Introduction
Samsung Electronics is a global leader in digital convergence, digital media, telecommunication, and semiconductor technologies. Generally, the company manufactures goods that are meant for daily consumption. These products include flat screens, DVD players, mobile phones, and tablets. The majority of people assume that Samsung is one company, and it manufactures all the products that have a Samsung logo. In a real sense, however, Samsung entails subsidiary units, and one of them is Samsung Electronics, which has been manufacturing all electronics that have a Samsung logo. Since its founding, the company has been able to maneuver the market, becoming one of the top electronics brands in the world. This paper will focus on Samsung Electronics’ resource audit, value systems, product or service portfolio, and potential future strategic growth.
Strategic Position of the Company
Digital technology has advanced greatly over the past years, and this aspect has changed the way businesses operate throughout the world. Due to this advancement, many technological and electrical companies have grown massively, Samsung Electronics being one of them (Dokukina A. and Zarudnaya M. 2021, 445). All technological companies have experienced this massive growth, which poses great competition to Samsung Electronics. Companies such as Apple, LG, Sony, Huawei, OnePlus, Oppo, and Xiaomi are also growing massively and are competing with Samsung Electronics (Lee Y. 2019, 140). The strategic position of the company’s unit is that it has a competitive and growth advantage, which is technology. The company focuses greatly on innovation, and this move has helped it maintain being the leading electronics brand in the world. The company has managed its supply chain using modern and efficient technologies such as Blockchain, loT, and Al (Lee Y. 2019, 141). Additionally, Samsung has focused on digitizing business operations and increasing its investments in the digital market. These strategic moves have helped the company to remain at the top in the global electronics and technology market.
Resource Audit
Samsung Electronics is worth over $500 billion, and this number shows that it has grown three times in a decade. This worth has been backed up by the high value of its tangible assets, such as real estate (Tien N. 2019, 2). This worth makes Samsung Electronics the first company in South Korea to ever achieve a worth above $300 billion (Iwai H. 2020, 125). As for tangible money, Samsung Electronics has about $3 billion in its bank account. Financial records in 2019 indicate that the company had annual revenue of $198.03 billion (Iwai H. 2020, 130). This year, the company experienced a decrease of 10.67% from the previous year (Lee Y. 2019, 144). As for human assets, the company has over 300,000 employees (Seo E. et al., 2019, 625). The company is the second-largest technology company globally, which means that it has employed many people globally.
Samsung has high brand equity because it generates a value premium from products with a recognizable name compared to their generic counterparts. In 2020, Samsung held 5th place with over $62 billion (Rhee I. 2020, 75). This value had increased twelve times since the previous assessment in 2000 (Lee Y. 2019, 143). During this time, the world was going through the Corona pandemic, which had greatly affected the market. Despite these challenges, Samsung Electronics managed to attain a 2% rise in its brand value (Seo E. et al., 2019, 631). It had a value of $60 billion in 2019, and it attained a value of $63 billion in 2020 (Tien N. 2019, 2). The company was ranked sixth in the Best Global Brands in 2017. After three years, the company had risen to be among the top five Best Global Brands. Since 2000, the company has been growing consistently since it had scored 43rd place during the first Best Global Brands ranking. The company entered the top ten group in 2021, and since then, it has been rising continuously, scoring 6th place in 2017 and 5th place in 2020 (Jang, S. et al., 2019, 15). This brand equity is a result of the continuous introduction of innovative products and the employment of broad marketing activities in the global market.
The world is in a period where physical assets are increasingly converted to intangible intellectual assets. This change makes the intellectual property agenda the main foundation of business competition. There has been a continuous tussle between Samsung and Apple, and this dispute represents the increased importance of intellectual assets in the current world (Jang, S. et al., 2019, 10). Samsung Electronics has a high intellectual capital because it can make original designs for all its products. Samsung was involved in a case regarding intellectual assets in 2018 with Apple over a patent award (Lee, Y. 2019, 145). Apple won the case, and Samsung had to pay the company a $120 million patent award (Rhee, I. 2020, 74). Since that case, Samsung Electronics has invested greatly in intellectual capital to avoid conflicting with another company over a patent. The company has employed skilled individuals in charge of designing unique products. This development has enabled the company to maintain its originality and stay ahead of its competitors.
Value Systems
Samsung Electronics’ core values are co-prosperity, integrity, change, excellence, and people. The unit company has a rich culture in every facility throughout the world, and all of them have comparable and similar practices (Iwai, H. 2020, 129). This similarity is because all global branches operate under the same values. The company has great respect for everybody who is directly or indirectly related to the manufacturing of its products. In all the years that the company has been in operation, it has managed to maintain high performance while at the same time encouraging positivity in the workplace. Samsung Electronics works under the ideology that delivering the best products is important, but honor within the workplace is the most important thing (Dokukina, A and Zarudnaya, M. 2021, 450). The company also promotes practices and settings that distribute benefits equally, benefits that ensure that all entities benefit equally. This measure ensures that everybody in the team receives an equal piece of cake, and this helps in promoting uniform prosperity among the employees and in all the branches.
