SAMSUNG-The next big thing

Samsung is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate that means three stars signifying powerful and everlasting.They were founded on 1st March 1938 by Lee Byung-chul as a trading company.After the Korean War, Lee expanded his business into textiles and opened the largest woollen mill in Korea. He focused heavily on industrialization with the goal of helping his country redevelop itself after the war. During that period his business benefited from the new protectionist policies adopted by the Korean government, whose aim was to help large domestic conglomerates (chaebol) by shielding them from competition and providing them easy financing.In the late 1950s the company acquired three of Korea’s largest commercial banks as well as an insurance company and firms that made cement and fertiliser. Samsung in the 1960s acquired more insurance companies as well as an oil refinery, a nylon company, and a department store. Following these acquisitions, Samsung went public in 1973.

Samsung currently trades at 56000-58000KRW with a market cap of 380KRW.Samsung expanded its textile-manufacturing processes to cover the full line of production—from raw materials all the way to the end product—to better compete in the textile industry. New subsidiaries such as Samsung Heavy Industries, Samsung Shipbuilding, and Samsung Precision Company (Samsung Techwin) were established. Also, during the same period, the company started to invest in the heavy, chemical, and petrochemical industries, providing the company a promising growth path.Today, Samsung makes more than 50% of its revenue from technology services and remaining from textiles and shipbuilding and outsourcing contracts.

Samsung has a median price forecast of 88,000KRW with a high estimate of 130,000KRW and a low estimate of 68,000KRW.The median represents a 55% increase from the last trading price. More than 34 of the 38 analysts hold a buy consensus and the overall market sentiment points towards bearish movements.Samsung Group will be investing approximately $206 billion in the next three years to enhance its capabilities in the artificial intelligence, biopharmaceutical, semiconductor and robotics industries. The investments are meant to prepare Samsung for a leading role in the post-pandemic world.

Samsung started as a trading corporation but has diversified into several different businesses companies.Despite this diversification, electronics remains their core industry.Samsung first entered the electronics industry in 1969 with several electronics-focused divisions. Their first products were black-and-white televisions. During the 1970s the company began to export home electronics products overseas. At that time Samsung was already a major manufacturer in Korea, and it had acquired a 50 percent stake in Korea Semiconductor.The late 1970s and early ’80s witnessed the rapid expansion of Samsung’s technology businesses. Separate semiconductor and electronics branches were established, and in 1978 an aerospace division was created. Samsung Data Systems (now Samsung SDS) was established in 1985 to serve businesses’ growing need for systems development. That helped Samsung quickly become a leader in information technology services. Samsung also created two research and development institutes that broadened the company’s technology line into electronics, semiconductors, high-polymer chemicals, genetic engineering tools, telecommunications, aerospace, and nanotechnology.Lee Byung-Chull died in 1987 and was succeeded by his son Lee Kun-Hee. Samsung was split into five companies; electronics remained under Lee Kun-Hee’s leadership, and the other four companies were run by other sons and daughters of Lee Byung-Chull. Lee Kun-Hee felt that Samsung had become complacent because of its dominant position in the South Korean economy and was unprepared for global competition.Under what Lee termed a “new management” concept, Samsung insisted that subordinates point out errors to their bosses. It also stressed quality of products over quantity, promoted women to the ranks of senior executives, and discouraged bureaucratic practices.This constant zeal to develop allowed them to take a competitive lead over their other Android competitors in 2009 in the smartphone industry where they still hold 42% share globally.The Metaverse and the Virtual Reality industry are even more ambitious projects being led by Samsung which will prove to be a great asset in the future.