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Table of Contents
Samsung Company was founded in 1938 in Korea. Since then, it has been engaged in various global businesses in the world. The firm is involved in the production of consumer electronic products, and it mainly operates three main departments such as consumer electronics that are responsible for the manufacturing of color televisions, printers, and refrigerators among other household products. Information technology and mobile communications department is responsible for the manufacturing and production of computers, cameras, and so on. Device Solutions department is involved in the provision of technology-related services and solutions such as dynamic random access memories (Kang, Chang, & Song, 2013).
Samsung distributes its products locally and even on the overseas market through its marketing team. The company has grown to become one of the world’s best electronic companies specializing in digital appliances. Samsung’s innovation, quality products, and services as well as talented employees are responsible for the growth of the corporation. Samsung is committed to inspiring the people around the world by the development of new technologies and creative solutions. In line with its vision, Samsung has established three main strategic approaches in its management such as creativity, partnership, and talents as the company hopes to become the best global brand by 2020. Better management strategies like leadership, democracy, research, and innovation have helped Samsung to achieve its position on the market, and the company should work harder on the new invention and technology to make its products better.
Organizational and Leadership Constructs in Samsung
Board of Directors
The Board of Directors of Samsung Company has four executive directors and other five independent directors. The board members must ensure they maintain independence and transparency in the company. Samsung is governed by the board members dedicated to serving Samsung’s main stakeholders with integrity and accountability. Candidates are selected from various professionals with wide knowledge and experience on various issues in the business such as law, finance, or technology. At the annual general meeting, the directors are appointed by the shareholders, and they must be recommended by the Director Recommendation Committee. The board of trustees elects their chairpersons who will preside the board meetings (Northouse, 2015).
Samsung Corporation is also managed by its executive team comprising of the Chief Executive Officer and other high-ranking management team. Samsung uses democratic leadership styles where the leaders make final decisions after consulting other team members. Leaders encourage creativity, and many people are involved in the decision-making process. As a result, it is possible to speak about employees’ job satisfaction and high productivity (Duggan, 2016)
Organization of Samsung
Samsung’s global headquarters are situated in Seoul, South Korea. Currently, the company employs 369,000 people in the world (Shin & Kim, 2015). The firm has other various regional offices where their operations and sales activity take place (Ray, 2016). It is organized into various department with each headed by an experienced person to take care of the welfare of the company. Organizational functions that fall under the leadership of Samsung Company include managing the income received, staff welfare, the growth of the enterprise as well as planning activities that will lead to profit maximization (Song & Lee, 2014).
Growth of Samsung since Inception
Since its inception as a small business in Korea, Samsung has grown to become one of the leading companies in the world. Initially, Samsung specialized on trade export where the company sold dried fish and vegetables to the overseas markets. After a decade, Samsung acquired its manufacturing plants and started the manufacturing of the electronics. In the 1970s, the company produced black and white TV, and in 1980s, it started producing air conditioners to satisfy their clients’ demands. With time, Samsung continued to increase its asset base and the market. In 1981, Samsung began manufacturing of microwave ovens to be exported to other countries, for example, Canada (Shin & Kim, 2015).
In 1983, Samsung started production of personal computers, and later it established Advanced Institute of Technology for research and developments purpose. Due to the innovative ideas and experienced leaders, Samsung was able to increase its market share in the world. Currently, the firm has established regional offices in almost every part of the world to help increase its sales. Product diversification has also taken place from the production of black and white TV to the modern LED TV and other gadgets. Products manufactured by Samsung include mobile phones, fridges, ovens, cameras, tablets. and computers (Kim, 2015). By the end of 1992, Samsung emerged as the best semiconductor manufacturer on the market. The main reason for such a growth was the management’s strong urge to introduce the semiconductor to the market.
The most established product that has allowed the company to endure on the market is the mobile phone. On April 27, 2009, the company announced the first smartphones in the industry (Grobart, 2013). The phone was Samsung Galaxy, which gave the company a great stride on the market as it sold the brand. Compared with other competitor smartphones like Ideos techno and other Chinese-based smartphone, Samsung was much effective and it performed better. This gadget improved the demand value of the company and assured better future of the following smartphones. Now the company has s6 and Samsung J7 smartphones that sell extremely well on the current market (Grobart, 2013).
In line with its growth, the global marketing strategy has played an important role in Samsung’s image from the low-end manufacturer to the global digital technology leader. For better global marketing strategy and branding, Samsung has established a new organization to handle all the global marketing issues.
Success of the Company
Samsung is a successful company specializing on the production of various electronic. The company owes much of its success to their value innovation program. With more than 6 design labs containing 450 employees, the company is able to understand what their clients’ needs even before selecting the technology to use. Samsung spends more than $6 billion on research and development of its products to ensure it fits the market demand of their clients (Song & Lee, 2014). It recognizes that most of the products are basic commodities, and, therefore, the company hopes to focus on manufacturing iconic devices. These devices will help the next generation in their basic electronic needs as they hope to ensure the design fits the next generation (Grobart, 2013).
