With the KOSPI topping 5,000, the world is all about stocks. Standing on the border between overnight riches and overnight ruin, the world's joys and sorrows seem allowed only to two kinds of people: those who have "Samsung Electronics stock" and those who don't. Those who enjoy the ride by boarding a train that arrived on time with tickets bought in advance, and those who wander with empty shopping bags without even a ticket. In sync with signals from above, young Les Fourmis borrow to buy stocks instead of homes, while older people clutch wads of cash and stomp their feet at securities firm counters.
I met former Samsung Electronics Chairman Kwon Oh-hyun at a time when semiconductor stocks are soaring. It had been a month since he published the book "Again, supergap." The semiconductor cycle has hit a super momentum, but with the road ahead foggier than ever, the name Kwon Oh-hyun had considerable recall value. In 1985, under Chairman Lee Byung-chul, he joined the Samsung Semiconductor Research Center in the United States and built the "world No. 1 in memory semiconductors," then was promoted to chairman of Samsung Electronics in 2017, delivering the best results in the company's history — a near-legendary figure.
Kwon Oh-hyun now serves as chairman of the Orange Planet Foundation, supporting startups and offering mentoring. In the Samsung owner cycle that runs from Lee Byung-chul to Lee Kun-hee to Lee Jae-yong, he is the only professional manager who laid the foundation for the "supergap strategy." I asked for a conversation to hear in depth about the future of semiconductors and the class of leadership.
As the stalemate deepened with Iran's blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, Kwon Oh-hyun walked into a conference room in a supertall building on Tehran-ro in Gangnam. Wearing a pink T-shirt and skinny pants, the gentleman said he had never done an interview in his life.
-Why haven't you done interviews?
"I didn't feel a reason to. I said everything through results. If we met, you'd ask personal questions, and that's my privacy."
I was startled because his voice was so soft. If I didn't hyperfocus, I felt I'd miss the thread, so I had to raise my eyebrows and prick up my ears. In contrast to me, worn out from concentrating just on listening, he was relaxed and in control.
-You've come out with "Again, supergap." It's been eight years. How have you spent your time?
"After writing 'Supergap,' I wrote a follow-up, 'The leader's questions.' I thought that would be the end, but it wasn't (laughs). After stepping down, I saw that the country is struggling and Samsung Electronics is struggling. Watching that, I wondered, 'Why do some corporations decline while others survive?' I immersed myself for a while to find the answer, and this book is the result."
He said there would be no more "supergap" publications.
-It feels like just yesterday that the phrase "supergap" sounded striking and overwhelming. Now it's become a common noun in business circles.
"People around me even tell me to trademark it (laughs). 'Supergap' was a term we often used in internal meetings at Samsung. It's not enough to widen the gap, not enough to just have a gap. 'It's a different class.' 'A different level.' It was a strategy to create an enormous gap."
-That result likely produced the overwhelming outperformance of Samsung Electronics and SK hynix today. A super momentum has arrived in semiconductors, and retail investors in the stock market are excited. Whether this cycle can be sustained long term is everyone's focus.
"Semiconductors will grow for the next 10 years. Prices did rise a bit abnormally this time. In any case, it's a boom. Even if there's a correction, it won't swing as wildly as before. Why? In the past, there were many players and you didn't know who would invest, but now there aren't many players left in the market. It's not easy to jump in because this industry requires massive R&D spending and large-scale investment."
China is a major variable, but for now he said Europe and Japan will find it hard to be equal players. With Silicon Valley leading the global economy, semiconductors are irreplaceable goods.
-Your comparison of memory to archery and non-memory to clay shooting was spot-on.
"Don't people in our country excel at archery? Memory semiconductors are like archery aimed at a clear target. You keep shooting 10s by minimizing defects through precise, fine processing. Fifty years ago or now, memory's basic function is to read and write. The target is clear. But many people, without knowing well, raise their voices, saying, 'We need to grow CPUs and non-memory.' It's not easy. Ten or 20 years ago, how could we have known we'd need AI chips or smartphone chips (AP)?
