As Lee kun-Hee, lies in his hospital bed, if indeed he is still alive, he will no doubt be infuriated by the humiliation of the failure of the Galaxy Note 7.
This is the profile of the secretive and visionary Chairman of Samsung who single-handedly turned the profile and aspirations of a second rate, low costs electronics company into a world leader and contender for the best selling phone world-wide, within 3 decades.
In 1938 four years before his birth, Lee kun-Hee's father set up a rice mill and grocery store named Samsung, meaning 3 stars, the analogy being that stars always shine and are always there. Lee spent his early childhood in Japan and graduated with a degree in economics. The family firm was now prospering and able to divert money into subsidiaries - the fledgling conglomerate was born, with electronics manufacturing as the new enterprise.
The South Korean economy, and way of business, has it it's heart the the Chaebol. A family owned conglomerate often steeped in mistrust . Samsung was soon to join the ranks of the Chaebol's.
Lee's father had marked out Lee as his successor before his death perceiving his outstanding business acumen and forward thinking attitude. Samsung were now producing a large volume of electronics equipment but the company ethos was build them cheap sell them fast. The emphasis was not on quality and this where Lee was to turn things around.
Lee was convinced this was not the way to make real money, believing that increased profit margin would come with increased quality. Lee would notice in the stores that Samsung products were generally marked down and selling at lower prices than competitors like Sony and the future for Samsung was not looking bright. Lee set his mind on guiding his company to out do Sony in quality and also marketing.
In 1993 Lee gathered 200 of his top executives in a hotel in Frankfurt and spent three days making speeches and presentations signalling his way forward for the company. His aggressive attitude and visionary ethos was - change everything, do everything differently.
Lee has the opportunities enabled by the digital age in mind and wants samsung to become a major player. The new chairman adopts the policy "change everything except your wife and kids".
Two years later and Lee's policy changes do not appear effective. In 1995 Lee sends out Samsung phones to some friends and family at christmas and is furious when some of the phones are returned not working. Lee gathers his staff together and builds a huge bonfire which is to be fuelled by Samsung products, fax machines, phones and TV's. Lee orders his staff to don headbands saying 'quality first' and they smash and burn the products they have themselves made, the lot is then bulldozed in a final denunciation.
The Chairman goes on to propagandise the identically uniformed workforce by broadcasting proselytizing corporate slogans and pursuading staff to share in celebrations of how proud they are to be part of this great company. Workers are required to study the Chairman's philosophy and ethos and adopt quotes to ingrain the corporate thinking. Fun team building exercises are adopted including formation dancing in the pattern of the company logo.
The new paradigm pays off with the launch of the Galaxy series in 2010 and the phone becomes one of the first Android devices to achieve huge global sales. Chairman Lee has turned around the fortunes of Samsung from bargain basement to the eleventh most valuable brand in the world.
Samsung is now a substantial constituent of South Korean society.
The country is often referred to as the Republic of Samsung. Inhabitants can be born in a Samsung hospital, play in a Samsung amusement park, reside in Samsung apartments and end their lives in Samsung hospitals.
Lee has a brief flirtation with controversy and shame when convicted of tax evasion in 2008 and stands down as chairman, but he is too valuable to the South Korean economy to lose, and is soon forgiven and re-adopts his position as chairman.
By 2010 Lee makes 100th richest person on the Forbes List with a net worth of around $14 billion, which is about one fifth of the total GDP of South Korea.
After his heart attack in 2014 Lee is bed ridden and will not be seen in public to the current date, raising speculation of whether or not he is actually still alive. There appears little chance that he has much to do with ill-fated Galaxy 7 or has involvement in it's subsequent recall.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 has now been recalled after several dozen are reported to spontaniously combust. The recall and scrapping is predicted to cost the company around $5billion. This is by no means a train crash to a company currently worth £161 billion but what the knock in reputation will cost Samsung remains to be seen.
image credits Pixabay, Wikipedia