Samsung can produce more products at a rapid rate without any fear of diluting its brands on the market. Smartphones and tablets of various sizes have been produced with excellent features that will help the client in their communication and technology needs. These two products are very popular on the market since they have unique features and affordable prices. Therefore, Samsung can produce its products that have innovative features and be quite successful in the industry.
Samsung’s brand name also facilitates the success since the most of its products bear the company name. Furthermore, Samsung produces various phones from low- to high-end ones. Hence, everyone can afford to purchase a Samsung mobile phone. In other words, the company targets both markets for the rich and for people with modest income, which enabled the company to become a symbol of status for its customers. Moreover, the firm is best known for its services as people associate it with quality products (Gruber, De Leon, George, & Thompson, 2015).
Samsung’s marketing mix also contributes to the company’s success through price, place, promotion, and products. Since the company offers various products, it uses different pricing strategies to enable market penetration. The firm uses skimming price since their smartphones are among the best on the market to try dominating the market before the competitors. Once the product becomes old or if a competitor has launched a similar product, the firm can drop the price.
Samsung uses various types of promotion as they believe in attracting their customers through advertising. The company also applies strong tactics to enable the product to reach the customer through various forms of promotion, including sales promotion. It also gives offers and discounts to most of its trade partners to encourage them to sell Samsung products. With such kind of marketing strategy, Samsung has become very successful on the market.
The motivated and experienced staff also facilitates success of the company since they can apply their various skills to achieve customer satisfaction. Excellent leadership from the Chairperson, Chief Executive Officer as well as the directors helps to streamline the operations for the welfare of the customers. The customer is the most important asset of any organization and, therefore, Samsung has established excellent customer care to solve any clients’ issues.
Samsung works to ensure the improvement of the communities in areas such as poverty eradication, health promotion, and environmental protection. The company takes precaution in ensuring that its products make people’s lives convenient and enjoyable. Corporate Social Responsibility helps the firm become accepted in various regions in the world where it has positive impact, which acts as a marketing strategy resulting in the success of the organization.
Recommendation for Samsung
Differentiation Strategy
Samsung can apply differentiation strategy, which will help it focus on innovating products that appear different from the rest of the competitors. The policy aims at gaining the competitive advantage over the rest of the competitors. Since most electronic devices are almost similar, Samsung needs to look for various ways of attracting and retaining customers. For example, fridges, home theaters, and other home electronic devices have the same features. Therefore, Samsung can introduce its home theaters with features different from other competitors. These areas may include a feature that can connect with Wi-Fi to play songs directly from the internet. This feature will increase the sales of the company and take their competition to the next level.
Focus Strategy
This strategy will aim at enabling the company target a particular market segment. Market segmentation is a strategy Samsung can adopt to tailor its products to the market unique characteristics. Some of the product may target Asia, Africa, and the USA among other regions as well as high and low-end markets. It can also target markets that are less vulnerable to other substitute’s product or where competition is weak since they will be able to introduce their products and services to their clients (Ma, 2013).
I would recommend Samsung to deal with issues of lawsuits and its customer service reputation. Samsung should have more resources for drawing of its products that have different operating systems. If the firm is banned from selling one of its products in a certain region like the USA, what market share may be taken by a rival company? Therefore, to ensure the company remains relevant on the market, it should have a serious backup plan in case the ban takes place. By marketing its products, Samsung will be able to minimize potential loss as the result of its top ranked products being outlawed.
Finally, the company has to overhaul its customer service, as the current figures are alarmingly poor. Many customers fear to buy Samsung products, as they do not want to deal with some of the worst rated customer services. The customer service should be located in every region where the customer buys the products, hence enabling them to remain marketable in the future.
Conclusion
Samsung Company has achieved stable turnaround for some few decades now. Before the 1990s, the company struggled with its products on the market, and they were not highly regarded. It was known as a low-cost firm that manufactured consumer products such as TV or fridges. Their products did not compete well on the market, and several strategies were applied to improve the product value. Research and development have been conducted to help reposition Samsung as a first class electronic brand that can distribute their products worldwide.
The structure of Samsung was an important strategy that enabled it to grow in their market share. The Samsung brand has experienced significant evolution as initially, the company focused on the Korean market. As their products expanded globally, their brand name also became more recognizable. Currently, Samsung products compete well on the market. For Samsung to experience continued success, it must apply various tactics and measures. The company needs to increase research and development of its products to enable them to produce products to meet local demands. Marketing research also helps to redefine and re-align the main demographic.
