'Challenge with Creative
Thinking and Innovation'

Samsung Group Chairman Lee calls for exploration of new businesses, equivalent to semiconductor and mobile telecommunication sectors

Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee urged his group executives and staff members not only to reform management systems and institutions, but also to transform its corporate culture in a bid to correspond to the changing times.
Chairman Lee called for them to explore new strategic businesses that will take their cues from existing semiconductor and mobile communications sectors.
Lee delivered the message before about 1,000 Samsung officials, including executives in the Seoul area, during a ceremony marking the group's start of the New Year 2007, held at the Seoul Shilla Hotel on January 2.
Samsung Group Chairman Lee said, "Samsung should rise to the top in the world as a corporation that does not waver in the face of any crisis challenges for the future with a spirit of creativity and offers trust to people and society."Lee expressed unhappiness that during last year, Korea was stuck while other rival counties were front-running. He predicted that the year 2007 would be a hard year to be dogged by such uncertainties as North Korea's
nuclear issue, crude oil price hikes, misgivings over the appreciation of the Korean currency and foreign companies'checks and restraints.
He sounded a warning that amid waves of change that gets higher in the so-called digital era in the 21st century, there is none who is in the top place forever, and Samsung is no exception and "we might fall down close to the summit if we fail to secure our competitive edge."However, Chairman Lee noted that "we can scale the summit as a new master if we successfully challenge for the future with creative thinking and innovation."To this end, he said that Samsung should be armed with a crisis management regime that can minimize a crisis and translate it into an opportunity.
"anagement systems and institutions should be reformed so that world-class gifted manpower can display their capability fully and we should be prepared to change our cherished corporate culture to correspond to the changes of the times,"he said. The chairman stressed the need for creating an environment in which failure can be accepted, saying that failure and creation are compared to water and fish, and creation cannot be made "if we don't do something for fear of a failure."He said one year of changes in a digital era is equivalent to 100 years of changes made in the analog era, and "we should sow the seeds of new businesses that will take their cues from semiconductor and mobile communication sectors by reexamining customer and market trends, our core capabilities, industrial structure and strategies."Lee also touched on corporate responsibility to society, saying that "what we are today is owed to much help from our shareholders, customers and neighbors and our communal ties with our subcontractors, which have formed a foundation for securing our competitiveness and should be promoted further."It is rare that as many as 1,000 Samsung executives gathered at the ceremony marking the start of the year 2007 business. The ceremony began, as Group Chairman Lee entered the venue, followed by Samsung Life Chairman Lee Su-bin, Group Vice Chairman Lee Hak-su in charge of strategic planning, Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Yoon Jong-yong, Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Yoon-woo and Samsung Life Vice Chairman Bae Jung-chung.
Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Yoon-woo proposed a toast, saying that the group, which ranked second- and third-class, has grown to be on par with first-class ones under the leadership of Group Chairman Lee for the past 20 years."In a separate ceremony held at Samsung Electronics Suwon business site on the same day, Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Yoon Jong-yong appealed for his executives and staff members to "beat a new path in front, departing from the conventional way of following front-runners in order to promote sustainable growth and development."Vice Chairman Yoon urged them to build up a foundation for becoming a world-class corporation through creative thinking and innovation.
Mr. Yoon stressed that creating many world-class products others cannot mimic or innovative products is the shortest way toward becoming a world-class corporation and Samsung Electronics should take a lead in the industry and market with creative thinking and a spirit of challenge.
He urged his executives and staff members to innovate values, thinking and working styles, based on expertise and creative ideas. nw

(left photo) Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee. Samsung Group Chairman Lee, Samsung Life Insurance Chairman Lee Soo-bin, Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Yun Jong-yong, Samsung Electronics Semiconductor Vice Chairman Lee Yun-woo and other executives clap during the New Year greeting session on Jan. 2.