When I first took charge of the non-memory division in 1997, total sales were about $1 billion. When I stepped down, it was around $15 billion. Even that level of growth took a full 10 years. It's that hard. Wanting to graduate top of an elite university is everyone's wish. But look at the countries that do non-memory well. The absolute powerhouse is the United States (home to Nvidia and Apple).
Non-memory faces moving targets. Only the United States keeps defining the system as it goes. For the past 20 years, the United States has been doing clay shooting at moving targets. Such businesses are difficult for Japan and Europe too."
-How will the status of foundry (contract manufacturing) evolve?
"When I created the foundry team in 2005, our technology lagged Taiwan's TSMC by about three generations. Now the technology itself is similar. On the assumption we keep executing well, TSMC and Samsung should move together. There's no need to overheat, saying, 'We'll beat TSMC the year after next.' 'You eat some, I'll eat some.' That level of race is good."
He said memory semiconductors ultimately require "a few models made in ultra-mass production." The "nation of archers," which has raised precision through diligence, is now reaping the fruit as a pursuer with HBM, but thinking about the future, he added a sharp note that talent with a different identity is needed.
-A country's vision and direction differ depending on how it uses talent. What do you think about the trend of China steering to engineering, the United States to law, and Korea to medicine?
"The United States is the only country that can use talent from all over the world. The mainland elite may go into law, but foreign geniuses flock to the United States to start companies. Two-thirds of Silicon Valley are immigrants, and the richest people are immigrants. Elon Musk and Jensen Huang are both immigrants. China is an outlier too, but in any case the United States is supported by an inclusive system that says, 'Do everything except what's not allowed.'"
He said Korea, Japan, and Europe are all floundering now. "Europe has Nobel Prizes, but for more than 20 years it hasn't built a new industry. 'What talent should we nurture?' The system answers that. Korea's education system, from kindergarten pre-med tracks to late at night, teaches only the 'skill of not being wrong.' How can you beat AI with that?"
The urgent task is to fix the college entrance system, he said with a deep sigh, but the vested interests with power aren't doing their part.
-How did you raise your children?
"Our daughter never went to cram schools or had private tutoring. She didn't want to, and because of that she didn't get into an elite university (laughs). I asked, 'Are you unhappy because of how I educated you?' She said she's happy. Then that's enough. You don't have to graduate from an elite school to be happy. Then my daughter doesn't send her kids to cram schools either. She says it feels right. But she still feels anxious, haha. I told her not to worry.
In 10 years, the population will shrink so much that even after filling all the Seoul universities with students from across the country, there will be spots left. Regional universities will be going around inviting students. Actually, universities don't mean much. Jokingly, I said I'll stay healthy and even help my grandkids start businesses. That's my real feeling. This college-entrance education that only increases social expense and yields no ROI, this 'skill of not being wrong,' should stop being taught."
-But isn't Samsung precisely a place where people well trained in the 'skill of not being wrong' gather? Isn't it a place of model students only?
"People educated as model students do what they're told well, but they don't do what they initiate well. This isn't just about Samsung; it's exactly where our society is now. People trained as fast followers make almost no mistakes or waste. With that strategy of reducing waste factors, Korea rose to the threshold of the developed world. But as the world changed, everyone is floundering and hesitating. Did Koreans suddenly become less intelligent? Are MZ lazy? No."
As Kwon points out, our era has already shifted from fast followers to fast transformers. It's a moment that demands a duet of diligent intelligence and massive intelligence. Diligent intelligence shortens time, and massive intelligence finds patterns in vast data to deliver insights we didn't know.
This is the timing when we urgently need clay-shooting-type talent who can predict and "optimize" even when anything might pop up, like people who fold the land and run using mystic footwork.
-What kind of system can draw out optimal timing?
"In the old copy era, we had clear targets like 'Beat Sony' and 'Beat Intel.' Now we don't know which technology will pop up where. So preemption is everything. To preempt, systems must not block action. China and Silicon Valley research with passion. They don't sleep; they just do the work.
By contrast, us? If you legally cap work hours at 52 hours, we can't compete. The 52-hour system fits blue-collar work. IP, content, and semiconductor industries are different. We need flexibility. You can work hard for a year and take a month off."
He added a sharp note that when a new era arrives, systems must be updated to match the speed of the business.
-How much do you use AI?
