Samsung chairman Lee Jae-yong urges executives to restore resilience amid crisis

Lee Jae-yong, chairman of Samsung Electronics, recently informed Samsung executives that "the company has lost its strength" and emphasized that they must face crises with the determination of "survival at all costs." Amid ongoing concerns about the weakening competitiveness of Samsung Electronics, Chairman Lee has directly demanded significant reform from the company's management.

According to industry sources on the 17th, Samsung reportedly shared the chairman's message during a seminar for executives. Since the end of last month, Samsung has been conducting "value training for restoring the essence of Samsung" for over 2,000 executives below the vice president level across all subsidiaries, including Samsung Electronics. Participants noted that videos reflecting the management philosophy of late founder Lee Byung-chul and late former chairman Lee Kun-hee were screened during the training.

Through the message captured in the video, Chairman Lee stated, "Samsung is facing a survival issue of whether it will live or die," and added that "the management must reflect deeply on this matter." He emphasized that "what is important is not the crisis itself but the attitude toward dealing with that crisis," and noted that "even if it requires sacrificing immediate profits, we must invest for the future."

Analysts suggest that Chairman Lee's unusually strong demand for reform from the executives indicates a heightened sense of crisis regarding the weakening business competitiveness of Samsung Electronics. Although external crises continued last year due to poor performance, Chairman Lee has refrained from publicly discussing the company's business competitiveness. It seems he has concluded that the current complex crisis facing Samsung is serious enough to threaten the company's survival.

In fact, last year, Samsung Electronics experienced a decline in competitiveness across all business sectors. Its main subsidiary, Samsung Electronics, lagged behind competitors in areas such as high-bandwidth memory (HBM), which greatly benefited from the emergence of the artificial intelligence (AI) market, failing to meet market expectations. According to last year's business report, Samsung Electronics' TV market share fell from 30.1% in 2023 to 28.3% last year, while its global market shares in major products such as smartphones (19.7% to 18.3%) and DRAM (42.2% to 41.5%) also generally declined.

During the seminar, external experts, including professors, delivered lectures on Samsung's crisis from outside perspectives. There were also criticisms raised, such as whether they had become complacent, believing that "it is enough just to perform better than others," and whether their fixation on relative rankings prevented them from achieving qualitative improvements.

It was reported that participants engaged in discussions on crisis response and leadership enhancement strategies, following internal leadership training and other related topics. Executives who attended the seminar were said to have received crystal plaques inscribed with their names along with the phrase "a Samsung employee who is resilient in crises, skilled in reversals, and fierce in competition."