Chairman Lee Jae-yong’s commemorative bonus is coming… Rumors digging into Samsung Samsung is now

Journalists from the Korea Economic Daily’s electronics team start serializing ‘Samsung is Now’. We deliver vivid stories from inside and outside Samsung Electronics and its affiliates. thank you

There is Jirashi, which has recently become a hot topic both inside and outside Samsung. This is the forecast for ‘special bonuses’ for each division of Samsung Electronics and major Samsung affiliates. ‘Electronic (DS) 300, Electronic (DX) 200… 200 stocks, 150 cards, and so on. Seeing that the unit is ‘%’, the number seems to be a small percentage of the basic salary.

‘Special bonus to commemorate Chairman Lee Jae-yong’

What caught my eye was not the figure, but the phrase at the top of Jirashi. This is a ‘special bonus to commemorate Chairman Lee Jae-yong’. This jirashi was probably made by Samsung employees. You can guess from the fact that within the group, Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong’s promotion to chairman is taken for granted.

Inside and outside of Samsung, there are various stories about the timing of the promotion as chairman. First of all, it has been said that he has the greatest chance of being promoted within this year. The timing is different. There are rumors that it is around ‘November 1′, the anniversary of Samsung Electronics’ founding.

There is also an observation that the extraordinary general meeting of shareholders will be held ‘after November 3’. It is expected that two vacant outside directors will be appointed at the extraordinary general meeting on November 3, and Vice Chairman Lee will be promoted after being appointed by the Board of Directors. In order for Vice Chairman Lee to become the ‘CEO,’ he must go through the approval of the general shareholders’ meeting, but becoming the ‘Chairman’ is only possible with the appointment of the Board of Directors. There are many evaluations that this is a reasonable scenario because Samsung Electronics has been emphasizing ‘board-centered management’ since 2018.

Vice Chairman Lee has been active in management since the amnesty. They were also seen taking pictures with the employees and holding a meeting, actively interacting with them. On the way home from overseas business trip, he talked about M&A more specifically than usual. Vice Chairman Lee’s words were heavily reported not only in the Korean press, but also in influential foreign media such as Bloomberg Reuters.

Vice-Chairman Lee seems to be directly interested in corporate culture reform. A representative example of this is the ‘Banning Smartphone Use at Meetings’ campaign, which is being conducted by major Samsung affiliates recently. It is said that the implementation took place after Vice Chairman Lee recently ordered, “In order not to use a smartphone to increase the concentration of the meeting,” during a meeting with several presidents. Some business units are said to have provided a smartphone holder in front of the conference room, and some business units are said to recommend ‘airplane mode’ for smartphones during meetings.

Vice Chairman Lee’s active management activities

Vice Chairman Lee exerts influence as the ‘head’ of major Samsung affiliates. In the industry, it is evaluated that Vice Chairman Lee’s legal risk has been largely resolved. Overseas, some say, “It is strange that a company representing Korea does not have a president.”

The late Lee Kun-hee took office as Samsung Chairman on December 1, 1987. It was ’20 days’ after Samsung founder Lee Byung-cheol passed away (November 19, 1987). On November 1st, ‘two years’ will pass since the passing of Chairman Lee Kun-hee (October 25, 2020). It is now said that a new Samsung vision is needed. This is why the role theory of Vice Chairman Lee who can provide direction for the ‘New Samsung’ and reorganize the organization is growing. Now, it seems that only the decision of Vice-President Lee remains.

Reporter Hwang Jung-soo