It's unusual to hear about leaders at Samsung providing sharp criticism to entire departments even as the company faces headwinds in many of its crucial business segments. The business culture there is different compared to what we're used to in the west, which is why an unusually harsh memo written by the head of Samsung's semiconductor department has become newsworthy.
Jun Young-hyun was appointed as the head of the semiconductor division back in May this year. The memo makes it clear that he's not too happy with the way things have been going and is calling on employees to make a significant change in how they operate.
He's really not happy with how things have been going
Jun Young-hyun's appointment was unusual as Samsung typically rotates the division heads at the end of the year. The mid-year appointment made it clear that management saw the need for a change as the division began lagging behind the competition, particularly after his predecessor Kyung Kye-hyun's term saw Samsung losing its lead in AI memory chips to SK Hynix.
He's had a few months to look around and understand how the vision has been functioning. It's safe to say that Jun Young-hyun isn't impressed with how things have been going at the semiconductor division. Bloomberg has seen a memo he's sent to employees, reminding them that the division's recent good fortune has been due to a market rebound and that's not something they can rely on for the future.
He says that the division must leverage its vast research experience and talented resources to regain the competitive edge. “If we rely on the market without restoring fundamental competitiveness, we will be stuck in a vicious cycle that will repeat last year’s situation,” he added.
To support this recovery, Jun Young-hyun says that communication barriers between departments have to be eradicated and that employees must stop “hiding or avoiding problems,” reflecting considerable friction caused by the internal culture which has even caused some chip engineers to leave Samsung for SK Hynix.
The harsh memo highlights management's growing frustration as Samsung lags behind SK Hynix in the supplying lucrative memory products for AI accelerators. Things seem to be looking up for Samsung as it has won approval from NVIDIA for its HBM3 memory modules and is also expected to secure approval for HBM3E memory in the near future.