"I'm not hands-on, so I only use simple things. What I'm talking about is systems fit for the AI era. Even if our system isn't as good as the U.S., we can design it better than Japan or Europe. Systems are relative, so even small fixes produce results. Then, even if we can't be No. 1, we can be No. 2 easily. In golf, when others shoot a double bogey, I just need a bogey. There's no need to chase the overly ideal."
Whatever the question, he returned to "systems." In the book, he describes systems as "the foundation stones of an organization" and leaders as "the pillars of an organization." The reason a once-thriving corporation suddenly declines or, conversely, surges is solely the "leader." Like Microsoft, which was revived by CEO Satya Nadella's insight after a long slump, and Intel, which slowly fell due to a lack of leaders who could read the times.
But beyond short-term survival, he said the power to pursue "sustained growth" and better opportunities fundamentally lies in systems. Kwon Oh-hyun sees the reason the United States has not collapsed despite countless crises — the Civil War, racial conflict, the Great Depression — as the "power of systems." Because the country started like a startup, it built ultimate political systems to hedge "leader volatility," and economically it raised industries with a flexible standard of "do everything except what's not allowed."
-But the United States is currently roiling the world with Trump risk. While Silicon Valley's big tech unicorns are thriving, the financialization of corporations is severe, and for 40 years social infrastructure and manufacturing have been on a path of collapse.
"You're right. Trump exploited those difficulties with divide-and-conquer and became president. That's a fact. But because the system is good, Supreme Court justices put up guardrails, and Trump will be replaced in two years. I'm not saying the U.S. system is perfect, but from a corporation's and manager's point of view, it's relatively the best.
Looking at the past 10 years, and even the last three, only the United States has grown consistently. Ten years ago, the EU's total GDP was on par with America's, but now the U.S. is about double. Europe can't create new industries, while the U.S. is creating them. The only country that has grown continuously for 250 years is the United States.
It became the strongest power through World Wars I and II, and even if Trump risk worsens, America's standing won't waver for the next 30 to 40 years. The foundation is the 'negative system' — a permissive system that says, 'Do everything except what's not allowed.'"
He said if Korea fails to make good use of the "time earned" as the United States checks China's technological rise, being overtaken will happen in an instant.
-Back to leaders. You described Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Lee Byung-chul, and Chung Ju-yung as people who read signals in noise. How does that sense arise?
"If you shut yourself in a small room and stare at a wall, you might become a sage, but you won't become a leader with good instincts. Instincts arise by meeting diverse people and being in the flow of the world. To know the flow, you must often meet people outside your business, those without conflicts of interest."
He said if a golf player only ever talks about golf, what else would they know besides golf? The copy era is over, so he urged people to be open in all directions, like Westerners who jump from history majors to biology. You can gauge a CEO's insight by "whom they meet." He himself said that after becoming president, he didn't go to the office on weekends.
"On weekends I met artists and TV producers. I met everyone except reporters and politicians."
-That's surprising. Among executives at major groups, including Samsung, there are likely none who don't work weekends.
"I wasn't the generalist type (laughs). I acted a bit unusually. So how did I not get fired? I often took on loss-making divisions. I got reassigned a lot. I did R&D, then memory, then took charge of a loss-making division.
Luckily I wasn't very timid. I had the nerve of, 'Even if I get fired, would I starve to death?' Above all, I followed my curiosity, and that led to turnarounds. Even if people suspected, 'Doesn't he just play around, never coming in on weekends and always leaving on time?' it was tolerated because the work succeeded. If you're No. 1 in class, no one touches you (laughs).
But that wasn't because I was great; it was because I nurtured employees well. In Christianity, it wasn't Jesus who ran everywhere; it was the disciples who ran, and that's how it came this far."
-But nothing is as difficult as delegation.
"I warned people not to come to the office to badger subordinates. 'If you want to clean the fridge and check expiration dates, go home and do it. When you come to the office, do work that matches your rank.' If you hoard knowledge and information out of anxiety, subordinates don't grow. In the copy era, getting things wrong was a sin, so people thought getting scolded by a boss was a disaster. Not acceptable. Even if they fail, let them try.
Even if they make mistakes, that subordinate's skills improve. In the fast-mover era, you must not compete with your subordinates. Compete with rivals and with the future."
