삼성家의 앙트러프러너십의 계승과 발전 연구

Abstract

Byung-Chull Lee (1938~1987), a Korean entrepreneur, began his career as a trader of a small local business. He, however, ventured into various industries, ranging from light through heavy to service and high-tech. Consequently, he established 30 different companies during 50 years－including manufacturing of sugar, wool, paper, and chemical fiber, electronics, electrics, shipbuilding, construction, airlines, chemicals, engineering, banks, insurance, securities, realty, department stores, resorts, advertizing agencies, and semiconductor technology－developing all of them into the leading enterprises of Korea. Furthermore, he showed a passion for innovation, which was shared by his successor, Kun-Hee Lee. The late Lee first pursued “Personal Innovation” : he publicly recruited and thoroughly educated talented employees, placing them in the right positions and rewarding and punishing them according to their desert and merit. Second, he put into practice so-called “Process Innovation.” For this goal, he formulated rules and principles that would enable employees to undertake reasonable business management; he established the Samsung Advanced Institute for Technology (SAIT) to facilitate the introduction of new technologies; he also organized his own secretariat to effectively manage and closely communicate with the Group’s subsidiary CEOs; finally, he enforced a culture of responsible management by instituting the operation division system. Thirdly, he achieved the “Product Innovation,” by which he diversified the Group’s businesses into widely various industries. He then encouraged each enterprise to import technologies from advanced corporations by forming a partnership or collaboration with them, thereby seizing a decisive opportunity to transform Samsung into Korea’s No. 1 conglomerate. Slightly different from his father, Kun-Hee Lee, the current Chairman of Samsung, who was interested in the semiconductor business since young, made concentrated efforts to develop DRAM(dynamic random access memory) technology, 8-inch wafer manufacturing, and non-memory products, thereby making Samsung Electronics the world’s top semiconductor producer. He also ventured into LCD and products of digital convergence, decisively developing Samsung Electronics into the world’s biggest IT maker. In particular, responding to the demand for innovation from the 50-year-old business philosophies of his predecessor, Kun-Hee Lee launched his “New Management” initiative, presenting a blueprint for Samsung’s global success in the 21st century. As part of this plan, he attempted to reconstruct his employees’ life cycle and consciousness through the so-called “Samsung Constitution.” In addition, sharing but differentiating his business philosophies from the late Lee’s, Kun-Hee Lee first promoted “Personal Innovation” by adopting systematic management of talented human resources and working hours from 7 am to 4 pm and by emphasizing the importance of keeping, sharing, and propagating records. Second, he perfected “Process Innovation” by establishing Samsung’s information sharing system, such as My Single, E-CIM, PDM, and global ERP, as a major tool for its speedy and efficient management. Consequently, he achieved “Product Innovation” by pioneering quality, design, and brand, thereby leading Samsung to become the world’s top IT company. As evidenced above, the entrepreneurship of Byung-Chull Lee and Kun-Hee Lee has been a result of their challenging minds of the past 72 years. The former provided the foundation of the management system of the Samsung Group by pursuing the goals of Personal, Process, and Product Innovations. The latter transformed Samsung from Korea’s major domestic conglomerate into one of the leading global companies, by focusing on electronics as the Group’s main business. He particularly made possible Samsung’s sustainable development as a global business leader by making the transition from imitative innovation to creative innovation and from recruiting and educating talented employees to stressing the education of gifted children. By thus shedding light on the entrepreneurship of the two Chairmen of Samsung, this paper serves to lead future Korean entrepreneurs to reconsider their social roles.