As for people’s value, Samsung Electronics believes that a company succeeds because of its people. Samsung Electronics gives its people many opportunities that help them to grow and reach their maximum potential (Jang, S. 2019, 14). The value of people is linked to other values such as professional growth and development, service, integrity, leadership, accountability, respect and dignity, collaboration and teamwork, fairness, inclusion and diversity, and accountability. Samsung Electronics has included people as a core value, which means that it is committed to the people who make up the company (Seo E et al., 2019, 632). Samsung Electronics has achieved its goals because it has invested in empowering its employees. Some of the ways that Samsung Electronics empower its employees are by providing them with relevant training, recognizing their achievements with rewards, and providing them with equal opportunities to learn and grow. Another way that the company has upheld the value of people is by fostering a culture of workforce diversity and a multicultural approach.
The value of excellence has also played a huge role in helping Samsung Electronics achieve its goals. All the activities done at Samsung Electronics are driven by unyielding excellence, passion, and unfaltering commitment to manufacturing the best products. The unit company has achieved excellence by focusing on problem-solving (Iwai, H. 2020, 130). The value of excellence has helped create an environment where everybody in the team yearns to do their best. In this culture of excellence, employees are equipped with the necessary skills to develop resilience and flexibility that help them deal with uncertainty, challenge, and change.
Change management is a key factor in any company’s success. The value of change has helped the company adapt to the new developments that occur with time. In the present economy, change is inevitable, and everybody needs to develop skills that help them survive the negative changes. Samsung Electronics managed to have high sales even during the pandemic (Tien, N. 2019, 2). The success during this time was a result of the value of change because the company was able to adapt quickly to the changes brought about by the pandemic. Besides the environment changing, the consumer needs and wants keep changing, and the company needs to keep up. Samsung Electronics has managed to keep up with the changing trends, which is seen in the evolution of its products with time (Rhee, I. 2020, 76). The company keeps manufacturing new products with the latest technologies to ensure that it serves the consumers’ changing needs and wants.
In 2017, Samsung Electronics had a rocky start of the year because a section of consumers was complaining about the newly produced Galaxy Note 7. The company was able to bounce back from such a dangerous situation because of its values of integrity and co-prosperity (Iwai, H. 2020, 133). Samsung Electronics has the dedication to serving consumers by providing them with the best quality of products, and this has allowed the company to stay at the top of the technological market (Dokukina, A. and Zarudnaya, M. 2021, 449). Integrity has allowed the company to maintain corporate citizenship because it maintains complete transparency, respect for stakeholders, and fairness in its operations. After the Galaxy Note 7 incident, Samsung took full responsibility and immediately replaced every Galaxy Note 7 (Rhee, I. 2020, 74). For the consecutive months, the company worked hard to ensure that no electronics would go unnoticed and that all the sold-out Galaxy Note 7 mobile phones were returned. This incident depicts that Samsung Electronics works hard to meet its social responsibility and integrity expectations.
Product/Service Portfolio (BCG Matrix)
Samsung Electronics has a wide range of product portfolios, including mobile phones, tablets, TVs, cameras, printers, and home appliances. The company has attracted a wide range of customers since different products target different demographics. The wide product portfolio also allows the company to distribute its risks and failures since it does not depend on one product. A BCG Matrix helps evaluate the strategic position of the portfolio of a certain brand by classifying the products in a two-by-two matrix.
The image above represents the BCG matrix which this paper uses to evaluate the strategic position of Samsung Electronics’ products portfolio. As seen above, the BCG matrix classifies the products of a certain company into four categories: Dogs, Stars, Cash Cows, and Question Mark (Jang, S. et al., 2019, 14). The industry’s growth rate and the market share of the specific company form the basis for the BCG classifications. Dogs represent products that have low growth or market share. These products do not have a useful earning for the company since they are mainly cash traps. Cash Cows are products that have a low growth market and a high market share. These products require low investments for them to be profitable. Stars represent products with a high growth market and a high market share (Lee, Y. 2019, 140). These types of products might become Cash Cows in the future in case of positive industrial growth. Lastly, the question mark represents the products with a high growth market and a low market share. These products can become stars if they generate income in the future or loss-making machines in case of failure.
