Samsung giving up on authoritarian ways

SEOUL — Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest maker of phones, memory chips and television sets, plans to revamp its authoritarian, top-down corporate culture to become more like a lean startup as it copes with sluggish demand and growing competition.

The company said its staff pledged to reduce hierarchical practices, unnecessary meetings and excessive working hours in a “Startup Samsung” ceremony held at its headquarters in Suwon.

The first step in this new culture of flexibility? Requiring all its executives to sign a statement promising to scrap the company’s traditional authoritarian ways.

Samsung is searching for new business strategies as a father-to-son leadership transition looms. Lee Jae-yong, 48, is expected to succeed his ailing father, Lee Kun-hee, at a time when Samsung’s mainstay semiconductor and phone businesses face intensifying competition from Chinese rivals. Samsung has its eye on expanding into health care and pharmaceuticals, but has lagged Silicon Valley in embracing trends such as autonomous driving and artificial intelligence.

The company said it will announce in June exactly how it plans to reorganize its workers and eliminate red tape. It said new vacation systems would allow employees to spend more time with their families and take breaks for self-improvement.

“By starting to reform the corporate culture, it means we will execute quickly, seek open communication culture and continue to innovate as a startup com- pany,” Samsung said.

Samsung said it has been trying to reform its very Korean corporate culture to suit its identity as a global company and to encourage more creativity and grassroots input from workers. Like most Korean companies, its management style tends to mirror the authoritarian ways of South Korea’s past, when a military dictator ruled the country.

But analysts said Samsung faces a huge challenge in levelling a seniority-based corporate hierarchy that is decades old. Some suggested the campaign also might be aimed at identifying underperforming workers and trimming the company’s managerial ranks to cut costs as younger talent moves up the ladder based on merits. “It means Samsung will have a slimmer labour force,” one analyst said.