenure. Mr Kim has just moved out as the head of South East Asia and Australia operations.

Mr Shin, who spent two years as Mr Kim’s deputy, said the handover was more than smooth. “While leaving, Mr Kim simply said, see you later, bye. That’s it.” Talking about his own management style, Mr Shin said, “I will continue with Mr Kim’s basic philosophy of localising manufacturing and recruiting local people.”

However, he hinted that there would be strategic changes. After shuffling the organisation structure (integrating appliances business) within one week of taking over, Mr Shin says, “I have made only small changes. I didn’t want to make big change in my first year.”

Talking about the challenges, Mr Shin said his first task would be to “extend the perception of LG from a consumer electronics and home appliance brand to also include IT and GSM handsets.” His other big challenge would be to change the image of LG from a mass brand to a premium one. The strategy would be rooted in imparting a quality culture in the organisation.