Facing the Challenges That Lie Ahead
Samsung Electronics will hold a series of global strategy meetings, starting with one on smartphones this week. Vice chairman Lee Jae-yong will start to draw up a strategy to overcome unfavorable external factors such as the U.S.-China trade disputes.
Samsung would start a global strategy meeting on the IT and Mobile (IM) Division on May 13 at the earliest with the participation of heads of business divisions and overseas corporations, key executives and R&D managers, industry sources said on June 11. Lee will not attend the meeting.
Next week, the tech giant will hold a strategy meeting on the Device Solutions (DS) Division, which includes the semiconductors and display businesses.
The company holds a global strategy meeting in June and December every year to check on business goals and strategies. This year, a strategy meetings will be held only for the IM and DS divisions, with the Consumer Electronics (CE) Division in charge of the TV and home appliances businesses planning to hold separate strategy meetings at overseas subsidiaries.
The agenda of the IM Division meeting will likely include the Galaxy Fold, which was scheduled to come out this month, and global sales of 5G phones amid escalating anti-Huawei campaign around the world.
The strategy meeting for the DS Division is expected to focus on a slowdown in the memory semiconductor market, a system semiconductor strategy, and the effects of the anti-Huawei move sparked off by the United States. In particular, as the United States is putting pressure on major companies in its allies to join the anti-Huawei campaign, Samsung is expected to have a profound discussion on China strategy.
The CE Division will hold a meeting abroad to discuss a premium product strategy with the focus on QLED TVs and 8K TVs. In addition, the division will discuss a two-track strategy to reinforce mid- to low-priced products as its market share has been on the decline due to the growing presence of Chinese competitors in the mid- to low-priced segments.
Samsung’s global strategy meetings are drawing attention from other business groups as they want to borrow a page from Samsung’s playbook in coping with growing market uncertainties due to the U.S. and China trade dispute.
"Samsung Electronics is faced with a host of unfavorable factors at home and abroad," said a market analyst. "They are expected to spend a lot of time preparing for measures to overcome uncertainties in their business environment."