Yoon Jong-Yong

Yoon Jong-Yong

In 1970, Samsung Electronics started with the production of 12-inch black and white TV sets under the brand Sanyo. Today the market is pleased to innovative ideas for the company, which develops and manufactures smart phones, flat screen TVs, laptops and other modern techniques.


. Work it was not associated with any high salary, with no decent rest, nor to the promotion. The current golden days came in a corporation, we can say, suddenly. Until recently, for several decades, the five leading chaebol seemed unshakable. They were firmly entrenched "stars" booming economy. Most robust considered Hyundai - industrial giant, whose power was based on truboprokate, automobile manufacturing and shipbuilding. (Chaebol in South Korea - giant diversified concerns, and unique financial and industrial group, owned by family clans. Chaebol grew out of family conglomerates, which have traditionally supported by the state and considered the mainstay of economic growth.)

. And in 1997, broke the Asian financial crisis, which put on its head all the positions in the corporate hierarchy in South Korea
. Summer of 2001 Hyundai took only third place in the national rankings, and Daewoo does star left the horizon, hiding behind a cloud of scandal. Amid all this, the only company to improve their performance, Samsung was. With its assets of $ 53.7 billion. USD Samsung easily become a leader. The engine of growth has been technological departments of the company - in particular, semiconductor production.

Needless to doubt that the sharp break demanded Samsung titanic work. The fact that this Samsung Electronics has become a strong profitable company, is a tribute to its CEO Yun Jong Yong (Yun Jong Yong). Part of this career, 58-year-old businessman was in Japan, so it is a good command of Japanese language - for the Korean company, located between Japan and America, it is important what the language of its own leaders. Two of the three designated Yoon Jong-Yong managers, heads of major departments Samsung Electronics, said in English. After a year or two one of them will take the place of his boss.

So, Yoon Jong-Yong became president and CEO of Samsung Electronics in 1996, before that time he headed the Japanese unit of the company. At Samsung Electronics Yun Jong-Yong began working in 1969 and for 30 years has passed all levels of management.

. A year after the entry Yoon Jong-Yong at the post came the Asian crisis, and foreign lenders were quick to take their money out of this region
. By July 1998, monthly losses Samsung Electronics accounted for millions of dollars. With this trend the company left to work no more than three or four years.

. The strategy of restructuring Yun Jong Yong largely relied on the ideas acquired from traditional Asian literature, as well as books on the creation of the universe renowned astrophysicist Stephen Hawking
. From astrophysics Yun Jong Yong took the idea that any fundamental changes begin with the destruction of the old order. So, Yoon Jong-Yong was a four-stage "cycle of change" for the revival Samsung. The first step - the creation of chaos ". The second - performance against the old device (rather complicated step, since several decades in a row Samsung finds a successful company with good governance). The third phase focuses on grafting of new values. And the fourth and final - stabilization of the company. Yoon Jong ENU successfully to Samsung for all four stages.

So, for three or four years before the "death" Samsung Electronics Yun Jong Yong and nine other leaders agreed to: within 5 months to reduce costs by 30%. Each of them signed a document which in case of failure had left the company after the expiration of the deadline. And managers got down to business. Been reduced stocks of products in stores, cut costs, sell non-profit enterprise, part of the property (corporate aircraft, fleet) and it was decided to stop paying the membership manager of Samsung's golf club. Corporation parted even with his favorite car project by selling its French firm Renault.

. Contrary borrowed from the Japanese tradition of lifetime tenure, . Yun Jong Yong dismissed part of the senior managers (most of them have got jobs at suppliers, . which worked Samsung, . or separated from the parent company offices, . rest paid a solid monetary compensation),
. Thus were created jobs for more young and ambitious English-speaking managers. And in 1999, the company received a stable income, and in the following years, its performance is only getting better.

. The next step Yun Jong Yong instructed Stanford graduate Jin Dae-jae (Chin Dae Je), began his career in research laboratories of IBM, to do unit Digital Media, which produced computers and appliances
. From the outset, Chin has set his engineers the task of creating a laptop, a lighter and thinner than the Vaio from Sony. He said his plan also means smart cell phone with Internet access. For these projects, Chin Dae-Je called engineers and developers from all offices of Samsung.

. Such co-operation of all departments, plus the connection of knowledge and experience in the wireless, semiconductor and computer fields now and define a strategy Samsung
. The key words in this strategy are the "figure" and "convergence".

In the Samsung love to tell the story of how Jin Dae-jae sent manufactured by his company, Michael Dell notebook. A gift made to Della impression that he immediately sent one of its managers from Japan to South Korea in order to place a more detailed study of Samsung products. The two men never met, and yet their company recently signed multi-year contract, under which Samsung will deliver Hardware Texas PC manufacturer. Samsung is now producing a similar model, which, since April this year will be sold in the United States under the brand Dell.

