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Samsung shifts executives to six-day workweeks to 'inject a sense of crisis'

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61–70 of 72 posts

Re: Samsung shifts executives to six-day workweeks to 'inject a sense of crisis'

#61
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A small country that effectively operates as an island with angry nuclear-armed neighbors and no natural resources has figured out how to survive in the world through the skills nurtured within its own people. South Korea doesn't have the privileges that Canada and Finland both have of friendly adjacent neighbors and natural resources, which provide opportunities when Nortel and Nokia respectively stopped succeeding…

Koreans believe they can brute force their way to success but during the last 10year these policies have been failing them. It does not help that they are naturally fatalists so its always all or nothing scenario.

IMO it hasn't been failing them, it's kept their nose just above the waterline. Reality is SKR (and JP/TW etc) are developed countries with high tertiary enrollment that have nearly maximized their demographic potential in the sense that they can't really produce more skilled talent to fill what is being lost without immigration. Which would be hard since they can't compete with Anglo countries for same talent pool. So folks in globally competitive industries (like Samsung) are pressured to work 200% harder to squeeze 10% competitive advantage to prevent their shit from getting kicked in. US sanctioning PRC, whose minting OECD combined in talent and starting to compete in tech/hardware brough SKR/JP/TW some time (remember when Huawei was about to stomp Samsung), but the tides are against them.

PRC got similar problem, but it's more they're producing too much talent than opportunties so involution happens. With like 50m more STEM + skilled labour on the way to add the the competition. But one saving grace is PRC has like 150 cities with over a million people that folks can fuck off too and still have decent quality of life. You can always lay flat and chill in a tier2/3 city nearly as vibrant as Seoul/Tokyo/Tapei with less cost of living. SKR/TW and somewhat JP is kind of fucked in that sense, most of the opportunities are in a few geopgraphic grinders where you have to be.

Re: Samsung shifts executives to six-day workweeks to 'inject a sense of crisis'

#62
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aren't Japan and China very similar? They are all societies where the group is valued as more important than the individual.

[flagged]

The user you’re replying to wasn’t rude or uncompromising. They even posed their statement as a question, suggesting they might not be too sure of what they’re saying but still explaining where the reasoning comes from.

Yet instead of taking this rare opportunity to inform and change the mind of someone who appears to be receptive, along with the minds of everyone who may think the same and reads their comment, you chose to insinuate they’re wrong but offered no correction. That adds noise to the discussion but does not advance it in any way. It’s also OK to not make unproductive comments.

Re: Samsung shifts executives to six-day workweeks to 'inject a sense of crisis'

#63
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The shit trickles down. I foresee Saturday morning meetings for their direct reports, etc until everyone works 6 days, or signal themselves as disloyal non team players.

It's a pity managers see themselves as "up". They should see themselves as below the engineers and accountants and whatever. Managing is a supporting role if done properly. The boss mentality is corrosive.

Manager needs to access/modify the compensation information for the employee. Employee will never see the compensation info of the manager. This is why the manager will always be seen as being above.

Re: Samsung shifts executives to six-day workweeks to 'inject a sense of crisis'

#64
post #60
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Finland had 1 thing: nokia, and microsoft destroyed it.

Looking at most relevant data it is hard to make an argument the Nokia is doing worse today that it was just before Microsoft bought it. Nokia's market cap is currently close to double what it was compared to the year before Microsoft 'destroyed' it.

But count in % of phones that exist, and see how many pople of the current nokia work in finland.

Re: Samsung shifts executives to six-day workweeks to 'inject a sense of crisis'

#65
post #64
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looking at most relevant data it is hard to make an argument the Nokia is doing worse today that it was just before Microsoft bought it. Nokia's market cap is currently close to double what it was compared to the year before Microsoft 'destroyed' it.

But count in % of phones that exist, and see how many pople of the current nokia work in finland.

By the time Microsoft stepped in, Nokia's mobile phone market share had already plummeted, and they'd cut their Finish work force to probably a third of what it was at its peak. Yes Nokia is a shadow of its former self, but most of that happened before Microsoft [0].

Hell if you really wanted to you might even be able to make an argument that, with hindsight, Microsoft saved Nokia by letting it gracefully jettison it's failing phone business, get a much needed cash injection, and refocus on other parts of its business.

[0] Of course some argue that Microsoft actually took over the day Elop became CEO, and everything he did was part of some plan to sink Nokia so that Microsoft could buy its phone business on the cheap.

Re: Samsung shifts executives to six-day workweeks to 'inject a sense of crisis'

#66
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s such a weird take. It’s like saying that I know more about repairing my car than the mechanic because I drive it every day. That the executives of Samsung run the company doesn’t mean that they are experts in how the brains of their employees work.

Cal Newport is a self help author. He's not comparable to a mechanic. Samsung executives are working there. They are mechanics.

Are taxi drivers mechanics because they work in and with their cars all day?

And while it’s not inaccurate to call Newport a self help author, he has studied, thought, and written about the subject for many years.

Re: Samsung shifts executives to six-day workweeks to 'inject a sense of crisis'

#68
post #65
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But count in % of phones that exist, and see how many pople of the current nokia work in finland.

By the time Microsoft stepped in, Nokia's mobile phone market share had already plummeted, and they'd cut their Finish work force to probably a third of what it was at its peak. Yes Nokia is a shadow of its former self, but most of that happened before Microsoft [0]. Hell if you really wanted to you might even be able to make an argument that, with hindsight, Microsoft saved Nokia by letting it gracefully jettison it…

Their downfall happened the day they decided go all in on Windows Phone instead of Android.. And that was 100% Elop doing..

But i don't believe it was a grand plan from MS to screw Nokia so they could buy it..

Some even suspect that MS just bought Nokia because Windows phone was not selling and Nokia was loosing money, so MS was afraid Nokia would turn to Android and they would loose their flagship devices..

So they needed to ensure a phone maker for Windows Phone and wanted go into making their own phones, Nokia had a good brand that they had a good relationship with and Elop was still there to make things easy..

On the other hand, if Nokia had focused on Android from the start or at least had devices on both systems, they had the potential to be the leaders on Android phones by now..

Re: Samsung shifts executives to six-day workweeks to 'inject a sense of crisis'

#69
post #12

Ugh - the “burning platform”. Is it ever used authentically? Does it ever go well? I do believe that its typically inauthentic use is mostly self-defeating – people can smell inauthenticity a mile away.

Elsewhere on this topic someone wrote > Only for executives? Sounds like a good move actually. There's plenty of folks who fall for this, hook, line and sinker. There's plenty of Elon stans out there who actually believe he works 120 hour work weeks.

Maybe if using Twitter while you own it counts as working there.

Re: Samsung shifts executives to six-day workweeks to 'inject a sense of crisis'

#70
post #55
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a pity managers see themselves as "up". They should see themselves as below the engineers and accountants and whatever. Managing is a supporting role if done properly. The boss mentality is corrosive.

Why do you see support being down? You can support from above

Like a house, or a bridge. Yea, a bridge can be a suspension bridge but it ALSO has MOST of the support below the road.
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