Samsung: Company Overview

A brief history of the company. The Korean-based company Samsung was founded on March 1st, 1938 by Byung Chull Lee who instilled some of the first concepts into Samsung’s corporate culture. Byung pressed to continuously pursue innovation and accept new challenges. This is some of the founding spirit that still resonates in Samsung’s corporate culture today. The company started off with humble beginnings with consolidated interests in agricultural products and insurance. Sugar was one of the first products that Samsung exported in the 30’s. Their interests in these products continued throughout the late 50’s. In little over a decade, the company had grown from a small export firm to a large and prospering company that now owned its own mills, plants, and manufacturing equipment. In 1969 Samsung-Sanyo Electronics was formed. During the 1970’s, the company broadened interests into the chemical, shipbuilding, and home electronics industries. Throughout the 80’s Samsung continued to grow and diversify their business to other industries. In the late 80’s, Samsung started driving towards a larger technology focus. The company formed a research and development institute and an institute for technology. New management for the company came in the 1990’s as well as some restructuring of the business. By the millennium, Samsung was embarking on their second century. Samsung began to take hold of the global market for electronics with the advent of the digital age. Samsung’s home office is located in South Korea. There, the company has a large presence and makes up for much of the development of the Korean culture. So much in fact that Samsung is often referred to as ‘Korea’s most important corporation. Samsung’s blue colored logo is representative of stability and reliability which echoes in the company’s determination to become a worldwide leader. The name Samsung which means “three stars” signifies a representation of three stars each with its