The entire TPI 50 initiative dovetails into achieving the company's global corporate vision of establishing itself as the ``best global company'' by 2005. Its Leap 2005 vision, announced in March 1996, envisaged four strategic initiatives: Redesigning the business portfolio and developing new strategic business; globalization; acquiring promising differentiated technology and cultivating High Performing Leaders (HPLs).

To that end, the TPI 50 sloganfor 1999 is based on a simple philosophy: if every department and every individual at LG creates additional value and tries to increase output by half --by systematically eliminating all non-value added activities --then the whole organisation can leapfrog productivity by 50 per cent.

The three facilitators to achieve this target thus are: speed, quality and teamwork. So if one person's output for a year is Rs 1 crore, he must now set himself the target of increasing his output to Rs 1.5 crore by the end of the year.

Seems too ambitious? Not so, feels Kwang-Ro Kim, managing director, LG. ``Implementation may not be easy. But all it needs is courage, discipline and self-confidence,'' he says. With a corporate philosophy which says `We can do it,' the targets are really merely an extension and implementation of the company's keys of corporate culture, says Kim. These are:

Empowerment: Giving authority to those closest to the customer and encourage development through initiative andcreativity.

Boundaryless: Effective communication and cooperation that maximises synergy by removing boundaries between departments, levels and areas.

A typical LG example of strengthening through empowerment: till recently, the marketing department of the head office was deluged with bills sent in from its 18 branch offices. The usual process was to pass the bills after checking and this led to delayed payments.

As a solution, the head office has now asked branch offices to fax the total amount to be paid instead of sending in separate bills. The marketing department at the Head office in turn has been told to clear payments without tedious cross-checking. ``Trust is the key. By empowering our branch managers and eliminating useless paperwork, we have streamlined our functioning,'' says Kim. In fact, trust is the fulcrum around which a lot of LG's activity revolves.

HOW TPI 50 WORKS: In keeping with the target of adding value to its activities, each department sets itself a `Super A' or SuperAchievement target. The innovative management tool applied by the company to achieve these targets is TDR, or Tear Down Reengineering. TDR is a tool that helps an organization reinvent itself after closely looking at existing processes and streamlining them.

Each department has a TDR team whose job begins once a Super A target is set. The target is referred to the head office, which studies its feasibility. After thoroughly studying the target from all aspects, the core support team at the head office gives the green signal, sometimes with modifications. After this the department actually begins the process of implementing its target. The TDR team begins by minutely studying the entire functioning structure. After breaking it down to the very basics and identifying the lacunae in the system, it sets about rectifying them to achieve maximum efficiency and thus productivity. This is done through the ECRS process -- Elimination, Combine, Rearrange and Simplify.

At LG's Mumbai office for example, theaccounts department was identified as a weak area in January. The TDR team's target: to rebuild the department by February-March 1999. A Management Support and Auditing Team (MSA) was sent to Mumbai to help sort out the problem. After a brainstorming session, it was realised that what they lacked was a well-trained, experienced leader. So, the solution was simple: transfer a senior man from the Delhi office. Every month, each TDR team reports on the progress being made in achieving targets. TDR teams consist of members from different departments, such as production, engineering, R&D, logistics, quality control, material procurement. Each TDR team has a name of its own, eg. for the consumer electronics division the team is called TDR BC-350: or, ``Beat Competition with a target of 350,000''.

Each department sets itself a different type of target, depending on the nature of the job being done. However, the prime aim is to add value to the functioning, whether it is a service department or production unit.Therefore, the R&D department has set itself a target of saving $ 2 million by December 1999. Already it has saved $ 1 per TV tuner through localization. The home appliances division's target is $ 3 million. Customer service's aim: to reduce national service expenses to 0.8% from 1% last year. There is also a system of six-monthly reviews of performance, linked to incentive programmes. Achievement of a `Super A' target entitles the staff to performance incentives ranging from 200 to 400 per cent of basic salary.

This system has already been put to good use by the parent company in Korea, where LG has set in motion a 3X3 campaign, ie, increase production and profit by three times in three years. In India, LG's target is to achieve a two-and-a-half time hike in three years, beginning 1999.