Tech giant vice chairman urges workers to be daring, open-minded


Samsung Electronics vice chairman Choi Gee-sung said Monday that the company must proceed with bold mergers for new growth engines, concentrating on fresh projects such as health care.

In a ceremony organized to celebrate its 42nd anniversary, Choi urged its employees to open up to voices and resources within and outside of the company. He also suggested they need a daring mind for challenges that go beyond stereotypes.

“Let’s harness creativity and innovation with challenging and open minds,” he said at the event attended by about 400 Samsung executives and employees.

Noting that the flagship unit of Samsung Group has gained ground as a globally competitive firm through its entry into the semiconductor market in the 1970s and its declaration to adopt new business strategies in the 1990s, it must now pick up more aggressive business tactics to turn a crisis into an opportunity, he said.

Samsung Electronics is aiming to record 400 billion won ($360.36 million) in sales and enter the global top 10 firms, as well as No. 1 in the industry of electronics, by 2020.

While Choi forecasted that an entirely new picture will be drawn for the IT industry, which is going through an ongoing crisis caused by long-term low growth projections, he insisted that new markets should be tackled by the firm.

“We should also strengthen efforts to integrate the competitiveness of our hardware and software skills,” he said.

Software has been pointed to as a sector that has been left untouched by Korean IT firms which have gained a reputation over the years for hardware.

In line with such efforts, the company should discover and nurture talent in software-related fields like service and content development, as well as females with expertise, he said.

The announcement came after it was unveiled that Samsung Electronics beat Apple Inc. for the first time in smartphone shipments in the third quarter of this year.

Samsung posted forecast-beating quarterly earnings last Friday, reaching 41.27 trillion won in sales and 4.25 trillion won in operating profit between July-September.

The company is estimated to have sold over 27 million units of smartphones during the third quarter, up from 19.2 million units recorded in the second quarter.

Samsung expects its smartphone sales to rise further with the arrival of holiday season and its new Galaxy Nexus phone in the final quarter.

By Cho Ji-hyun (sharon@heraldcorp.com)