Samsung's Lee: Tainted titan who built a global tech giant

SEOUL: In February 1993, five years after taking over from his father at South Korea's Samsung Group, 51-year-old Lee Kun-hee was frustrated that he wasn't making his mark.

Samsung Electronics developed from a second-tier TV maker to the world's biggest technology firm by revenue - seeing off Japanese brands Sony, Sharp and Panasonic in chips, TVs and displays; ending Nokia Oyj's handset supremacy and beating Apple in smartphones.In a 1997 essay, Lee recalled his frustration at management inertia."The external business environment was not good ...

Lee's business acumen made him the object of endless fascination and speculation in Korea, but he and the empire he built have also been vilified by critics and activist shareholders for wielding such economic clout, hierarchical and opaque governance, and dubious transfers of the family wealth. As his health deteriorated - Lee needed help in walking and was susceptible to respiratory diseases following lung cancer treatment - he was a less frequent presence at Samsung's headquarters, spending long winter vacations in Japan or Hawaii.

As most of Samsung's staff members are in their 20s and 30s and didn't experience Lee's managerial heyday first-hand, this homage serves to remind them of the need to 'think crisis," several people who have been trained at the center said.Lee was born in 1942 in the southern Korean village of Uiryeong, the third son of Samsung's founder. He was sent to Japan at the age of 11, just after the Korean war ended.

His older brother, Lee Maeng-hee, was initially chosen to lead Samsung in 1967 when his father retired, but his aggressive management style caused friction with the founder's confidants, according to several books about Samsung.

We are history's victims.

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