The crisis of confidence over Galaxy Note 7 smartphones, that has plunged Samsung into a tailspin, is also a sign of the inherent dangers of a top-down insulated corporate culture of our times. Samsung is South Korea’s biggest company by far and has always been seen as a model of pragmatic efficiency. But in the end, a smartphone is no longer nice if it catches fire or explodes, no matter how slickly built and technologically advanced it is. There are, therefore, several lessons to be learnt from the Samsung crisis for both corporates and consumers.
While South Korean behemoths such as Samsung and Hyundai are largely responsible for the phenomenal growth that has transformed the country’s economy, questions are now being raised whether their highly centralised decision-making process and execution of orders from family founders without questions is a liability or an asset. In its desperate bid to launch the smartphone ahead of schedule, with an extended battery life, to score a market lead over rival Apple’s iPhone 7, it seems Samsung has overextended itself on technology.
The primary focus of any consumer-centric business today is to be responsive — to voices both inside and outside the company. In this case, the engineers who wanted more time to test the batteries were clearly not heard out. And the biggest damage came when the replacement phones also started burning up.
It is imperative for any business to focus not only on leapfrogging technology, but more critically on the quality, safety and ethical implications of rolling out such technology. And when faced with a crisis, large corporations must be able to deal with it decisively and transparently. In this age of social media chatter and viral marketing, the real damage lies in brand perception, which is where all companies must focus to succeed as a resilient business.
