The Samsung Group wants to instill a sense of urgency in its business units as headwinds continue to hamper progress. To that end, it's introducing a 6-day work week for executives at Samsung Electronics.
All executives, including those at manufacturing and sales divisions, will now work either on Saturday or Sunday as well after the conventional 5-day work week. Executives will use the additional day to review and modify business strategies to better meet the challenges.
Samsung executives will now work 6 days per week
The challenges to Samsung's businesses include a sharp devaluation of the Korean won, higher oil prices, and rising borrowing costs. This, coupled with the reduced demand for memory products, prevented Samsung from delivering better financial results in 2023.
Since the performance of major units under the Samsung group fell short in 2023, the 6-day work week has been introduced to inject a sense of urgency in executives so that all-out efforts may be made to overcome these challenges.
This directive also applies to top executives at Samsung Display, Samsung Electro-Mechanics, Samsung SDS, and other affiliates. It doesn't extend to employees under the executive level who will continue to work the usual 5-day work week.
This appears to be an attempt by the conglomerate to bring back the sense of urgency that once persisted in its rank and file, and enable the company to achieve great things. A recent report highlighted how Samsung's risk averse nature is causing it to fall behind rivals. Perhaps an attempt is now being made to reverse that to avoid the pitfalls of complacency.
The challenging business environment is also forcing others to make changes. SK Group has brought back Saturday meetings of the CEOs of its various subsidiaries after adopting the 5-day work week back in 2000. The CEOs previously met once a month.
