Samsung

choi

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(1) Samsung and its attractions  |  Asia’s New Model Company: Samsung’s recent success has been extraordinary. But its strategy will be hard to copy. Economist, Oct 1, 2011.  
http://www.economist.com/node/21530984

Quote:

"It is easy to see why China might like the chaebol model. South Korea’s industrial titans first prospered in part thanks to their close ties with an authoritarian government (though Samsung was not loved by all the generals). Banks were pressured to pump cheap credit into the chaebol, which were encouraged to enter dozens of new businesses—typically macho ones such as shipbuilding and heavy industry. Ordinary Koreans were chivvied to save, not consume. South Korea grew into an exporting powerhouse. Does this sound familiar?

"the chaebol system has been less beneficial for South Korea than Samsung’s success might imply. Some of the state-directed cheap credit that powered the chaebol produced superb companies, such as Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motors. But it yielded some costly failures, too. During the Asian financial crisis of 1997-98, half of the top 30 chaebol went bust because they had expanded recklessly. Daewoo, the Great Universe, is no more.

Note:
(a) The article serves as  a lead to a full report. See (2).
(b) The article says, "The hottest chilli in the Samsung kimchi bowl is Samsung Electronics, which started out making clunky transistor radios but is now the world’s biggest technology firm, measured by sales."

On the other hand, Apple is the world's biggest technology firm by market capitalization.
(c) chivvy or chivy (vt): "to move or obtain by small maneuvers <chivy an olive out of a bottle>"
(d) dirigisme (n; French, from diriger to direct (from Latin dirigere) + -isme -ism; First Known Use: 1947):
"economic planning and control by the state"

* The English word "direct" (v, adj, adv) ultimately came from the same Latin root.
(e) LEE Byung-chull  李 秉喆 (1910-1987)
LEE Kun-hee 李 健熙 (1942- )
(f) The "writ" is a past participle of write--the other being written. The phrase "writ large":
"on a larger scale or in a more prominent manner <the problems of modern totalitarianism are only our own problems writ large — Times Literary Supplement>"

All definitions are from www.m-w.com, except otehrwise noted.


(2) Samsung |  The Next Big Bet: The world’s biggest information-technology firm is diving into green technology and the health business. It should take care; its rivals should take notice. Economis, Oct 1, 2011.
http://www.economist.com/node/21530976

Quote:

"IN 2000 Samsung started making batteries for digital gadgets. Ten years later it sold more of them than any other company in the world. In 2001 it threw resources into flat-panel televisions. Within four years it was the market leader. In 2002 the firm bet heavily on “flash” memory.

"Samsung’s successes come from spotting areas that are small but growing fast. Ideally the area should also be capital-intensive, making it harder for rivals to keep up. Samsung tiptoes into the technology to get familiar with it, then waits for its moment. It was when liquid-crystal displays grew to 40 inches in 2001 that Samsung took the dive and turned them into televisions. In flash memory, Samsung piled in when new technology made it possible to put a whole gigabyte on a chip.

"The strategy is shrewd. By buying technology rather than building it, Samsung assumes execution risk not innovation risk. It wins as a “fast follower”, slipstreaming in the wake of pioneers at a much larger scale of production.

My comment:
(a) The quotation shows Samsung entered LCD later than most Taiwanese LCD companies.

Prime View International, Inc (PVI) (now, E Ink Holdings Inc but Chinese name renames the same 元太科技) was the first TFT LCD company based in Taiwan, whose small-scale trial production started in 1996.
http://www.pvi.com.tw/
("About Us" tag in the top horizontal bar)
(b) flash memory
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_memory
(Flash memory (both NOR and NAND types) was invented by Dr. Fujio Masuoka while working for Toshiba circa 1980. According to Toshiba, the name "flash" was suggested by Dr. Masuoka's colleague, Mr. Shōji Ariizumi, because the erasure process of the memory contents reminded him of the flash of a camera. Dr. Masuoka presented the invention at the IEEE 1984 International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) held in San Francisco, California.)

(i) Fujio MASUOKA  舛岡 富士雄 (1943- )
(ii) The surname ArIIZUMI  有泉
(iii) NAND stands for Negated AND, NO AND. See Negated AND gate
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negated_AND_gate
(the opposite of the digital AND gate)

(c) The full report talks about "the disastrous acquisition of a PC maker in the 1990s."
Samsung
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung
(Samsung bought AST [Research] (1994) and tried to break into North America，but the effort foundered. Samsung was forced to close the California-based computer maker after a mass defection of research talent and a string of losses.)
(d) Nichia Corporation  日亜化学工業株式会社
(e) Robert Bosch GmbH
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Bosch_GmbH
(founded by Robert Bosch in Stuttgart, Germany in 1886; world's largest supplier of automotive components; The headquarters of Bosch is in Gerlingen, near Stuttgart)
(f) Fumio OHTSUBO  大坪 文雄 (代表取締役社長 Panasonic president)

Mr Otsubo is quoted as saying, "If we can get the same conditions in terms of free-trade agreements, low corporate taxes and other incentives, then we should be able to compete." The first clause refers to the free trade agreement between S Korea and US, which is poised to ratify in US Senate (House has consented).
(g) this-and-that (n):
"Also, this, that, and the other .  Various miscellaneous items, one thing and another, as in He said this and that about the budget, but nothing new or of great substance , or We spent all evening chatting about this, that, and the other."
Christine Ammer, American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms, 1997.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/this+and+that


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