LSIS Named World’s Top 100 Global Innovators

19th February 2015  |  Industrial Automation News

LSIS has been selected as one of the Top 100 Innovators by Thomson Reuters yet again this year.
Since the very first announcement of the Top 100 Innovators in 2011, LSIS has been honored for a record fourth time, together with LG Electronics and Samsung Electronics.

LSIS has been selected as one of the Top 100 Innovators for the fourth year straight by Thomson Reuters, a leading global consulting group and communication service provider. The awards ceremony was held at the LS Tower in Anyang on the 26th of this month.

LSIS’s Vice Chairman & CEO Ja-Kyun Koo had a chat with Tony Kinnear, managing director of Thomson Reuters GGO ANA, Justin Kim, the country director of South Korea, and received the “Top 100 Innovators” trophy.

“It is an honor to be selected as one of the Top 100 Innovators, the most reliable innovation index in the world, for four years in a row by Thomson Reuters. I’m very pleased that our constant efforts to secure IP capabilities and enterprise innovation for global competitiveness have been recognized,” said Vice Chairman Ja-Kyun Koo at the meeting.

“LSIS has been investing more than 6% of its sales revenue in this area every year, giving top priority to R&D innovation as the most important value for sustainable growth. In particular, we will increase our IP portfolio throughout the entire business division, as an indicator of the enterprise’s technological competitiveness and innovation,” he added.

Thomson Reuters announced the Top 100 Innovators 2014 on the 6th of this month, some three weeks before the awards ceremony, after evaluating the innovativeness of major global enterprises, based on the number of patent applications, successful patent registrations, and patent portfolio accessibility. It is said that these enterprises surpassed the achievements of the S&P 500 enterprises and the NASDAQ innovative enterprises more than twofold in terms of their income increase rate, R&D, and investment increase rate.

Overall, Asia accounted for the largest number of enterprises (46), with Japan taking the lion’s share with 39 enterprises including Sony, Toshiba, and Toyota. Only four Korean enterprises, including LSIS, LG Electronics, Samsung Electronics, and the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), and only one Chinese company, Huawei, were selected.

A total of 36 North American and 18 European enterprises were selected, with the semiconductor and electronic parts industries accounting for the largest share at 21 companies.

LSIS believes that its selection as one of the Top 100 Innovators is attributable to the fact that its performance from the qualitative perspective (e.g., successful patent registration rate, rate of patent registration in four major overseas regions, and frequency of patent quotation) is above average compared to other leading global technology companies, in line with its quantitative growth in the IP area.

Since the appointment of Vice Chairman & CEO Koo in 2008, LSIS has been actively implementing patent creation activities in its strategic business area (green business), such as smart grid and electric car parts, as well as strengthening IP in the electric power and vehicle sector at home and abroad. These businesses are regarded as LSIS’s “cash cows”.

In particular, LSIS has been trying to localize High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) technology in order to improve its power transmission technology. As a result, LSIS completed Korea’s first factory dedicated to HVDC in Busan in 2011, and was selected as the technology transfer service provider of a KEPCO and Alstom joint venture (KAPES) aimed at introducing global technologies last January. Last May, LSIS won a KRW 67.1 billion won contract for construction work at the North Dangjin-Godeok sector HDVC conversion facilities from KAPES.

In addition, LSIS completed the construction of its dedicated EV relay factory at Cheongju in 2012, and will complete the construction of the R&D center at Anyang, which began last year.

LSIS is also participating in international standardization activities, with about ten employees serving as sub-committee members of the International Electro-technical Commission (IEC), which is tasked with developing products and technologies that match international standards.

As a result, the number of patent applications and registrations at home and abroad has been rising continuously, and the Company received its first Green Certification certificate following its implementation by the government in 2010. LSIS has also acquired the largest number of certificates in Korea. Furthermore, Vice Chairman Ja-Kyun Koo received the first grade medal (Gold Tower Order of Industrial Service Merit) at the 49th Invention Day ceremony this year, followed by the best award (National Quality Grand Prize) received on the occasion of the 39th National Quality Management Contest held last year.