How Samsung Has Moved From Being a Copy Cat to a Leading Brand
Undoubtedly, Samsung’s journey from the position it was in the 1970’s to where it is today, is one of the biggest success stories of all time. The organization, which is currently the biggest exporter in Korea, recently overtook Apple Inc as the most profitable company in the Smartphone industry. The main force behind Samsung transformation from copycat to brand name is continuous improvement through a management method referred to as kaizen. Kaizen is a Japanese term, which literally means, change for the better. Notably, the organization has continuously changed in all aspect, most significantly in management. In the 1990s, CEO Lee introduced the “New Management”. This style saw a revamp of the strategies and mission of Samsung. In addition to such management overhaul, Samsung made it from copycat status to Big Brand Status through creativity and innovativeness (Michelle, 2010).
Speaking of creativity and innovativeness, Lee adopted a strategy of employing young creative and innovative minds, with the sole aim of replacing the old technologies, such as the black and white televisions to the current LCD and LED television sets. The coming of the innovative minds to Samsung conglomerate saw the emergence of the Lifestyle Works of Art. This term, prominently used to describe the innovative Samsung products, saw the introduction of high standards – the third reason for Samsung’s transformation (Chang, 2011). The high standards at Samsung were defined by the “Wow” test, which all products had to pass before being declared fit for distribution.
The Product Development Process of Samsung
Notably, the product development process of Samsung is team based. The main reason why this is so is because, Samsung relied heavily, and continues to rely of a creative and innovative team to move from the lowly position to the current position. The current position is highly attributable to both the management and the designer teams. The designer team is notably one of the most powerful reasons for the success of the organization. The main reason why the company’s development process cannot be termed as customer centered is because, the main factor considered is not the customers, but the status of the organization. All through its journey, the organization had one aim – to emerge as the world leader in the consumer goods and electronics industries (Michelle, 2010). The fact that the organization’s process is not customer centered is confirmed by the fact that it moved from the customer friendly low end distributor such as Wal-Mart and Kmart, and instead, opted for the high end distributors such as Best Buy. Basically, therefore, it is a battle of the brands, fuelled by team effort, rather than customer satisfaction.
Challenges That the Organization Is Likely To Face in Managing High-Tech Products
Maintaining and managing the production, marketing and distribution of the high end products is likely to be a great challenge for Samsung because, according to many analysts, replacing the high tech products due to obsolescence is, arguably the most difficult thing, considering that the organization does not know what next after Smartphone and tablets. Obsolete goods can be quite a cost, especially if they become obsolete before distribution is done effectively. The dead stock likely to become of the obsolete products may be quite a challenge. Secondly, Samsung lacks some essential features, which are associated with the high-tech products. For instance, analysts say that it is high time Samsung came up with its own operating system, which should replace Google’s Android operating system. This will give the organization a competitive advantage since acquiring it externally is considerably costly. Another challenge that Samsung Group should be ready for is competition from such market leaders as Apple and Nokia. Apple, known for groundbreaking technology and innovativeness, and commonly referred to as the “design Darling”, has bigger competitive advantage when it comes to smart phones because it has its own operating system – iOS (Schneider, 2011). Managing the high tech products may as well be a problem, especially considering the fact that the higher end the product is, the more its market shrinks.
Achieving Markets in Markets It Doesn’t Dominate
One of the markets that are not dominated by Samsung is the Smartphone market, which is synonymous with Apple Inc. Whether or not Samsung will achieve the market leader goals in such markets remains a subject of debate because typically, overthrowing the dominating firm is not easily achievable as it has created loyalty among customers. However, Samsung is more likely to achieve than not. How, one may wonder. The organization will easily achieve its goals because, for example in the Smartphone market, it is quickly filling the gaps. The gaps it fills draw it closer to the top position. Speaking of gaps, Samsung is currently in the process of coming up with an apps store – something that has consistently placed Apple Inc at an advantage (Schneider, 2011). With the Apps store, marketing Samsung will be quite easy. When Samsung adopted the “New Management” approach, it moved from being a copycat to being a brand name. Similarly, it is projected that with the new approach – “mabuljungje” – the organization will achieve near full potential.
References
Chang, S.-J. (2011). Sony vs Samsung: The Inside Story of the Electronics Giants' Battle For Global Supremacy. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.
Michelle, T. (2010). Samsung Electronics and the struggle for leadership of the electronics industry. Singapore, Wiley
Schneider, S. (2011). Apple's secret of success - traditional marketing vs. cult marketing. Hamburg: Diplomica-Verl.
Video link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3mYG-PJjfM
