One year has passed after Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee left management following a stroke he suffered on May 10. The group has shifted to a management mode in which Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, heir-apparent of Group Chairman Lee, fills the leadership vacuum in Chairman Lee’s absence.
Samsung Electronics, the flagship company of Samsung Group, is cruising as the company has made an aggressive turnaround by logging 6 trillion won in operating profit in the first quarter of this year. Samsung Electronics is also engaging in aggressive M&As to focus on its mainstay businesses, a sign the company is on a roll under the stewardship of Vice Chairman Lee. The junior Lee has emphasized tactics surrounding globalization, pragmatism, filed management, rationalism, youth and communication.
Vice Chairman Lee is considered the most active Korean executive by meeting many foreign IT company CEOs to expand global networks. He is credited with enhancing Samsung Electronics’ global standing through exchanges with foreign CEOs.
The conglomerate’s heir-apparent has begun high-profile management activities.
Vice Chairman Lee has been expanding his scope of management activities to most of the company’s divisions in recent months. Vice Chairman Lee met with Chinese President Xi Jinping four times after he encountered President Xi on a visit to Seoul last July. Lee also met with Google CEO Larry Page and Apple CEO Tim Cook while attending the Allen & Co. Conference in Sun Valley, the United States, last July. Lee, held talks with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg at the former’s office in Seoul on Oct. 14 and discussed ways of promoting cooperation.
Starting last October, the junior Lee began to be engaged in business activities ranging from consumer electronics to device solutions, IT and mobile division. Vice Chairman Lee reached a deal to set up a large home appliance plant near Ho Chi Minh City during his meeting with General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong of Vietnam’s Communist Party at the Samsung Electronics headquarters last Oct. 1.
With Lee’s focus on globalization, Samsung’s hiring of foreign manpower and aggressive M&As are apparent.
Among those who got promoted in an annual reshuffle conducted late last year were many foreign executives in their 30s and 40s, including 33-year-old Indian-born Pranav Ministry, who was promoted to vice president, the youngest foreign executive of the company.
Lee has dramatically changed Samsung Group’s corporate culture. He shifted the corporate culture paradigm to a more pragmatic mode, eliminating formality in executives’ etiquette and attitudes, protocol and other instances. Lee is not accompanied by his protocol officials while leading and entering airports in Koreas, attending funerals and even carrying his bag without attendants.
Field management is one of Vice Chairman Lee’s management key words. Lee himself met with Apple CEO Cook to solve pending issues with Apple. Lee also came forward in coping with a dispute with Microsoft.
Starting next month, CEOs of Samsung Electronics and its subsidiaries will be required to stay overseas once every two or three months to get a glimpse into the trends of global markets and work with employees of local operations, a group official said.
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