Samsung Conducts 'Value Education for Restoring Samsung-ness' for 2,000 Executives
Chairman Lee's Message: "Facing a Matter of Survival... Technology Comes First, Second, and Third"
External Experts Point Out, "Samsung Must Strengthen Crisis Response Leadership"
Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong recently strongly reprimanded executives, saying they have "lost the resilience that defines Samsung," and urged them to adopt a 'Sa-juk-saeng (死卽生)'?a determination that death means life. This is interpreted as an effort to restore tension within the organization to respond to the ongoing slump in Samsung Electronics' semiconductor business since last year.
According to the business community on the 17th, Samsung shared Chairman Lee's message with executives during a seminar. Since the end of last month, Samsung has been conducting 'Value Education for Restoring Samsung-ness' for about 2,000 executives below the vice president level across all affiliates, including Samsung Electronics.
The education included videos featuring the management philosophies of the late founder Lee Byung-chul and the late former chairman Lee Kun-hee, members of the owner family. These videos contained some of Chairman Lee Jae-yong's previous remarks as well as parts of the content he had prepared earlier this year as a New Year's message. However, Chairman Lee did not appear in the videos himself.
In the video message conveying Chairman Lee's intentions, he pointed out, "Samsung is facing a matter of survival, life or death," and emphasized that "the management must deeply reflect."
He also stressed, "What matters is not the crisis itself but the attitude toward dealing with the crisis," and "We must invest in the future even if it means sacrificing immediate profits."
He reiterated the importance of technology. Chairman Lee has consistently emphasized, "We must uphold the tradition of valuing technology and making preemptive investments," "Let's create the future with technology that does not exist in the world," and "First is technology, second is technology, third is technology."
Following this, external experts such as professors gave lectures on Samsung's crisis.
At the seminar, criticisms such as "We are complacent with just doing better than others and are failing to develop our capabilities," and "We are obsessed only with relative rankings and have not achieved qualitative improvement" were raised repeatedly.
Participants discussed crisis response measures and leadership strengthening plans alongside internal leadership education.
Executives attending the seminar received crystal plaques engraved with their names and the phrase "A Samsung person strong in crisis, skilled in turning the tables, and fierce in competition."
Attendees said the phrase engraved on the crystal plaques was the core of this seminar, identifying overcoming crises and competitive spirit as the essence of Samsung.
In fact, Samsung Electronics posted lower-than-expected results last year in its semiconductor business due to a slowdown in demand for general-purpose (legacy) memory and delays in the supply schedule of high-bandwidth memory (HBM).
The performance outlook for this year is also not bright. Analyzing reports from 18 domestic securities firms over the past three months, financial information company FnGuide estimated Samsung Electronics' operating profit for the first quarter of this year at an average of 5.3724 trillion won.
This is an 18.7% decrease compared to the same period last year. It is somewhat higher than the recent forecasts in the high 4 trillion won range presented by some securities firms. Forecasts vary by securities firm, with Kiwoom Securities and Hana Securities expecting just over 5 trillion won, while some others predict mid-5 trillion won levels.
In terms of market share, Samsung Electronics' major product shares showed a noticeable decline. Last year, Samsung Electronics' market shares in global markets for memory semiconductors (DRAM, NAND flash), as well as smartphones and displays, all fell compared to the previous year. Especially in the memory sector, Samsung's market position was weakened due to aggressive low-price competition from Chinese companies and technological pursuit by U.S. firms.
However, Samsung Electronics is aggressively investing in research and development (R&D) and facility investments to secure future growth engines. Last year, it invested 35 trillion won in R&D and 53.6 trillion won in facility investments, marking the largest scale ever.
Additionally, to accelerate future new businesses in the Device Experience (DX) division, Samsung upgraded the existing 'New Business Task Force (TF)' to an official new business team. This has attracted market attention for the possibility of large-scale mergers and acquisitions (M&A) to expand new businesses.
Meanwhile, since the end of last year, Samsung Electronics has been holding a series of strategic meetings on future strategies and management innovation for executives and above at major affiliates, which will continue until the end of this month.
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