8-hour meeting with 25 people including Jong-hee Han and Kye-hyun Kyeong
Mid- to long-term roadmap re-examination and countermeasures
On the 20th, right after Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong went on a business trip to Europe, the presidents of Samsung affiliates held an emergency meeting. It is analyzed that it is a place for executives who accompanied Vice Chairman Lee to travel to convey the fierce competition atmosphere of global companies over technology and talent and to prepare countermeasures.
Samsung announced on the 20th that it held a meeting of the CEOs at the Samsung Human Resources Development Center in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, presided over by Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Han Jong-hee and President Kye Gyeong-hyun. The meeting was attended by 25 executives from electronics affiliates, including Samsung SDI President Choi Yun-ho, Samsung SDS President Hwang Seong-woo, Samsung Display President Choi Joo-sun, and Samsung Electro-Mechanics President Jang Duk-hyun.
The president’s meeting lasted more than eight hours from 7:30 am to 3:00 pm. It is known that the president’s team has devoted a lot of time to the development of next-generation technology. On the 18th, when Vice Chairman Lee returned from a business trip to Europe, he said, “The first is technology, the second is technology, the third is technology.” It is known that each affiliate will re-examine the mid- to long-term technology roadmap based on the results of the discussion and come up with specific implementation plans.
The president team also checked global risk factors such as inflation, unstable supply chains and reduced demand for information technology (IT) products. At the meeting, Vice Chairman Han and President Kyung emphasized that “the international situation, the industrial environment, and the global market are changing rapidly. did.
The meeting was held at the Samsung Human Resources Development Center after Vice Chairman Lee emphasized ‘Securing excellent talent’ and drew attention from the business world.
Samsung Human Resources Development Center was established in 1982 by Lee Byung-cheol, founder of Samsung Human Resources Development Institute, to practice the management philosophy of ‘Talent First’. It is known that the president’s team also discussed ways to secure talent.
Samsung, how big of a sense of crisis… Difficult discussion one day before the strategy meeting
“Sharing the fierce global scene atmosphere”… Marathon meetings such as flexible organizational culture
The Samsung president’s emergency meeting on the 20th is interpreted as a response to a sense of crisis that Samsung Electronics and other Samsung affiliates are not properly securing new growth engines while existing businesses have stalled. The executives who attended the event said, “We needed a place to share the sense of crisis that can be felt in the global field.
It is also reported that some pointed out that Samsung should be more careful about areas in which it acts as a leader. Samsung Electronics’ smartphone market share last year was 21%, which is still at the level of 2016. In the semiconductor sector, there is a forecast that demand may decrease as the boom in the information technology (IT) industry, which continued during the COVID-19 crisis, ends. If the consumption of home appliances decreases, the demand for semiconductors applied to it will inevitably decrease sharply. In the foundry (semiconductor consignment production) sector, the gap with Taiwan’s TSMC, the No.
On the other hand, businesses that were selected as new growth engines are evaluated as not yet on a stable track. The metaverse and robot sectors, which Samsung Electronics mentioned as new businesses at this year’s shareholders’ meeting, have yet to yield any remarkable results. Although Samsung Biologics is growing rapidly, the proportion of Samsung Biologics’ total affiliates is still insignificant.
It is reported that the presidents also discussed ways to build a creative and flexible organizational culture to respond to the rapidly changing times. Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong previously mentioned, “Our job is to bring in good people and create a flexible culture that allows our organization to adapt to predictable changes.” There is also a prospect that the existing talents will be rewarded for performance and more actively scouted outside talent.
The meeting was held a day before Samsung Electronics’ global strategy meeting for the first half of each sector (21-28) and drew attention. It is known that the agenda to be discussed at the strategy meeting was set based on this meeting. An industry insider predicted, “It is highly likely that this will be a meeting that seeks a fundamental change in management strategy, not a routine inspection.”
Reporter Park Shin-young nyusos@hankyung.com
