Samsung hit by succession kinks as screen business dwindles

From succession kinks to Samsung’s affiliates, Cheil Industries and Samsung C&T merge debacle, Samsung could be suffering more than Kwon Oh-hyun resignation. Thev Samsung Electronics’ CEO, vice chairman announced his resignation stepping down from his CEO role as well as his positions on the board and CEO of Samsung display in March 2018.

The vice chairman says that his decision has been a long time coming as the company is being confronted with unprecedented crisis inside out. “I believe that time has now come for the company start anew, with a new spirit and young leadership to better respond to challenges arising from the rapidly changing IT industry.” Said Kwon Oh-hyun  

His resignation follows the imprisonment of Lee Jae-Yong on corruption charges. Even so, Samsung announced earnings guidance predicting a second straight quarter of record profits. Samsung expects its operating profit to have nearly tripled year on year demonstrating a strong recovery even after recalling Galaxy Note 7 owing to technicality hitches in 2016.  

Even so, Kwon Oh-hyun told Reuters “We are not able to even get close to finding new growth engines by reading future trends right now.”

This is because a large part of Samsung’s recent success stems from Kwon’s leadership of Samsung’s components and display business, which not only provides the screens, memory, and other components in its own devices, but also supplies parts to many of Samsung’s biggest competitors, including the OLED display on Apple’s iPhone X.

But with reports saying that both Apple and Google are investing hundreds of millions of dollars into LG’s display division, Samsung’s dominance in OLED display tech may not continue on for too much longer.

However, Kwon argues that the current reflection of the company’s performance is thanks to decisions made in the past. The ex-vice chairman has expressed his worries over future performance due to the recent occurrences.

“There are no words to describe how proud I am that we built together one of the most valuable companies in the world. We have come a long way to create a company that truly changes how people live, work and communicate with each other,” Kwon’s letter continues. “But now the company needs a new leader more than ever and it is time for me to move to the next chapter of my life.”

 The 64 year old has been Samsung Electronics CEO since 2012. He joined the company in 1985 rising to lead its semiconductor business before his major appointment. He was named Samsung Display CEO in 2016

He joined the company in 1985, rising to lead its semiconductor business before his appointment as CEO. Samsung hasn’t announced a successor, although Kwon has had two “co-CEOs” — BK Yoon and JK Shin — in the past. Both stepped back from day-to-day operations in 2015, however, retaining their titles.