The history of Samsung

This Korean group takes its name from the Korean word meaning three stars, or tri-star. Samsung is in fact the largest conglomerate in the world, a group which is comprised of three stars of its own. One being its Samsung Electronics group, the second is its Samsung Engineering and Construction company arm, and its third is Samsung Heavy Industries, which is the biggest shipbuilding concern on earth.

It is by far and away the most famous brand ever to emerge from South Korea, and has surpassed even its Japanese rival Sony to lead the field of consumer electronics.

Looking back at the history of the business, one comes to understand the sheer magnitude of this achievement. Founding chairman Byung-Chull Lee essentially started out as a greengrocer, specialising in the export of food products to Manchuria and Beijing. His small Samsung Store started out in the 1930s and it is hard to believe that such a giant could emerge from such tiny beginnings.

Not even the iron grip of communism could stop Byung-Chull and his Samsung vision. Rebuilding the business from 1951 onwards, he continued to build on export trading, and then opened the first post-Korean War manufacturing plant in South Korea which refined sugar on a massive scale.

It seemed that every sector Lee Byung-Chull entered, he mastered, and he was a success in each. This led to further investment potential, and in 1969 he was able to start Samsung Electronics. Their first product was the black and white television, of which they had produced one million of by 1976.

The South Korean government, under the watchful eye of President Park Chung-Hee, were only too willing to help this infant company, and it invested heavily in several South Korean industries, also providing protection from outside competitors.

And this it did when it began catering for the huge new consumer electronics demand that flooded the global markets throughout the 1970s. New electronics products were being developed all the time, and Samsung were at the forefront, producing television sets and microwave ovens for the homes all over the world.

Samsung in 2009 is a still a leader in the electronics field, specialising in mobile phone and LCD television technologies. Although still a diverse group, Samsung now tend to invest most heavily in the engineering, chemical and electronic industries.

About the Author:
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