LG Group Chairman Kwang-mo Koo said "LG's reason for existence lies in improving customers' lives" as he presented awards to employees who achieved notable results over the past year.
LG held the "2026 LG Awards" at the LG Human Resources Development Center in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province, on Tuesday, recognizing outstanding cases that delivered tangible results through customer value innovation, the company said Tuesday. At this year's event, four projects that generated visible outcomes — including revenue growth, major contract wins, and business structure efficiency — received the top honor, the "Customer Value Grand Prize."
Chairman Koo attended the event in person to present the awards. "The value we must create is not technology, products or services themselves, but a better life for our customers," Koo said. "If we focus on that single goal, we can deliver customers a tomorrow that is better than today."
Koo also referred to feedback from customers who participated in the LG Awards judging process. "The words left by our customer judging panel — that 'LG is life itself' — capture LG's very reason for being," he said. Since taking office, Koo has attended the LG Awards every year, personally reviewing on-site innovation cases and encouraging employees' challenges.
This year's LG Awards featured projects that went beyond addressing customer pain points to elevate the completeness of customer experience through differentiated customer value, as well as cases that achieved challenges and results surpassing the competition. A total of 730 recipients and 91 outstanding projects were recognized.
From 217 entries submitted across all LG affiliates, a total of 91 projects were finally selected through evaluations by customers, employees, and experts — including four Customer Value Grand Prizes, 33 Customer Satisfaction Awards, and 54 Customer Empathy Awards. The Grand Prize-winning projects this year were recognized for leading to tangible business outcomes in the ABC (AI, Bio, and Clean tech) sectors, including trillion-won-scale orders, process innovation, and enhanced cost competitiveness.
Among the Grand Prize winners was LG Energy Solution's (373220.KS) Cathode Material Team 2, which developed the "world's first 95% high-nickel cathode material with grain boundary coating." Generally, the higher a battery's nickel content, the greater its energy density — but structural instability also increases. This has been a common challenge for electric vehicle customers.
LG Energy Solution solved the cracking and electrolyte penetration issues that occur during charging and discharging by applying, for the first time in the world, a "grain boundary coating" technology that coats every micro-particle boundary inside the cathode material. As a result, it extended EV driving range by 30% while also improving lifespan and safety, securing trillions of won in orders from global EV customers. Based on patents, the company also secured a technological lead of more than three years over competitors.
The "Smart Antenna 5G Telematics for Physical AI Mobility" module, developed by the Telematics 5 Project team at LG Electronics' (066570.KS) VS Business Division, also received the Customer Value Grand Prize. Physical AI mobility, including autonomous and connected vehicles, requires antennas to capture external signals and telematics — high-performance communication devices that link these signals to the vehicle. However, automakers had to install multiple antennas on the exterior of vehicles due to complex communication methods, leading to design burdens and higher costs.
LG Electronics solved this problem by commercializing, for the first time in the world, a module that integrates telematics and antennas into one. Using patented grounding technology, it created a telematics module integrating 12 antennas, eliminating external antennas while supporting various communication methods and vehicle types. The technology received high praise from customers and led to trillion-won orders, giving LG Electronics a technological gap of more than three years over competitors.
LG Energy Solution's "Next-Generation Cylindrical Battery Smart Factory" project also won the Customer Value Grand Prize in the smart factory category for the second consecutive year. The Cylindrical Technology Equipment Division pursued high-speed battery assembly lines to secure price competitiveness — a key challenge for EV customers. By applying AI transformation (AX) technology, it pre-verified equipment concepts and drivetrain designs, increasing equipment speed while building a production system that can flexibly respond to various battery cell demands. As a result, equipment investment efficiency doubled compared to before, and the project was credited with strengthening the order base from global EV customers.
At last year's LG Awards, LG Energy Solution also received the Customer Value Grand Prize for a smart factory logistics solution using autonomous mobile robots. That project played a decisive role in securing cost competitiveness for customers and continues to contribute to hundreds of billions of won in cost savings.
This year's Grand Prize-winning projects also stood out for spreading innovative organizational culture across borders. Penny Butler, a senior director at AVEO, LG Chem's (051910.KS) U.S. oncology subsidiary, became the first overseas recipient of the Customer Value Grand Prize in the individual category. While overseas local employees have previously been included in team-based awards, this is the first time an individual has received the honor.
Senior Director Butler innovated the insurance approval process to secure the golden time for treating kidney cancer patients. In the United States, terminal cancer patients who fail to receive insurance approval for treatment often cannot receive timely care due to financial burdens. Butler established a real-time collaboration system to analyze insurance systems and cases and prepare customized response strategies for each patient. As a result, the insurance re-approval process, which previously took four weeks, was shortened to one week. This improvement reduced life-threatening risks, anxiety, and financial burdens for terminal cancer patients while contributing to double-digit growth in both annual sales and monthly average prescription volume of the kidney cancer treatment FOTIVDA.
This year, LG expanded virtual participation and real-time chat rooms so that more employees could join the LG Awards and share innovation achievements. The LG Philharmonic Orchestra, the company's in-house orchestra, also performed a celebratory concert. In addition, LG plans to invite the families of Customer Value Grand Prize recipients to the "Hall of Fame," a commemorative space for past Grand Prize winners.
The event was attended by 550 people, including Chairman Koo, LG's top management, representatives of the customer judging panel, and award recipients. About 1,000 additional employees joined via online livestream. Now in its eighth year, the LG Awards is an event that identifies and recognizes cases of customer value innovation throughout the year. From 2019 to this year, cumulative recipients have reached approximately 4,700, with 583 outstanding projects.
The annual recipients are: 321 in 2019, 480 in 2020, 448 in 2021, 593 in 2022, 769 in 2023, 724 in 2024, 680 in 2025, and 730 in 2026.
