
Samsung
Quick Background
- 1938 founded as a trading company
- in the 50s-60s went into anything imaginable
- like insurance- paper- aerospace- property- retailing 
- used this base to lay themselves out for the semiconductor field
Lets Break Down how they did it
1) Entry into semiconductors- 75-83
- bought a smaller semiconductor company in S.K.
- wanted to expand out of low end goods
- worked with Micron Tech. and other US firms
- had American engineers at plants helping them
2) Catching the field
- producing goods but wanted to be at the same level
- to do this put lots of $ into the department
- trial and error learning
- accumulated debt- but looked toward the future
- by late 80s started seeing sales boom
3) Becoming a Leader
- started to overtake the U.S. and Japan firms it learned from in some categories
- U.S. and Japan instead of helping out simply bought in huge quantities
- first company with 64 bit DRAM technology
- continued investment 
- forged equal partnerships to remain at the front of technology
So What are We Supposed to get out of this?
- these firms show typical strategies of late- comer firms
- to do this they had a assembly learning period, then process development, and began to innovate
- they utilized foreign know how
- balanced perfectly the rate of growth 
- ‘organizational innovation’
- ‘because their learning achievements are cumulative and built upon solid foundations, South Korean firms are well positioned to create new market opportunities and to respond to the fast-changing pace of electronics technology’
Pat’s Tid Bits
- Hyundai 19 percent sales- Samsung 13
- Brad has a Samsung microwave- 1/5 of US microwaves 92’
- Chaebol- the big business groupings
- its hard for Korea to be flexible given its culture
- my interviews
<br><br><b>Bibliography</b><br><br>
Samsung
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