Samsung Rising: The Inside Story of the South Korean Giant That Set Out to Beat Apple and Conquer Tech
The main English-language narrative, including the bribery scandal.
Summary
Geoffrey Cain reported from Korea for several years and wrote this history of Samsung Electronics and of the Lee family that controls it. The book combines corporate history with reporting on the family and on Samsung's position in Korean politics.
The business narrative covers the group's origins as a trading company, the move into electronics as a low-cost manufacturer, Lee Kun-hee's 1993 Frankfurt declaration in which he ordered a shift from volume to quality, including the public burning of defective phones, the memory chip business that became the group's profit engine, and the mobile phone strategy that took the company from copying to competing with Apple. Cain covers the design and marketing effort, the litigation with Apple, and the Galaxy Note 7 battery recall.
The political material covers the family's control of the group through a small direct shareholding supported by circular cross-holdings, the succession from Lee Kun-hee to Lee Jae-yong, the 2015 merger of Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries that facilitated that succession, the bribery case involving President Park Geun-hye, and Lee Jae-yong's conviction and imprisonment. Cain's sourcing is largely from former employees and his access to the company itself was limited, which he acknowledges. The book is journalism rather than analysis and readers wanting the semiconductor business specifically will find it thin.
Key takeaways 7
- Lee Kun-hee's 1993 quality campaign redirected Samsung from competing on cost to competing on product, and the shift took a decade.
- Memory semiconductors supplied the profits that funded Samsung's entry into consumer products where it initially lost money.
- The Lee family controls the group through a small direct stake supported by circular cross-shareholdings among affiliates.
- The 2015 merger of two affiliates was structured to facilitate family succession, and the national pension fund's vote in favour became a criminal matter.
- Samsung's vertical integration across components and finished products gives it cost information and supply security competitors lack.
- Cain argues that Samsung's relationship with the Korean state has been reciprocal rather than one-directional in either direction.
- The Galaxy Note 7 recall demonstrated that vertical integration concentrates risk as well as capability, since the battery was made in-house.
Who should read it
Investors in Korean equities and in electronics supply chains who want the corporate and political history behind the group's control structure.
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