How Samsung Became the World's No. 1 Smartphone Maker

[marmar]

from Bloomberg Businessweek:


How Samsung Became the World's No. 1 Smartphone Maker
By Sam Grobart on March 28, 2013


I’m in a black Mercedes-Benz (DAI) van with three Samsung Electronics PR people heading toward Yongin, a city about 45 minutes south of Seoul. Yongin is South Korea’s Orlando: a nondescript, fast-growing city known for its tourist attractions, especially Everland Resort, the country’s largest theme park. But the van isn’t going to Everland. We’re headed to a far more profitable theme park: the Samsung Human Resources Development Center, where the theme just happens to be Samsung.

The complex’s formal name is Changjo Kwan, which translates as Creativity Institute. It’s a massive structure with a traditional Korean roof, set in parklike surroundings. In a breezeway, a map carved in stone tiles divides the earth into two categories: countries where Samsung conducts business, indicated by blue lights; and countries where Samsung will conduct business, indicated by red. The map is mostly blue. In the lobby, an engraving in Korean and English proclaims: “We will devote our human resources and technology to create superior products and services, thereby contributing to a better global society.” Another sign says in English: “Go! Go! Go!”

More than 50,000 employees pass through Changjo Kwan and its sister facilities in a given year. In sessions that last anywhere from a few days to several months, they are inculcated in all things Samsung: They learn about the three P’s (products, process, and people); they learn about “global management” so that Samsung can expand into new markets; some employees go through the exercise of making kimchi together, to learn about teamwork and Korean culture.

They will stay in single or shared rooms, depending on seniority, on floors named and themed after artists. The Magritte floor has clouds on the carpet and upside-down table lamps on the ceiling. In a hallway, the recorded voice of a man speaking Korean comes over the loudspeakers. “Those are some remarks the chairman made some years ago,” a Samsung employee explains. ..................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-03-28/how-samsung-became-the-worlds-no-dot-1-smartphone-maker#r=rss

[JCMach1]

1. by being the Toyota of cell phones... they just work, aren't horrifically expensive (read Apple),

they use a relatively open OS, and are hard to kill.

My Blackjack is still in-use by someone in Africa.

[cliffordu]

2. Great read. K&R

[Dreamer Tatum]

3. This will not sit well the the DU Apple Defense League. nt

[Ruby the Liberal]

4. I got an S3 a couple of months ago

and I love it. Good, quality product.

[Rise Rebel Resist]

5. one handle is that you?