Samsung Electronics is facing unprecedented challenges. According to Yonhap News Agency, Samsung Electronics President Lee Jae-yong recently issued a harsh warning to company executives, pointing out that Samsung Group has lost its endogenous motivation and is at a critical juncture of life and death. Lee Jae-yong stressed that executives must respond to the challenges of the AI era with a "stood for death". This warning has attracted widespread attention from the industry.
In order to cope with the current crisis, Samsung Group organized a large-scale seminar called "Reshaping Samsung's Power" since the end of last month. The seminar attracted more than 2,000 executives from subsidiaries such as Samsung Electronics, to participate, showing the company's importance to the current situation. At the seminar, Lee Jae-yong conveyed a strong message through video, emphasizing that attitudes to deal with crises are more important than the crisis itself.
At the seminar, each executive received a crystal card engraved with Lee Jae-yong's message, asking them to be "a three-star man who is strong in crisis, reverses in adversity, and tenacious in competition." The move is designed to inspire executives to face the current challenges with a more positive attitude. Lee Jae-yong's message is not only expectations for executives, but also expectations for the entire Samsung Group.
Samsung's dilemma is not limited to the field of AI chips. Data shows that Samsung Electronics' global TV market share fell from 30.1% in 2023 to 28.3% last year, smartphone market share fell from 19.7% to 18.3%, and DRAM, the dominant field, also fell from 42.2% to 41.5%. The decline in these data reflects that Samsung's competitiveness in multiple fields is weakening.
Analysts predict that Samsung Electronics' operating profit in the first quarter of 2025 may fall by 22.5%. This forecast further exacerbates market concerns about Samsung's future development. During the decade Lee Jae-yong's actual leader, Samsung Electronics' return on equity has continued to decline, and the gap with TSMC has widened from the past 4.5 percentage points to 14 percentage points, which has been ridiculed by the market as an "inefficient dinosaur".
In September last year, Samsung Electronics also formulated a layoff plan, with the proportion of layoffs in some overseas departments reaching as much as 30%. This layoff plan has sparked widespread discussion on South Korean social platforms, and some netizens called on Samsung Group to abandon the family control model and replace Lee Jae-yong with professional managers. This discussion reflects the public's deep concern about Samsung's future development.
Samsung's crisis is not only a corporate crisis, but also a microcosm of the entire South Korean economy. As South Korea's largest corporate group, Samsung's rise and fall is directly related to the stability of South Korea's economy. Facing the current challenges, Samsung needs to take more aggressive measures to cope with competitive pressures in the AI era and reshape its leadership in the global market.