(Samsung Special) 96 Winnings out of 100 Trials

44 Winnings and 2 Defeats with 11 Ties out of 57 Games.

It is not a record of baseball team, but of businesses that Ho-Am built for half a century from 1937 when he first started his own company at the age of 26 to 1986 when he established Samsung Economic Research Institute.

One of two defeats in his business life came when Ho-Am had no choice but to fold businesses in rise polishing and transportation due to the excessive loans and outbreak of Sino-Japanese war. Another gave him a painful scar as Samsung was detected by customs to smuggle sacks of saccharin, an artificial sweetener widely used in South Korea in the 1960s.

However, most of his business projects made successful stories apart from those two failures. To be sure, eleven stranded companies cannot exactly count as failures because they were all unavoidable due to then Korea’s political circumstance. For instance, Ho-Am had to give up Tonyang Broadcasting Corporation (TBC) established in 1963 due to the merge of the press under the military regime. Ho-Am also had to let go his bank to the government which the former president Jung-hee Park took control of by the military coup.

◆ 96 Winnings out of 100 Trials

His winning rate of 96 percent is a remarkable score given such a special circumstance in Korean business back then. In particular, he invested handsome money into 57 business projects for 51 years beginning from 1936 to 1986, which means he had started more than one business a year.

His emphasis on talents and efforts to develop their potential was one of the keys to success in various businesses, which he tried to build up for a short period of time. Another factor is his insight to see the power of information faster than any other leaders in Korea.

A world-widely known futurologist Alvin Toffler once said that a new millennium is going to be the age of information revolution in his book of “the third wave” in 1980. According to his explanation, information is the key factor in suggesting a new paradigm for next generations just like agricultural and industrial revolutions did in the first and second wave.

Long before Toffler, Ho-Am did notice the significance on information and have capability to classify genuine and helpful one out of overflowing knowledge.

◆ Information Leads to Business Competitiveness

He also had an excellent ability to fully digest information that people easily pass by. His excellence is well presented when he spent a quite amount of time in Tokyo in order to get ideas on new businesses.

He believed Tokyo to be an excellent place to map out his plans for new business

For years, he had greeted the New Year's Day in Tokyo.

He believed Tokyo to be an excellent place to map out his plans for new business, not only because it is an international city that is located closest to Korea, but also because Tokyo is a city that is very sensitive to the economical changes of the world. He would always wrap up various important decisions in Tokyo, that people would call his trips to Tokyo as 'planning in Tokyo.'

Electronics, semiconductor and aeronautical industry etc were all ideas that came out through 'planning in Tokyo.

Ho-Am started to make his trips to Tokyo, ever since the end of 1959, when he had to change the airplane in Tokyo by a chance.

At that time in Korea, all flights were unable to take off or land due to a heavy snowfall. Therefore, he had no other choice but to stay in Tokyo for several days. During his stay there, he had a chance to watch a talk show on the TV discussing about various issues on international politics, economy, military, society and culture with some of the most prominent figures in every walk of life.

He was able to obtain valuable information of the current world, which weren't available in Korea at the period. From then on, Ho-Am spent every New Year's Day at Tokyo.

Another way that he obtained information and invented some new ideas, was to meet various people. He gained more information by listening carefully to others, and he completed his idea on business based on the information.

Samsung would start a new business, when Ho-Am returned to Korea from Tokyo with his clear-cut ideas.

“Chairman Lee used to meet a variety of people in Tokyo including Tadashi Sasaki, the former vice chairman of Japanese electronics maker Sharp called as the mother for Japanese semiconductor,” said Kil-hyun Lee, ex-chairman of branch office of Samsung C&T Corporation in Tokyo.

◆ Information focused Culture into Samsung Gene
 
Information-oriented culture spread into the organization. Some even say that intelligence capability of Samsung surpasses the one in National Intelligence Service.

Ho-Am gave full supports to employees seeking opportunities for self-development. For example, Samsung HR Development Center was built in 1982 for the purpose of training employees with high talents so that they will not lag behind the trend in the market.

At present, E-learning system is available not only to train nominees for high-ranking positions but also to provide education for overall employees. 

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