How did a noodle store turn into a multi-billion dollar company?

Did you know that Samsung, one of the largest multinational companies in the world, started from a trading company that sold fish and noodles?

According to the international website, only one company exports a fifth of South Korea’s total exports, and that is Samsung. Samsung is among the 20 largest companies in the world in terms of its market value, while in the electronics industry, it is second only to Apple. is at no.

Samsung was founded on March 1, 1938 by Lee Byung-chul, the son of a South Korean land lord, as a small trading company that supplied dried fish, noodles, and other similar items to various parts of the country.

Samsung means three stars in Korean, and its first logo also featured three stars.

By 1945, Samsung began exporting to China and other neighboring countries, and in 1950, when the Korean War broke out, it was among the country’s top 10 companies.

When the North Korean army occupied Seoul, Mr. Lee had to move Samsung’s headquarters to Busan, which benefited the company because of the large US military presence in Busan and the contract to transfer military equipment to Mr. Lee. Found.

After the war, the Samsung Group established the first sugar refinery and textile mill, which became the largest textile factory in Korea at the time.

By the late 1950s, the Samsung Group had become large enough to buy three major South Korean banks, an insurance company, and two or three cement and fertilizer factories, with a few more in the 1960s.

Mr. Lee was in Japan at the time of the military coup of May 16, 1961. He did not return for a short time as military general Park Chung-hee took back control of three banks in the name of economic reform in the name of economic reform.

In fact, it was General Park who made South Korea a developed and industrialized country by making economic reforms.

There is a word in the Korean language called shae-bo, which means a large business owned by a person or family that operates a variety of companies.

South Korea’s entire economy is run by more than 20 companies, some of which were established after General Park’s economic reforms in the 1960s, and Samsung is one of them.

These large corporations have made South Korea economically not a proverbial but a real Asian tiger, the term Asian tiger used to refer to a country with an incredibly fast pace of economic growth. At one time, Pakistan was also called the Asian Tiger.

After an agreement with General Park, Mr. Lee returned to Korea and established the Federation of Korean Industries in August 1961, becoming its founding chairman.

In 1969, the Samsung Group entered the electronics industry for the first time and established separate divisions for electrical appliances, semiconductors and communications. The first thing that came out of Samsung’s electronics division was a black and white TV, along with the export of home appliances.

As early as 1969, Samsung Engineering was established to install oil refineries, power plants, water treatment plants, petrochemicals and gas plants.

In the 1970s, the Samsung Group further expanded its textile business to manufacture everything from raw materials to finished products itself.

At the same time, more companies were established, namely Samsung Heavy Industries, Samsung Shipbuilding and Samsung Techwin, and investments were made in heavy industries, chemical compounds, petroleum and pharmaceutical industries, while a company called Korea Semiconductors had 50 employees. Purchased percent shares.

In 1978, Samsung established an aviation division and began manufacturing aircraft engines and parts, as well as parts for space vehicles, in March 1979, it founded Sheila Hotels and Resorts, which operates luxury hotels worldwide.

In 1985, Samsung Data Systems, now known as Samsung SDS, was established, which contributed to making the group a world-class company in the information technology industry.

At the same time, Samsung established two research and development institutes that expanded the company’s technology line into electronics, semiconductors, high-polymer chemicals, genetic engineering tools, components for communications, aeronautical and space technology, and nanotechnology. Expanded to technology.

On November 19, 1987, Samsung founder Lee Byung-chil passed away and the group split into five parts, with the electronics business going to Lee Byung-chil’s son Lee Kun-hee and four companies to his other children.

Realizing that Samsung had a dominant position in the Korean economy but was unable to compete with global companies, Lee Kun-hee initiated massive reforms in the 1990s and ordered top executives to replace their wives. Change everything except the children.

He ended the company’s tradition of red tape, encouraged junior employees to point out mistakes by superiors, gave women senior positions and emphasized quality over quantity of products. These reforms put Samsung among the top 5 companies in the global electronics market.

In the nineties, Samsung C&T Corporation became a major name in the construction industry. The company has been involved in the construction of Malaysia’s Petronas Towers, Saudi Stock Exchange Tower Tadawul, Dhaka International Airport, Riyadh Metro and the most famous Burj Khalifa.

In 2007, Samsung entered the smartphone industry and introduced the first Galaxy phone on 29 June 2009, the Galaxy series is the longest running series of any company ever.

Samsung supplied the chipsets and microprocessors for Apple’s early models, and in 2013 introduced the first Galaxy tablet and the first smartwatch.

In 2011, Samsung became the world’s second largest semiconductor manufacturer, while in 2012, it overtook Nokia to become the world’s largest mobile phone company, capturing 25.4 percent of the global mobile phone market.

In 2013, its revenue was 17 percent of South Korea’s gross national product (GDP).

In 2018, Samsung started setting up the world’s largest smartphone manufacturing factory in India.

As a result of the July 2021 deal with Lucky Motor Corporation, Samsung set up a smartphone manufacturing unit in Pakistan as well, with the phones now not only available in the country but also being exported.

Currently, there are about 80 companies operating under the Samsung Group, most of which are multinational companies worth billions of dollars.

In the year 2022, Samsung Electronics ranked fifth among the best brands in the world with a brand value of $107 billion.

In 2022, Forbes ranked Samsung first in the list of Global Best Employers, 233rd in the list of Best Employers for New Graduates and 14th in the list of 2000 best companies in the world.

In the year 2022, Samsung’s revenue was 244.2 billion dollars, the value of assets was 358 billion dollars, and the profit was 34.3 billion dollars, while its Forbes real-time market value was 367.26 billion dollars.

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