Chairman Lee Kun-hee of Samsung Group emphasized that the group should take on the development of electric batteries, solar batteries, LED, bio-pharmacy, and medical equipment as key growth engines for the group at a cost of 23 trillion won by 2020 at a lunch on Nov. 8 with the heads of the group’s affiliates in the sectors of electronics parts and materials.

“We have got to focus on those businesses that will take care of us in the next five to 10 years,” the top boss told CEOs of affiliate companies at the lunch, which included Park Sang-jin of Samsung SDI; President Choi Chi-joon of Samsung Electro Mechanics; President Park Jong-woo of Cheil Industries; President Lee Hun-shik of Samsung Corning Precision Materials; and President Koh Soon-dong of Samsung SDS.

From Samsung SDI, he received a report on the company’s work on electric batteries for cars and solar batteries.

Lee’s interest in those new business sectors is great due to his concern that the group will not be able to depend on Samsung Electronics’ key products such as smartphones, chips, and TV sets to continuously turn out a large share of profits for the group as they have been doing now under mid to long-term perspectives.

The top Samsung manager said in his New Year message this year that the group’s future depends on new businesses, new products and new technologies, urging officers and staff of the group to break out their old frames of mind and focus only on new things. He warned that the products that have been keeping the group going will disappear within 10 years and new products should replace them.

Lee learned this lesson from the demise of Japanese electronics companies through his many travels to Japan and he knows that Samsung Electronics will be no exception unless it is always ready to cope with any changes in operation.

Chairman Lee, in particular, shows great interest in the electronics research complex being built in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, jointly by five Samsung affiliates °™ Samsung Electronics, Samsung SDI, Cheil Industries, Samsung Precision Chemical, and Samsung Corning Precision Materials °™ and slated for completion next year.

No matter how large exports of electronics products are, they ought to contain as many locally-made parts to realize meaningful profits.

Lee used to say Samsung products look Korean on the outside, but there are still too many foreign parts, especially those from Japan, and it will take a long time to produce as many domestically made parts in their products as possible. 

The electronics material research complex is closely related to Samsung’s future growth strategies as it will take on research on such critical materials as electric car batteries, the raw materials for semiconductor chips, solar batteries, OLED, to name just a few.

As he usually does, the chairman comes to the office at 6:30 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays to get briefings from affiliate CEOs and holds meetings with Vice Chairman Choi Ji-sung, in charge of the Future Management Office of the group, and President Chang Choong-ki, deputy head of the Future Management Office, and sometimes has lunch with them. He went back to his usual schedule after returning from an extended trip abroad for about 30 days. Lee grasps what’s been happening in the group’s operations, especially those of major affiliates such as Samsung Electronics and Samsung SDI, among major matters such as the lawsuit pending with Apple on charges of violations of intellectual property rights.

Samsung officials said the chairman will celebrate his 25th year since he took over the helm of the group upon his late father and founder of the group’s death and the 20th anniversary of the New Management Strategy, which the chairman declared as the top manager of the largest conglomerate in Korea. The chairman has been engrossed in drawing up a new strategy for the group and has everyone in the group and the business community wondering what it will look like.