As for the BCG Matrix of Samsung Electronics, Cash Cows include cooking appliances, washing machines, refrigerators, and ACs. Over the years that the company has been in operation, Samsung Home Appliances have gained a household name, and people trust these products because of their high quality (Iwai, H. 2020, 122). Home Appliances have managed to achieve a good market share across the various industrial segments, and they have the potential for more growth in the future. Samsung Electronics stars include TVs, tablets, and mobile phones because all of these have a high market share in the high growth industry (Tien, N. 2019, 2). Samsung Galaxy and Note Series mobile phones have maneuvered the market and gained many loyal consumers. Samsung Electronics unit maintains this market share by continuously launching new smartphones under the two series, with new designs and updated features. LED and OLED TVs have gained good traction throughout the global market (Iwai, H. 2020, 124). The company continuously experimented with new technologies and added new features to the TVs. These advancements have helped the company to gain and maintain customers.
The question mark represents the products that are still in the development face, and the company is yet to create a notable position for them in the market. These products have a small market share, which brings out the uncertainty in the future outlook of the products, and investing in them poses a great risk for the company. The only product under the Samsung Electronics unit that is a question mark is the Samsung printer. This is so because the product has a small market share and high competition (Lee, Y. 2019, 141). The dog in Samsung Electronics is the Samsung smartwatch. This product was perceived to have growth potential but failed to deliver great profits as expected because of the slow market growth. Due to the failure to deliver the expected results, the product has become a major source of loss for the organization (Jang S. et al., 2019, 13). Samsung smartwatch failed to achieve the expected results because it did not manage to keep up with its competitor, the Apple watch.
Potential Future Strategic Growth
Samsung Electronics has employed several growth strategies in the years that it has been operating. The company has entered many markets that ensured significant sales and coverage throughout the globe. Currently, the company relies on four main growth strategies: market penetration, market development, product development, and alternative channels. Market penetration is a strategic growth because it shows how the company has managed to penetrate the market in the past years. Samsung Electronics has increased its sales to both the new and existing consumers. For example, the company has more than 35% share of the smartphone market globally (Seo, E. et al., 2019, 629). This is a low share, making the smartphone fail to be the most successful product for the company. In 2021, Samsung announced that they would increase their investments in the next three years and penetrate the market more (Iwai, H. 2020, 134). This investment would be divided between Samsung Electronics and Samsung Biologics. This spending will help the company to strengthen its global position and spearhead innovations such as robotics and next-generation telecommunications. The company has already begun working towards achieving this goal, which explains its high penetration in the global market, increasing its profits.
Another future strategic growth measure is market development. Samsung Electronics has a record of entering new markets, and this expansion is not limited to geographical aspects. The company is always exploring new opportunities, such as the emergence of mobile information technology in healthcare needs (Tien, N. 2019, 2). Samsung views this as a great opportunity because there is a potential to enable the company to attract more consumers and hence manufacture new products. In the 2017 report made by the company, it is clear that Samsung is eyeing the next-generation technologies and robotics (Jang et al., 2019, 9). Investing in these two will help the company manufacture new electronic products, putting Samsung at the forefront of the new technologies. This move will give Samsung a competitive advantage over other companies that will venture into these technologies later.
Samsung Electronics will also use alternative channels to promote its products. Examples of these channels are online sales, net of distributors, and retail chains. As time passes, the company will need different forms of product promotion that will be up to date and efficient. This strategy will help the company sell its products and introduce new ones to the market (Dokukina, A. and Zarudnaya, M. 2021, 447). The company has also integrated product development to help it in its future growth. The company has invested greatly in R&D operations, and it also concentrates on enhancing its products to attract new customers and maintain the old ones.
Existing Products New Products
The above model represents the key future directions that Samsung Electronics has employed regarding its strategic growth. The strategies have worked for the company so far, and according to reports, it will continue implementing them to help achieve the set goals and targets.
Recommendations
The main competitor for Samsung Electronics is Apple since they have the same range of products, from desktops to tablets to laptops and mobile phones. Technology keeps evolving, and the company needs to adapt to the new developments to keep up with the customers’ needs and wants. One recommendation for Samsung is that it should aim to manufacture high-quality products, like Apple products. Samsung Electronics manufactures quality products, but some are not of high quality as their Apple counterparts. Another recommendation is that the company should focus more on authenticity while manufacturing new products. This move will help the company avoid flagship cases, such as its one with Apple. Lastly, Samsung Electronics should rethink its prices because they are not affordable to many people. One has to pay a huge price to get a quality Samsung product, and this applies to mobile phones, tablets, laptops, TVs, and home appliances.
Conclusion
Samsung Electronics is the main unit of the Samsung Company, and it has been performing well since its opening. Resource audit indicates that the company is doing well financially as it has a wide range of assets with a high value. The human resource is also significant because the company has employed hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. Samsung Electronics owes its success to the values that it has maintained over the years. The company has come up with effective strategies to help achieve future growth. All strategies developed by the company are workable and do not entail any complexity. Samsung Electronics has been performing well in the past, and this trend will continue because of the strategies it has set in place.
References
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