Samsung's defining moves.
The defining strategic moves at Samsung — each one explained and grounded in the record.
The Vertical Integration · Structure
Samsung Owns the Whole Chip-to-Phone Stack. The Part It Can't Sell Is Quietly Bleeding.
Samsung makes the memory, the display, and the chips in its own phones - the model everyone envies. But its foundry arm fell to 8.1% market share against TSMC's 67.1% and lost over 2 trillion won in a single quarter. Being your own best customer is not the same as being everyone else's.
8 min
The Crisis Response · Crisis Response
Samsung's 97% Recall Wasn't Crisis Leadership. It Was a Phone That Couldn't Be Kept On.
Samsung is praised for a near-perfect 97% Note 7 return rate. But it skipped the regulator on the first recall, shipped 'safe' replacements that also caught fire, and only hit 97% after carriers, the FAA, and a kill-switch update made keeping the phone impossible.
8 min
The Vertical Integration · Vertical Integration
Samsung Makes Almost Everything in Its Own Phone. In 2023 That Cost It KRW 14.88 Trillion.
Samsung designs and builds the chips, memory, and screen in its own phones - the deepest vertical stack in tech. In 2023 that integration didn't insulate it; it amplified the pain, dragging the chip division to a record KRW 14.88 trillion loss.
8 min