Replacing Management
Both of the heads of Samsung Electro-Mechanics and Samsung SDI have been dismissed for their less-than-expected performance. Under the circumstances, the companies are likely to be subject to more intense restructuring next year to reduce their reliance on Samsung Electronics.
On Dec. 1, the Samsung Group promoted Lee Yoon-tae, vice president of LCD development at Samsung Display, as the new representative director of Samsung Electro-Mechanics, and appointed Samsung SDI Materials Division President Jo Nam-sung as the sole representative director of Samsung SDI.
Experts said that this is a typical result of the Samsung Group’s merit-based personnel management system. Samsung Electro-Mechanics recorded 1.7217 trillion won (US$1.5471 billion) in sales and 69.1 billion won (US$62.1 million) in operating losses in the third quarter of this year. Samsung SDI, during the same period, had to be content with profits of 26.2 billion won (US$23.5 million) due to the sluggish sales of its small smartphone batteries.
Samsung Electro-Mechanics’ slump can be attributed to Samsung Electronics’ in the global smartphone market, in that approximately half of the former’s sales are from the latter. Also, Samsung SDI lost its competitive edge in the lithium-ion secondary battery market. It was defeated by the competition in the medium and large battery market for automobiles and energy storage systems, while its share fell in the small battery segment.
In the meantime, Samsung Display President Park Dong-gun held his position despite the company's stagnation. “It seems that this is because he was appointed just a year ago, and his company remained in the black anyway in spite of the poor AMOLED sales,” said an industry insider.