-As a manager, what were your most meaningful decision and your most meaningful failure?
"Everything I invested in for the future succeeded. Samsung monopolized 3D NAND (technology that stacks semiconductors vertically rather than sideways to dramatically increase capacity) and others chased us. Then we once again changed the game to the next stage. To be a true No. 1, you must find what only you can do, not just what you can do better. If you do what you're better at, you'll make money, but you'll live tired (laughs).
I also remember when I was at Samsung Display, we scaled down the large LCD business and shifted to mobile OLED. It was profitable, but if I judged it a declining business, we shut it down. Even if it was 'making a profit,' I would scold them.
I'd ask, 'Would you have your son work here?' You must shut down businesses on the downhill and redirect to growth industries. The future matters. Not me.
In fact, aside from semiconductors, defense, and shipbuilding, there isn't much with good conditions now. We must keep defining the business through new attempts. Turning failures into assets."
-Samsung also had a meaningful failure point related to HBM. In Oct. 2024, right after the third-quarter preliminary results, it went so far as to issue a letter of reflection, declaring a painful failure.
"HBM was created when I was the leader. Back then, President Jun Young-hyun was the division head and made HBM2, supplying 100% to Nvidia. But later, as margins fell, a financial judgment was made. That means not preparing for the future. Simply put, it's like stopping your child from studying entirely because their test scores dipped.
In the end, HDM hit the jackpot at SK hynix. If you discard something just because it doesn't make money right away, you face this kind of painful outcome. Looking not only at Samsung but at Korea's corporations now, potential growth rates keep falling. We need to take this signal seriously."
-Looking back on your trajectory, do you have regrets? Do you think you've lived a lucky life?
"Looking back, I wasn't a model student. Don't think the management I practiced represents Samsung's typical management. I might have managed in a rather unusual way. I also wasn't someone who worked physically hard. I worked my brain hard, but not physically. Since my school days, I was more 'I'll try even if I'm wrong' than 'What if I'm wrong?' I was the kid who would at least tell the teacher, 'Wouldn't this be better if we did it this way?'
Speaking of luck, those born from 1950 to 1965 were all a lucky generation. We lived through a high-growth era, truly lucky. Among them, I was even luckier. I graduated college in 1975 and, as a KAIST master's student, first learned semiconductors as a discipline. In Korea, there was no such thing as a semiconductor industry then.
It was also serendipitous that I studied abroad at Stanford University in Silicon Valley. When Chairman Lee Byung-chul launched semiconductors in 1983, there was no one in Korea with semiconductor experience, so he called me as soon as I graduated. If that's not heaven-sent, what is? Without that timing, could I have been so widely used? If Samsung hadn't started semiconductors then, I would have grown old as a professor in the United States."
He said that while baby boomers like him are a blessed generation, he can't sleep when he sees young people wandering without a compass. He wrote the book out of frustration for the next generation, which has halted marriage and childbirth because it has no expectations for the future.
-Finally, what kind of leader do we need? From which manager did you learn the most?
"A leader who thinks about the future. That's really it. Chairman Lee Kun-hee never once gave me an order. I never heard, 'What's the revenue?' If a leader only asks about revenue, that organization will never develop. Chairman Lee Kun-hee relentlessly asked questions like, 'What future is coming? What should we prepare? How will we nurture talent?'
When asked such questions, I couldn't say, 'I don't know,' so I rigorously worked out my own logic. There's no single right answer about where I should be and which target I should aim at. Leaders must keep opening the way so we keep trying and defining systems.
Practically speaking, a leader should quickly pass the ball that comes to them. I replied to texts and emails as soon as I saw them. If you sit on the ball, burnout is all that remains. Even Messi and Ronaldo possess the ball for less than a minute in an entire match. Hold it too long and you get pressed and injured. Do the fixer's job at decisive moments."
Kwon Oh-hyun said the secret of the supergap lies in human nature. The very nature to explore and challenge limits is the secret of the supergap. For him, moments of making decisions without interference while leading loss-making divisions built up his "decisiveness." He urges bold delegation and questioning. In the end, people gather like magnets where there is meaning and interest, fun and reward — I found myself nodding for a long time.