During the first years after its inception, Samsung was a completely different business a compared to what we know about it today. Back in 1938, when a Korean entrepreneur Byung-Chull Lee started Samsung (“three stars” in Korean), its primary revenues came from selling fish, fruit, and vegetables. In ten years, the organization grew large enough to have its own production and operation lines. By 1970 the company began investing money in heavy industries. Soon after that, separate Samsung divisions appeared such as Samsung Shipbuilding Company, Samsung Precision Company, Samsung Heavy Industries Company, and Samsung Electronics. The company grew very quickly at that time, and it was already the major manufacturer of electronic products in Korea in 1970’s. Later the company started exporting products and growing even faster in the technological sectors. By present day, Samsung has grown into a giant corporation, rating one of the “top 10” in U.S. patents. The company has also secured 15th place in the list of world companies by revenue (fiscal 2004).

The company not would have survived and grown to such colossal size unless it had a unique and effective corporate culture, values, and goals. Samsung is devoted to its customers, as well as human resource and up-to-date technology. As the company has always been growing since its inception, the mission statement of the company has been somewhat unique because it “responds both to its own change, and to new development in the world: Economic contribution to the nation; priority to human resources; pursuit of rationalism.” This compound statement reflects exactly Samsung’s corporate values, goals, and mission. In addition, if taken separately, these three statements represent the stages of growth and development of Samsung from a local mite to a multinational giant.

Samsung’s management philosophy revolves around the