Leapfrog Growth from S-curve to Another S-curve

The following reproduced note is based on the keynote delivered by Dr. Sangchul Lee, CEO of LG Uplus, together with Smartfren Chairman Pak Franky Widjaja at Grand Hyatt, Jakarta on September 17, 2015.

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“Let me start with s-curve, everything is about s-curve, your life, your work and everything. At some days, you feel like you are going so slow. At some ages, you are going so fast and then you started to fade away. Moreover, the same applied to the company, the company grow at the beginning is very hard, after that it go very fast & after that it starts to fade away.

There are two dots on the s-curve, black & red. The first dot, the black dot is that you beginning to growth very fast. At that time, if you are hesitating, you will not put your effort, grow is not happening. Black dot is the point that you really have to hit it hard. I am sure all the great company today have put so much effort in the past 10- 20 yrs in the beginning from A point to B point, that is why it go so fast so quick in growth today. However, if you hit it early at the red dot, you just died earlier. It is a fairly simple theory. So what should we do?

You have to do something around in between the 2 dots before you reaching the red dot. There is one crucial thing before you started to do something. You need to know where are you currently at the s-curve. If it is at the beginning of the black dot, but you think you have reached the red dot, you do not grow and died early. If you hit the red dot, but you think you are not, you are in trouble too. It is very depending on your insight to analyze and know exactly where you are at the s-curve. It is very important.

What should a company do when already reach the red dot? Don’t worry, it is always as it is used to be. For example for the semiconductor industry, when a company is reaching the top of the first generation, the company innovated and started the 2nd generation & so forth. A company has a sustainable growth from one technology to another technology. Nevertheless, that is the old way of doing business.

In these days of the dynamic business environment, the great company jump from one s-curve to another s-curve, they do not continue with the original s-curve. They started the new s-curve in the totally different way, that is called innovation.

If you follow from one s-curve to another s-curve, it is a growth but a slow way of growth. However, if you jump from one s-curve to another s curve, you will growth really fast. That is like a jumping from red ocean to the blue ocean but in the innovation way.

But it is still not enough. The lifespan of the s-curve used to last for 10-30 years, it was a long s-curve, you have enough time to plan for next s-curve. But in these days, the lifespan is so short, probably only 3- 5 years. GM, IBM even Microsoft, they enjoying the 30-40 years of the long s-curve.

You might think Apple is the best company in the world now. They might have reached the top of s-curve now. One of the China company can produce a smartphone that has ~ 95% of the Apple design & features, and the price is half of what Apple is charging.

Google is carrying too much burden, carry too many data on them on the shoulder. The company who have carried nothing on their shoulder can jump easily and jump high from s-curve to s-curve. It is time for Google to innovate.

What make the company thinking want to jump, gesture to jump? What cause the jump?

4 key enablers.

1. Computing power
2. Communication speed
3. Smart & mobile (carry on something on the hand, tv, radio, mobile & anything, you are off the road and go anywhere.
4. Connected Society

You must do something to jump from one s-curve to another without just staying in a comfort zone. When you reach the top of the s curve you have to do something but not the old way. There are some people ahead of you by jumping constantly. Please ask yourself, why should they do that?

You are not there because you are too slow, or you are not working very hard enough because you are paid for doing it.”

LG Uplus Corp. is a South Korean cellular carrier owned by the LG Group. It was formerly known as LG Telecom. LG Telecom was formed in 1996 after LG acquired a CMDA license and subsequently launched the world’s first commercial cdmaOne data service using PCS technology. Dr. Sangchul Lee joined the company as CEO in the year 2010 to lead the post-merger & how to differentiate the company from the stiff competition. The name of the carrier changed to LG U+ after its July 2010 merger with another two LG telecommunications subsidiaries, Dacom, an Internet-related services subsidiary and Powercom, a communications network services company. 

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I was in production & operation management leadership role for more than a decade. Currently, I am attaching to a corporate profession in Business Development & Strategic Planning. I am also a Certified Professional Trainer (CPT), Certified Train the Trainer & Certified Business Analyst. I believe & inspired by “Anyone shall be given a chance to learn hence transform learning into long-lasting growth; building productive change!” 

I regularly write about management, leadership and career development as well. Feel free to also connect via Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook About Learning Curve.

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