Samsung CEOs rounded up for 8-hour emergency meeting amid market uncertainties

[Photo by MK DB]

Heads of Samsung Electronics and its key subsidiaries held an eight-hour long ‘emergency meeting’ to discuss global risk factors and future business directions on Monday, when the company’s share price hit a 52-week low amid growing economic uncertainty from runaway inflation and recession fears.

The meeting of 25 CEOs, which took place at Samsung Human Resources Development Center in Yongin, Gyeonggi, was presided over by Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Han Jong-hee and DS Division Head President Kyung Kye-hyun. Other key CEOs in the meeting include Choi Yoon-ho of Samsung SDI, Hwang Sung-woo of Samsung SDS, Choi Joo-sun of Samsung Display and Jang Deok-hyun of Samsung Electro-Mechanics, according to Samsung Electronics on Monday.

The meeting which began at 7:30 am was held just one day ahead of the company’s planned management strategy meeting on Tuesday and it marks the first time that a roundup of CEOs from Samsung Electronics’ key subsidiaries was made public since the dissolution of the Future Strategy Office, Samsung Group’s so-called ‘control tower,’ in February 2017.

Market watchers interpret the meeting as to mean the start of Samsung’s emergency management amid a deterioration in global business and economic conditions. During the meeting, participants reiterated words such as ‘sudden change’ and ‘crisis’ as well as ‘technology’ and ‘human resources’ as a breakthrough to global challenges, which are in line with the message from Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Jay Y. Lee who stressed the urgent need to keep ahead in technology.

“Technology must come first, second and third,” Lee said on Sunday upon returning to Seoul from a 12-day business trip to Europe.

During the marathon meeting, the group of Samsung CEOs examined global risk factors such as inflation and a sharp drop in demand for consumer electronics, while discussing countermeasures such as developing new market-leading technologies, strengthening supply chain resiliency, and securing financial soundness.

Some of those topics reflect a reality that fears of a global recession are looming large while Samsung has reached a limit in its capacity for key business and new business has not been on track. Samsung’s smartphone market share has remained at 21 percent since 2016 and it is lagging far behind TSMC in foundry and Qualcomm in system chip design.

Shares of Samsung Electronics closed down 1.84 percent at a new 52-week low of 58,700 won ($45.40) on Monday. It lost more than 20 percent of value from the start of this year.

[ⓒ Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]