Samsung chairman highlights gaining public’s trust, thinking outside the box


Samsung Group chairman Lee Kun-hee said the country’s largest conglomerate will concentrate on corporate social responsibility in 2012 at its New Year’s greeting at the Shilla Hotel in Seoul on Monday.

“We will take full social responsibility as the nation’s representative firm,” he said, adding that the group’s competitiveness not only comes from its people and technologies but also from society’s trust.

With this year’s keywords being “social responsibility” for Samsung, the group must gain the public’s trust and be loved to get a talented workforce and differentiated technologies, according to Lee.

“We must make greater investments, hire more people and gear efforts toward expanding exports, joined by supporting our partnering firms to gain their competitiveness that could lead the market,” he said.

Lee has been stressing that Samsung will make more active investments and create more new jobs in the midst of an ongoing global economic crisis, which has been exacerbated by the sluggish economies in Europe.

He also said that its affiliates must think outside the box and put more emphasis on new projects, new products and new technologies.

Emphasizing that the industry will meet changes that were not expected, it is the responsibility and mandated task for Samsung to develop the country’s economy and provide for continuous growth, said Lee.

“We need to make revolutionary changes to the company’s culture to create a more open and flexible working environment,” Lee said. “The group must concentrate only on what is new and continuously challenge itself thinking that failures can be accepted by the company.”

On another front, Lee said he will take part in the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next week, joined by his three children ― Jae-yong, Boo-jin and Seo-hyun.

“I plan to listen to participating presidents’ difficulties that Samsung faces in reality,” he said. “Because Samsung’s position has somewhat changed globally, we will try to make decisions on several issues, such as figuring out what future direction to take.”

By Cho Ji-hyun (sharon@heraldcorp.com)