1. What leadership decisions has Samsung made in order to manage its innovation process?
2.  What competitive strategies did leadership adopt to turn Samsung around? What challenges does Samsung face in the future?

Since 1998 Samsung Electronics had undergone a dramatic transformation. Under the leadership of Jong Yong Yun, CEO from 1996 to 2008, Samsung had emerged from being a company that earned modest profits on low-cost products based on competitor’s technology to a company producing cutting-edge hi-tech products that impressed consumers – what they called “wow products.” Yun had believed that developing products with attractive designs and advanced technology and features would enable Samsung to grow into a premium brand that would earn higher profits. Under Yun’s leadership, Samsung increased its research and development department to make it faster and larger than any other electronics technology company. This resulted in Samsung’s ability to take more products from concept to rollout faster than any of their competitors, without sacrificing quality, as demonstrated by the numerous citations earned at top design contests throughout the world.

Although it made everything from refrigerators to televisions to vacuum cleaners, Samsung had become best known for its smartphones and tablets. Going into 2015, Samsung Electronics was one of only two companies able to make profits in the highly competitive mobile phone industry, taking market share away from its closest rival, Apple. Unlike Apple, which contracted out the assembly of its products, Samsung had been able to develop capabilities in manufacturing, even supplying components to other firms such as Apple, Sony, and Hewlett-Packard.

However, by Samsung innovating in markets that were created by others, the firm had gotten the reputation of being a “fast follower,” and even had to go to battle with Apple over allegations of patent infringements. Samsung needed to challenge this perception that it wasn’t innovative. One way to do that was to focus resources on the research and development process, tapping into the talents of its designers and engineers across its multiple lines of business, eventually making Samsung products – such as the television, handheld computers, phones and even appliances – the centerpiece of a digital home. In an environment where technologies were continuously evolving, even leading to periodic revolutionary shifts, could Samsung succeed with its Vision 2020 goal of becoming a top 10 global company, and be considered an innovative leader?