. Resolute action Chin was a moment of truth for himself and for Samsung Electronics - the most profitable units of Samsung Group
. And if five years ago, Samsung was buying chips from Sony and Matsushita, and seemed doomed to perpetual backwardness, but now she has a real chance to become a leading producer of semiconductors in the country.

. Although the 2001 financial performance Samsung Electronics could not be called outstanding (2.2 billion profit Squad
. dollars on sales of 24,7 billion), the company managed to create a reliable reserve for the future. Samsung Electronics has taken a leading position in the market of memory chips, liquid crystal displays and wireless communications (fourth place in the manufacture of phones). Today, Samsung - the most powerful of the four largest chaebol. Conglomerate Hyundai, ranked second, now divided between his sons and relatives of its founder. LG (formerly Goldstar) failed to properly dispose of investments and loses. Daewoo, occupies the fifth position, lost not only a stable position in the market, but its founder, who, after all the troubles lies abroad.

The presence of Samsung Group, with its annual income of 100 billion. dollars to South Korean corporate market can be compared with the presence in the U.S. market, IBM, Intel, Citigroup, Caterpillar, Aetna together. Of the 25 companies within the chaebol Samsung, the most important is Samsung Electronics, which brings conglomerate quarter of total annual revenue and three quarters of the total net profit.

. However, Samsung Electronics does not want to be satisfied with the situation of one of the most successful companies in Korea, and it is not enough to beat their Japanese competitors
. Much more impressive task seems to become the first Korean company, which had had influence on a global scale. To do this, Samsung has to demonstrate a change of image in the world's largest market - the United States market. Today Samsung Electronics has already adopted its brand as the most popular among consumers in countries such as Russia and China. In addition, it is as the OEM is working closely with U.S. firms Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Compaq and IBM. But Samsung wants its brand in the West, paying homage to nothing less than the brand Sony. And this year it had allocated 400 million. dollars to conduct a stylish advertising campaign, while reducing the number of advertising agencies from 55 to one.

. The reason for the change in marketing strategy served as a negative experience of late 1980 - early 90's, when the company produced microwaves in unreasonably large amounts
. Unlike the West, where profitability is placed above the volume of sales, the Korean conglomerates, for decades considered a priority indicators such as growth in exports and record production. In America, Samsung home appliances accumulate in warehouses, and then it had to sell at a significant discount. All this helped to create the image of cheap products. Now Samsung is spending a lot of money to change this attitude to yourself.

Perhaps the most notable marketing ploy Samsung has been the emergence of its brand at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Important role in improving the image of the corporation played a waiver from the sale of its products in major chain stores that specialize in inexpensive and not always of high quality goods - such as Wal-Mart and Kmart. Now Samsung is working only with reputable shops. While for the future well-being has to pay, but in the case of a successful "investment" would create a company conceived by its image, after this increase, and profit margins.

. To look and work really as Western multinational companies, Samsung Electronics refused to monopolize the domestic government and indigenous people appointed to the Board of Directors of three foreigners
. The largest single shareholder Samsung Group remains its chairman, Lee Kun-hee (Lee Kun-hee), son of the founder of the corporation. Meanwhile, the presence on the board of Samsung Group involves a foreign corporation with international standards and regulations and, therefore, guarantees her the confidence of foreign investors, who own 60% of the shares.

. To date, the share of Samsung accounts for 28% of stock market capitalization of Korea, 16% of the country's exports, 7% paid taxes.

. Samsung Electronics has expanded not only the ethnic composition of its leadership, but also the geography of
. Now its production are located in 14 countries, so that 70% of annual income the company receives from abroad in Korea.

. In 1988, held in Seoul Olympic Games (turns out it is a sporting event has a crucial role for the Corporation) helped direct attention to the economy of South Korea and its ambitions in the field of technology
. Jin Dae-jae had just returned from the United States after receiving his doctorate at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University and working in IBM Research Laboratory. The latter proved too plum for Chin, but he longed to test for yourself as a specialist.

Returning home, he immediately received a "real thing": to adjust work department Samsung Electronics to create memory chips. Few believed in the possibility of realization of the conceived. While industry was in decline, the company for many years lagged behind its competitors, and industry-leading Japan Inc. was in the prime. Moreover, hierarchical and preaches worship staff age culture Samsung does not imply freedom, innovation and flexibility of Chin Dae-jae. None of his subordinates were not allowed to corporate meetings to ask questions, even if it could help in finding the right solutions. In Korea, no accepted set arising during the discussion: if a person does not find the correct answer, it could put him in an awkward position. He hired a lot of Americans of Korean descent and Koreans who have education and work experience in the United States. What happened then, we already know.

Of course, there is a change taking place with Samsung and another side: the relationship with customers and competitors. And here are all very easy: the more strategic and economic gains, the more tense relations policy. The fact that Samsung, for example, sells chips for Microsoft X-Box and at the same time collaborating with its competitors, developing technology to support instant messaging phone with AOL Time Warner. Maintain a balance and be tactful with both sides in this and similar cases - great art. But, it seems, is one of the many arts, which Samsung holds perfectly.