April 20, 2024
Samsung
Hard times: Samsung skips anniversary of management initiative
[THE INVESTOR] When the chairman is sick in bed and his son is facing another trial in court, it's not a good time to celebrate an anniversary.
On June 7, Samsung Group skipped a commemorative event on June for the so-called new management declaration, which Chairman Lee Kun-hee famously said should involve changing “everything but your wives and children.”
“We decided against doing anything to celebrate the anniversary,” said a Samsung official. “It's not a good time to celebrate as the chairman is still not well and there are unresolved issues surrounding the company.”
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Lee Kun-hee (right) |
Exactly 25 years ago today, Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee ordered the top brass to change everything to innovate and propel it into the top echelon globally. This demand was later called the new management initiative, or the Frankfurt Declaration as he made the statements during a meeting with executives on a business trip to the German city.
Since then the tech giant has been commemorating the date up until Lee became bedridden due to a heart attack in 2014. Beginning in 2015, the conglomerate began to gradually scale down the festivities, and recently, it has stopped marking the date altogether.
Earlier this year, Samsung Group’s heir-apparent Lee Jae-yong was released from a yearlong stay in prison for allegedly bribing former President Park Geun-hye and her confidante Choi Soon-sil in return for business favors. He is now awaiting a final trial at the highest court.
Samsung BioLogics, a contract drug manufacturing arm of the conglomerate, was recently been in the hot seat over its listing on the nation’s secondary bourse KOSDAQ. The financial authorities claimed that it breached accounting rules by inflating net profit before its stock market debut in November 2016.
Furthermore, Samsung was under fire for persecuting its labor unions and was on the verge of having to reveal business secrets to address safety concerns at its plants before a related ruling was overturned.
By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)
