Lately, Samsung Electronics has been in the news headlines too often for the wrong reasons. Workers are striking, the company is losing key semiconductor clients, the mass production roadmap for the Texas chip factory got pushed back to 2026, the public One UI 7.0 update isn't coming this year, and more and more people are beginning to think that the company lost its spirit of innovation.
Samsung is well aware of all this, and today, Samsung Electronics DS Division Vice Chairman Jun Young-hyun issued an apology to customers, investors, and employees worldwide.
“Many people are talking about Samsung's crisis,” the letter says. “All of this responsibility lies with us who are leading the business.”
Samsung vows to do better, innovate, and be proactive
“Dear customers, investors, and employees,” says Samsung in its letter. “The performance that fell short of market expectations has raised concerns about the fundamental technological competitiveness and the future of the company.”
Samsung added it has a history of “challenge, innovation, and overcoming that has always turned crises into opportunities.” Now appears to be one of those times when the company has to turn a bad situation into a good one.
“Our management will take the lead in overcoming the crisis,” states the letter before listing three major talking points about the ongoing issues and how to solve them.
“Above all, we will restore the fundamental competitiveness of technology. Technology and quality are our lifeblood. It is Samsung Electronics' pride that we can never compromise on.”
Samsung wants to secure fundamental competitiveness rather than seek short-term solutions. And this statement seemingly rings true with Samsung leader Jay Y. Lee's recent discussion about not wanting to spin off Foundry and System LSI and continuing to think long-term.
The only way to make a comeback, Samsung says, is through “new technologies that do not exist in the world and perfect quality competitiveness.”
The second big talking point in Samsung's apology letter had to do with passion for pioneering. The company states it will better prepare for the future. “We will rekindle our unique passion to fearlessly pioneer the future and to cling to our goals until the end and achieve them.”
Instead of a defensive mindset armed to protect what Samsung already has, the company will “Re-arm [itself] with a challenging spirit to run toward a higher goal.”
Last but not least, the third major point was that Samsung vows to reexamine its “Organizational culture and work methods and immediately fix what needs to be fixed.” Samsung says that if it finds a problem in the field, it will “expose it and have a heated discussion to improve it.”
We can barely remember the last time Samsung did this
Needless to say, this letter of apology took us all by surprise earlier today. If you're a Samsung fan, we recommend reading the full statement at the company's Korea Newsroom portal.
As far as we can remember, the last time Samsung issued a serious public apology of this caliber was after the Galaxy Note 7 fiasco.
Samsung's Exynos team also admitted its shortcomings in a cozy trailer before the launch of the Exynos 2100 chip, but it was nothing as serious and direct as the letter issued earlier today.
All in all, this apology could mark another major turning point for Samsung. As the company says, it has turned crises into success stories before, so perhaps it is time for the tech giant to learn another lesson and become even better and stronger than ever.
