With Lee Back, Its Not Business as Usual
By Kim Yoo-chul
Staff Reporter
Lee Kun-hee marks his first month back in office this weekend.
The owner of Samsung Group made a comeback as chairman of Samsung Electronics, the conglomerate's flagship unit, last month, after an 11-month semi-forced exile.
His comeback came at a time when the electronics giant is riding on a record profit but is facing a grim outlook for iPhone domination that is hurting Samsung's smartphones.
Also in the background is Toyota, the powerhouse of Japan Inc., that has been reeling from massive recalls in the aftermath of revelations of widespread defects in its vehicles.
He has already made his presence felt, talking in public about the grave situation for the Korean economy as well as for his firm.
He told Japanese industrialists that Korea still has a great deal to learn from Japan, which was taken as a way of telling his employees not to be complacent.
Lee was also actively but without drawing extra attention engaged in promoting PyeongChang's third bid for the Winter Olympics, as he had promised in return for a presidential pardon that fully restored his civil rights.
Inside Samsung, better communication is emerging as a key word.
"It doesn't make any sense for Samsung to make sudden changes in some key areas. But I can say we are bracing open-structure systems that even accept criticism from our employees," a senior executive told The Korea Times, asking not to be identified.
Referring to the recent moves to strengthen online social networking ― Twitter and blog ― the executive say the conglomerate, which is well-known for its reclusive and top-down decision-making style, has smoothly but consistently been transforming itself.
For instance, there are social networking services or SNS.
The group has opened its twitter '@samsungin' in February, followed by '@samsungtomorrow' and '@samsungLEDin.'
Early this month, it launched www.samsungblogs.com and officials say the personal online homepage of Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-hee is under a process for the new opening.
"That's a rare move considering Samsung's top-down communication systems over the last few decades. I don't know such changes are being made from an order from the group owner. But Samsung is moving differently from the past since Lee's back," another executive said.
Opening Up Chip Lines
Samsung has recently opened two of its chip manufacturing lines on the outskirt of Seoul to reporters for the first time since it started its chip business in 1983.
Although the results and the purposes of the openings are still controversial, analysts and Samsung insiders regard the move as "rare," considering higher secrecy in technology-oriented memory chip producing processes.
The tour was aiming to improve relations and calm fears, after allegations that the company is responsible for cancers amongst its workforce.
The tour, which took place last week, represented a break from Samsung's previous stance, marked by terse denials liability and almost no official statements, according to officials.
The deaths and illnesses date back over a number of years. Between 1998 and 2010, 22 Samsung employees were diagnosed with various forms of cancer and ten have since died.
Samsung had been under increasing pressure from Korean social rights groups to launch the probe. But the employees chose to pursue the Korean government for compensation rather than Samsung itself.
A female employee Park Ji-yeon, 23, who worked at the Samsung's chip plant in Onyang died from leukemia, allegedly caused by exposure to radiation and benzene at the worksite on March 31. Samsung is the world's top vendor in memory chips.
"Samsung was active for explanations for the deaths via online networking services such as Twitter. Such a bold decision came after numerous calls from employees for strengthened measures on internal online sites," a Samsung employee said.
"Samsung has widely been regarded as an organization that on one can change. But we are making changes and again the moves would not be a short-term," he added.