[서울신문] Samsung, massive investment and M&A disruption… Concerns about lowering competitiveness in future new business

Business vacancy again after 3 years

Braking new growth businesses such as system semiconductors and AI
Jae-Yong Lee, Possibility of Management in Prison Like 2017
“Difficulty making quick decisions will be pushed back due to competition”
Some say, “We need to strengthen the professional manager system”

Samsung was in shock again after three years, facing the bad news of “the absence of the general manager”. On the 18th, when Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong was sentenced to two years and six months in prison at a farewell trial for the destruction of Gukjeong Nongdan and became a’body of English’, Samsung officials said, “It’s disheartening,” “I didn’t expect this result, but I’m disappointed.” I did it.

After the death of Chairman Lee Kun-hee in October of last year, Vice Chairman Lee’s plan to make’New Samsung’ full-fledged in earnest was difficult to preoccupy the future market from the beginning. Mid- to long-term decisions to secure growth engines such as large-scale investments and mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are bound to be’all-stop’. In particular, vice-chairman Lee, the world’s No. 1 goal for system semiconductors in 2030 (semiconductor vision 2030), artificial intelligence (AI), 5th generation (5G) mobile communications, semiconductors for electronic components, and bio, etc. Seems to be.

A Samsung official said, “A future business can only be put on track when the head of the business is in charge of recruiting human resources or operating overseas networking to win business orders. He worried that a serious management gap occurred in the midst of a gap that could not be caught up with competitors even after stopping for only 2-3 months.”

Right now, Vice Chairman Lee is expected to engage in’in-house management’ as he was imprisoned in 2017-2018. At the time, Vice Chairman Lee dismantled the Future Strategy Office immediately after his arrest and decided to make additional investments in the semiconductor and display sectors after being reported by executives about the government’s job creation policy. However, Samsung officials said, “Because there are restrictions on the number of visits, the number of visits, and the time, the quality and quantity of information that can be transmitted is significantly reduced, and compared to normal management activities, the restrictions are large.”

Samsung’s position is that it is difficult to establish a decision-making system to replace the absence of the total number at present, and it is difficult to ascertain in what form it will be made in the future. When the late Chairman Lee Kun-hee retired in the aftermath of the Samsung slush fund investigation in 2008, the Presidents’ Council was in operation.

Accordingly, while major domestic groups such as Hyundai Motor Company, SK, and LG, as well as global companies such as Google and Apple, are rapidly struggling through aggressive mergers and acquisitions, Samsung is paralyzed by the reincarnation of Vice-Chairman Lee and is paralyzed to find new business. There is a prospect that it will be damaged. “Samsung has a lot of collaboration with global companies,” said Lee Kyung-mook, a professor at Seoul National University’s Department of Business Administration.

On the other hand, it is pointed out that this situation should be used as an opportunity to strengthen the professional management system, the board of directors, and compliance management. Professor Kim Woo-chan of Korea University said, “It is necessary to reinforce the role of this opportunity in a way where the representatives of each of Samsung affiliates lead major decision-making and the board of directors checks and gives guidelines.”

Reporter Jeong Seo-rin [email protected]