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Samsung Chairman Lee Jae-yong calls for ‘do-or-die mentality’ to its executives to deal with crisis

입력 2025.03.18 17:41

Jung Yoo-mi

Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong has reportedly told Samsung executives that the company has “lost its unique potential,” and emphasized that they should “deal with the crisis with a do-or-die mentality.”

In his closing statement at the second trial of the unfair merger and accounting fraud charges late last year, Lee said, “I am well aware that there has been a lot of concern about Samsung's future in recent days,” but his use of the word “do-or-die mentality” suggests that he believes the company's survival is at stake.

Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong

According to the business community on March 17, Samsung shared Lee's message at a seminar for executives. Since the end of last month, Samsung has been providing "value training to restore Samsungness" to 2,000 executives at the vice president level and below at all its affiliates, including Samsung Electronics.

The training showed videos of the management philosophies of the founding family, including the late founding chairman Lee Byung-chul and the late chairman Lee Kun-hee, according to multiple attendees.

It reportedly included some of Lee Jae-yong’s previous remarks, as well as some that he had prepared to deliver as a New Year's message earlier this year. However, Lee himself did not appear in the video.

In a message contained in the video, Lee pointed out, “Samsung is hovering between life and death,” adding, “The management should sharply reflect on the situation first."

He also reportedly stressed that "the important thing is not the situation of a crisis, but the attitude of dealing with the crisis," and that "even if we sacrifice our immediate interests, we must invest for the future."

Lee reiterated the importance of technology. He emphasized technological competitiveness, saying, “Let's continue Samsung’s tradition of emphasizing technology and investing in advance. Let's create the future with technology that doesn't exist in the world” and “The first is technology, the second is technology, and the third is technology.”

The executives who attended the seminar were given crystal plaques with their names and the words, “A Samsung person who is strong in crisis, good at reversal, and fierce in competition.” An attendee said, “What is inscribed here (on the crystal plaque) is actually the core of the seminar,” adding, “If I had to define ’Samsungness‘ in one word, it would be a ’fierce Samsung person.’”

Last year, Samsung Electronics fell short of market expectations in the semiconductor business due to sluggish general-purpose legacy memory and delays in delivering high-bandwidth memory (HBM).

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The seminar will be held through the end of next month at the Samsung Human Resources Development Institute in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province.

It is the first time in nine years since 2016 that Samsung has organized a seminar for executives of all affiliates. Samsung previously held a special seminar for executives every year from 2009 to 2016.

※This article has undergone review by a professional translator after being translated by an AI translation tool.