Chairman Lee Kun-Hee of the well-known chaebol Samsung has sadly passed away at the age of 78, losing his grueling battle with lung cancer. Chaebol is a Korean term for a large industrial conglomerate controlled by an owner or family in South Korea. Examples include LG, Hyundai, GS, Hanwha, SK, Lotte, and the largest, Samsung. The late Lee Kun-Hee first assumed the position of Samsung chairman after the death of his father who had begun the colossal conglomerate in 1938. Given the chairman’s incapacitation since 2014, he was no longer able to carry out his duties and defaulted his responsibilities to his son Jay Y. Lee. Honoring the examples set by his precursors, Lee is passionately carrying on the company that Kun-Hee had left him. Samsung is continuing to compete in numerous industries such as the smartphone market against Apple, kitchen appliances against Whirlpool, shipbuilding against Hyundai, or televisions against Sony.
Kun-Hee was a revolutionary in the technology marketing field and had constituted most of the fame Samsung has today. Kun-Hee had innovated that Samsung should supply advanced, high-quality products in place of large numbers of average goods so that the company could widen its global footprint at the temporary expense of lower sales. Lee Kun-Hee promptly coined the famous phrase, “Change everything except your wife and kids” to convey how high of hopes he had for expanding the company. Kun-Hee had proposed that Samsung enter the television production line with his ideas and attempt to best the leading producer Sony. Samsung quickly rose to the top of global manufacturers in memory chips, televisions, and cellphones in the span of only ten years, attaining goals never thought possible for the once blinkered company. Samsung recognized that growth and expansion was their only way of survival, and Hee had certainly fit the role of a leader to do just that. In the peak of Kun-Hee’s reign, Samsung had surpassed global competitors in applying the trailblazing production ideal: “Quality is my pride.” While the company had far excelled expectations, Kun-Hee remained as chairman in order to maintain the same quality product that had taken Samsung this far. The chairman would visit defunct factories to remedy manufacturing issues and spend days on end to muster up brilliant designs so that Samsung was always on its feet, prepared to advance.
Although Lee Kun-Hee had contributed much to the development of Samsung, his personal interests had also tarnished the name of the company. Kun-Hee was indicted on numerous charges, among those being tax evasion and company malfeasance. The chairman had allegedly bribed multiple attorneys and judges to turn a blind eye in the case where the company was to be tried in court for malfeasance. The abuse of power also reached as far as the former president of South Korea who had pardoned Kun-Hee in multiple instances despite Kun-Hee publicly confessing to all allegations.
While Samsung may seem like a heartless, corporate entity, countless ambitious individuals have dedicated their lives such as Kun-Hee to making the company into what it is today. Samsung is a trailblazer, and no other company has come close to rivaling it in production or initiative. The unparalleled foundation of the broken backs of many leaders with the inner-workings of eager laborers has made the company what it is today.
Works Cited
Zhong, Raymond. “Lee Kun-hee, Who Built Samsung Into a Global Giant, Dies at 78” The New York Times, 25 Oct. 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/24/obituaries/lee-kun-hee-dies-samsung.html
Kwon, Jake. “Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee Dies After Long Illness” CNN News, 25 Oct. 2020, https://cnnphilippines.com/business/2020/10/25/samsung-chairman-lee-kun-hee-death.html#google_vignette
