Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee

The phrase “Breaking Through the Limitations” popped up on Samsung Group’s intranet on the morning of Jan. 2 when the group held its New Year’s gathering at Shilla Hotel in downtown Seoul. The business buzzword also hung on the wall at the rostrum when the gathering took place, and Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee used the phrase on several occasions while delivering his New Year’s message at the ceremony. 

Chairman Lee said, “We have to break through market and technology limitations to turn the tide of change amidst unpredictable uncertainties.” He urged his group executives to do away with business models and strategies, hardware processes, and corporate culture established five or 10 years ago, and the mindset, systems, and practices that do not correspond well to the trends of the times.

Lee went on to say that the group has some businesses which have ranked first in the world thanks to 20 years of the so-called New Management paradigm, while others have stayed flat, and the front-running businesses are being endlessly threatened by chasers, and time is running out for the sagging businesses, so things have to change once again.

The chairman called for accelerating the innovation of business portfolios so that industry trends can be spearheaded, achieving technological innovation to brace for uncertainties, and the innovating of systems to complement global management regimes. 

“Even in a period of recession, there are many opportunities in store, so we have to make new technologies and new markets with new heights going beyond others,” said Chairman Lee, adding that his group’s core businesses have to secure unmatched competitiveness while exploring new businesses by turning to industry-technology convergence and multidisciplinary combinations.

Chairman Lee’s reawakening of a sense of crisis comes as Samsung Electronics, the flagship company of the group, which posted a record-setting 10 trillion won in operating profit in the third quarter of 2013, is forecast to see its growth slow due to the saturation of the global smartphone market. 

Lee noted that his group, recognizing its cooperative companies as precious business partners, should give a hand to their development of technology and improvement of productivity so that all of the firms can secure global competitiveness.