This co-CEO model would bring, analysts say, strategic stability to Samsung and further consolidate its core businesses into mobile and memory. Quite interestingly, both mobile and memory are very important for Samsung at the moment, as both are rapidly increasing competition in the respective markets of smartphones and chips.
The Whole Story of Samsung CEOs
Last August, Samsung Electronics appointed TM Roh as the newly inducted co-CEO for the mobile-centric Device Experience (DX) division after clearing his previous post as the head of the Mobile Division or MX. With this, it will return to a co-CEO structure after co-CEO Han Jong-hee's death in March of last year, after which there was a single-CEO function, and with Jun Young-hyun serving as the other co-CEO, responsible for the Device Solutions (DS) division, i.e., the chip and memory business.
This is seen as a return to a more "traditional" strategy. For a long time now, Samsung has maintained such a co-CEO structure for separate management of its two major units-consumer (mobile, TV) and memory/chip.
Two-Tiered Leadership
Changes internally, then further moved on to technology policy and r&,d, with, for example, Yoon Jang-Hyun appointed CTO and responsible for research. Park Hong-Kun could be said to be positioned at the Advanced Institute of Technology.
Therefore, the two-tiered leadership is also about focusing on consumer products in terms of mobile and TV and home appliances, and, at the same time, focusing on chips. This isn't taken as something immediate; it is taken as something very conscious yet futuristic in the market.
Shares, in fact, dropped somewhat after such news hit the market amid investor fear that the change of leadership was not a bold new idea in itself but an extension of the old line into the future.
Conclusion
Meanwhile, the return to this new co-CEO model is an essential step to ensure leadership stability as well as a clear division of authority and long-term strategic planning. In this respect, it could, to a large extent, help core business units in the company achieve sustainable competitiveness in the future.
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