Background: https://pixabay.com/illustrations/earth-globalisation-network-3866609/; book cover: https://www.nb.co.za/en/view-book/?id=9780795710780
The Samsung Man’s Path to Success: Turning crisis into breakthrough
Sung Yoon
NB Publishers
ISBN: 9780795710780
Sung Yoon is the former CEO of Samsung South Africa.
He telephonically discussed his recently published book, The Samsung man’s path to success, with Naomi Meyer. During the interview, she discovered that his focus on trust relationships and his background in sociology are eminent – and maybe his success story is not such a surprise, given his professional background and his kind disposition.
Sung Yoon, congratulations on your book, The Samsung man’s path to success. The subtitle of your book is also important: Turning crisis into breakthrough. Why did you write this book?
I wrote this book because I wanted to share my personal business experience. Everyone running a business has a different experience, but I wanted to share my own.
You must have studied electronics or engineering to have been CEO of Samsung South Africa.
I actually majored in sociology. I have a Bachelor of Arts in sociology from Korea University, and I hold a Master of Business Administration from the University of Illinois in the USA.
Do I understand you correctly: you studied sociology?
(Laughs) One difference between South Africa, Korea and the USA, is that in Korea and the USA you often find that people who studied a certain degree can end up following a completely different vocation to what you would expect (in South Africa).
In the USA, for example, you can find that the guys in finance sometimes have a financial background, but sometimes they are engineers or even have a Bachelor of Arts. Your knowledge in the arts could mean that you can really advise people about buying works of art if you understand and have knowledge about art. Just an example. You can apply your knowledge “for something else”, so to speak, to use in your job.
Something I want to add. In Korea or in the USA, a company gives a little time to new beginners. In my experience, you cannot expect somebody to deliver immediately. In South Africa, it sometimes feels as if you need someone to contribute something to the company right away. I think it takes a little more time for an individual to have all the knowledge it takes (to contribute something to a major company).
I see that you started working in the textile business at first.
Yes, my father was poor, but he started a textile business. So, that was how I started off. I suppose I learned something about management in a company from my father, even though it was a very different sort of company to, say, a company like Samsung.
I pick up a theme in your book – your family is important to you – and I would like to know how you, a successful businessman, balanced family and work life.
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I have to confess, I need to thank my wife for many things! Thanks to my wife – she focused on my work, and therefore I could travel away from home really often.
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I have to confess, I need to thank my wife for many things! Thanks to my wife – she focused on my work, and therefore I could travel away from home really often. I travelled over 200 days a year. I tried to juggle my family life with my work life. But my wife supported me in every way.
Even when I was on holiday, my work often interfered. Whenever we had a family vacation planned or while we were on holiday, if I got an urgent call – it was a difficult time if my big boss was coming – I had to take the call, even if it interfered with the family time. The building of snowmen in Minneapolis!
So, my wife took care of the children often. She also took care of me and my health! She is a pharmacist, and she looked after all of us.
She also cooked Korean food in the different countries we stayed in. As I said … I have to thank her for many things.
I loved the phrase you use in the book, when you write about Samsung South Africa and your living over here: “Africa’s unimaginable potential”. Please would you tell me about your experiences in Africa?
Look, I worked in America … in the US … for a long time, and it is a developed country and people are exposed to new technology and different environments. I was happy with my American colleagues when I worked there.
The South African team did not have such extensive and wide experience (internationally), but I tried teaching everyone about business relationships. We also discussed strategy and goals. I ended up asking them about their ideas instead of telling them what they should do. So, I didn’t help at first, if everyone did not know everything yet. But through working closely with my South African colleagues, they performed well. Some people understood quickly and some took longer to know what to do. But some of them became more diligent (compared with the USA). There were not that many seasoned business people in South Africa or in the company when I started off there. But I realised that if they got proper exposure to strategy and were properly trained, they performed equally well in comparison with the groups of people I worked with in the USA.
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Some people understood quickly and some took longer to know what to do. But some of them became more diligent (compared with the USA). There were not that many seasoned business people in South Africa or in the company when I started off there. But I realised that if they got proper exposure to strategy and were properly trained, they performed equally well in comparison with the groups of people I worked with in the USA.
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So, you applied your sociology degree and your business knowledge and put it into action in this country? Please elaborate.
Trust relationships, that is what it is about. In life. In business. This is how you make a business grow. Not that people will always like you. But they should trust you. Your employers, as well as your customers. They should trust you and your brand.
I have to tell the truth, this is important to me. All the way, I learned from my predecessors – the things that they taught me and the shared experience. So, one thing I did well was to learn about trust and relationships – two different things. I do think that I was good at trusting and building trust-based relationships.
In my book, I give an example of how important trust relationships are, in discussing the joint task force between Samsung and IBM:
It had been discovered that the LCD panels on the monitors had been built with several defective components. … That was why all units had to be replaced, even if they seemed okay at the time. … When I relayed the news, IBM Management was both surprised and grateful.”
It is important to be “prompt and transparent in finding and communicating a solution”.
To summarise: “A problem that could have strained our relationships with our partners had turned into an opportunity to solidify their trust in us.”
Every time I did TV sales or monitor sales, the customers liked me. This was different to building the trust inside a company, though. An important mindset for the job is: “If it doesn’t work, make it work.”
Also, I learned new languages. I learned English until I felt confident in speaking it better. And, “rather than focusing on one task, product managers had to be able to look at the bigger picture and work together, collaborating and communicating and resolving silos between different departments”.
Later, I got executive coaching in the USA, and my coach told me that I was the king of trust relationships for the customers.
What is your opinion on artificial intelligence? It is such a hot topic at present.
Look, AI has been with us for years. It fits into TVs and smart phones. It has been around for many years.
Okay, ChatGPT is a quantum leap, I agree. But I don’t think it is a game changer. We can use AI for usability and for cutting costs, but our customers still need to trust our products.
Look, in the beginning, the internet was slow; now, we cannot live without phones and the internet. So, I suppose with AI this will be the case, too. We will have difficulty living without some of the changes it may bring.
Some will say it will change the world, but we are still human beings. We need to use AI to help ourselves and to continue improving our living conditions, and to make life more comfortable and effective.
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Some will say it will change the world, but we are still human beings. We need to use AI to help ourselves and to continue improving our living conditions, and to make life more comfortable and effective.
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How do you see the future?
I think Samsung has a good portfolio: there are TVs, refrigerators, phones – products that people trust. It is not going to go away, to vanish into thin air. I think people in business in general should know that it is an organic system. The leader is important in decision-making, but everyone plays an important role. There are going to be ups and downs. There will be debates on ChatGPT. Our question is: in this ever developing world, who will create the next breakthrough (in technology)?
I think it depends on whom the customers will accept. The final decisions will not be made by machines!
What is your final advice for business people?
I will end with the important lesson I learned when I climbed Mount Kilimanjaro: you have to push through with willpower!
Thank you for your time, Sung Yoon!
Thank you for the interview, Naomi. But do you not need to hurry now to collect your daughter from school?
