“Samsung Rising” goes deep on corruption, chaebols, and corporate chaos
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Re: “Samsung Rising” goes deep on corruption, chaebols, and corporate chaos
#2Okay, as a Korean, I would just like to chime in and say that Samsung is much more than a smartphone/digital gadget company. It’s a very big company.
It not only produces displays and semiconductors, it also makes home appliances, it builds apartments, it runs hotels, it runs hospitals, it issues credit cards and runs insurance, etc... which means that the Galaxy Note 7 crisis is pretty much nothing to that gigantic company.
Also, keep in mind that a lot of Koreans (including myself) doesn’t think Samsung positive — it’s hard to get unbiased opinions about Samsung (whether it’s positive or not). So if you’re reading this, please take it with a grain of salt.
Re: “Samsung Rising” goes deep on corruption, chaebols, and corporate chaos
#3Not all countries have the concept of a professional management class.
In Asia and India, the family owners/founders typically run the company, so when you talk about corruption or nepotism, well, it's their family company.
You can even see that on a large scale, with Huawei's CFO being the niece of the founder (who is PLA.)
Re: “Samsung Rising” goes deep on corruption, chaebols, and corporate chaos
#4Okay, as a Korean, I would just like to chime in and say that Samsung is much more than a smartphone/digital gadget company. It’s a very big company. It not only produces displays and semiconductors, it also makes home appliances, it builds apartments, it runs hotels, it runs hospitals, it issues credit cards and runs insurance, etc... which means that the Galaxy Note 7 crisis is pretty much nothing to that gigantic…
Samsung Electronics is huge on its own (when I worked there, I think it made more money than all the other companies of the group combined). Of course, the Note 7 crisis was fairly small, even within the scale of the mobile division, employees still got their 50% profit sharing bonus that year. But it still tells you a lot about the kind of pressure there is on internal teams and external suppliers.
Re: “Samsung Rising” goes deep on corruption, chaebols, and corporate chaos
#5Okay, as a Korean, I would just like to chime in and say that Samsung is much more than a smartphone/digital gadget company. It’s a very big company. It not only produces displays and semiconductors, it also makes home appliances, it builds apartments, it runs hotels, it runs hospitals, it issues credit cards and runs insurance, etc... which means that the Galaxy Note 7 crisis is pretty much nothing to that gigantic…
Samsung Electronics is huge on its own (when I worked there, I think it made more money than all the other companies of the group combined). Of course, the Note 7 crisis was fairly small, even within the scale of the mobile division, employees still got their 50% profit sharing bonus that year. But it still tells you a lot about the kind of pressure there is on internal teams and external suppliers.
Well, Samsung Electronics is a fairly big company (60% of total Samsung AFAIR), but itself has 147 departments. If I remember correctly, the digital gadget department isn’t that big - the biggest ones are the semiconductor one and the display one. And still the digital gadget department could handle the Note 7 callback on it’s own, if I recall correctly, so I can’t really call it a ‘crisis’ for Samsung.
Edit: Turns out I wasn't remembering correctly, the digital gadget department is big enough.
Re: “Samsung Rising” goes deep on corruption, chaebols, and corporate chaos
#6Earlier quoted context omitted.
Samsung Electronics is huge on its own (when I worked there, I think it made more money than all the other companies of the group combined). Of course, the Note 7 crisis was fairly small, even within the scale of the mobile division, employees still got their 50% profit sharing bonus that year. But it still tells you a lot about the kind of pressure there is on internal teams and external suppliers.
Well, Samsung Electronics is a fairly big company (60% of total Samsung AFAIR), but itself has 147 departments. If I remember correctly, the digital gadget department isn’t that big - the biggest ones are the semiconductor one and the display one. And still the digital gadget department could handle the Note 7 callback on it’s own, if I recall correctly, so I can’t really call it a ‘crisis’ for Samsung. Edit: Turns o…
Though less profitable, mobile is roughly the same size as device solutions (semiconductors + displays): https://www.sammobile.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/samsung...
Re: “Samsung Rising” goes deep on corruption, chaebols, and corporate chaos
#7> I’ve met hundreds and hundreds of very talented Samsung executives [...] people who are highly educated, highly competent. They know what they’re doing. They know both, say, the guts of a smartphone in addition to what business decisions need to be made to improve their company. And I’ve always gotten the impression that they can run the show themselves, that there’s really not much of a need this far into their corporate history for a founding family to oversee them.
This brought to mind the devastation of Boeing by MD corporate leadership. And Jack Welch. I suggest the author is undervaluing the avoidance of high-negative variance in top leadership.
The argument for stationary bandit gangs is not that they're wonderful executives, but that they have less toxic incentives than the roving bandit gangs they displace. Asset stripping Samsung, and Korea, is not something Wall Street, and some associated subcultures of corporate leadership, would be unhappy to help with.
Re: “Samsung Rising” goes deep on corruption, chaebols, and corporate chaos
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
Samsung Electronics is huge on its own (when I worked there, I think it made more money than all the other companies of the group combined). Of course, the Note 7 crisis was fairly small, even within the scale of the mobile division, employees still got their 50% profit sharing bonus that year. But it still tells you a lot about the kind of pressure there is on internal teams and external suppliers.
Well, Samsung Electronics is a fairly big company (60% of total Samsung AFAIR), but itself has 147 departments. If I remember correctly, the digital gadget department isn’t that big - the biggest ones are the semiconductor one and the display one. And still the digital gadget department could handle the Note 7 callback on it’s own, if I recall correctly, so I can’t really call it a ‘crisis’ for Samsung. Edit: Turns o…
Samsung Group is not the whole of "Samsung," and the whole Samsung is not the whole of Lee's family holdings.
For example, Dongil is another big industrial, and engineering group coexisting completely in parallel to Samsung, but they been buying and selling businesses from Lee's family as far as record goes.
Re: “Samsung Rising” goes deep on corruption, chaebols, and corporate chaos
#9I have a really hard time finding books on Korean companies, methods, or up-to-date planning; particularly on Samsung, Hyundai, LG or new fields like biotech/renewable; and preferably written by Korean journalists or academics. On the other hand there's a lot you can find written about American or Japanese companies like Taiichi Ohno on Toyota, John Bogle on Vanguard, MITI and the Japanese Miracle, etc. I get that this is primarily a matter of 1) impact and 2) population. But Hyundai, LG and Samsung are major international companies now.
The few books on Korean companies I've read, written by Americans, have been terribly pithy and missing a lot of actual history. I will still give Samsung Rising a read though.
But if you have worked with Korean companies before and have any recommendations for good histories of companies or methods, I'd love to get them. Biographies are a little more common and a little less interesting to me. Over biographies I'd prefer up to date recommendations on the Korean economy and planning. Most of the books out there were written in the 90s/00s.
Edit: recommendations don't have to be in English, Korean is fine.
Re: “Samsung Rising” goes deep on corruption, chaebols, and corporate chaos
#10Okay, as a Korean, I would just like to chime in and say that Samsung is much more than a smartphone/digital gadget company. It’s a very big company. It not only produces displays and semiconductors, it also makes home appliances, it builds apartments, it runs hotels, it runs hospitals, it issues credit cards and runs insurance, etc... which means that the Galaxy Note 7 crisis is pretty much nothing to that gigantic…
Can you go more into why you aren’t positive about Samsung?