[Suwon = E-Daily Reporter Choi Oh-hyun ] As the sixth anniversary of the passing of the late Lee Kun-Hee, former chairman of Samsung, approaches, his managerial legacy is once again in the spotlight. The semiconductor business, which he launched in 1974 with a personal investment of $500,000, has grown over half a century into the core business of SamsungElectronics, a global market leader. It is widely acknowledged that his bold decision-making—which kept investments flowing even during economic downturns—along with technological innovation and a quality-focused “New Management” philosophy, laid the foundation for Samsung’s competitiveness today.

On the 23rd, SamsungElectronics Chairman Jay Y. Lee visited the family cemetery in Imok-dong, Jangan-gu, Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, to pay his respects to the late Chairman Lee Kun-hee. Chairman Lee headed straight to the cemetery after returning to Korea following an inspection of a thermal power plant construction site in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). He arrived around 8:38 a.m. and laid flowers and paid his respects for about 10 minutes. Lee Seo-hyun, President of SAMSUNG C&T CORPORATION, and her husband also visited the family cemetery around 11:05 a.m., staying for about 15 minutes before leaving.

The 25th marks the sixth anniversary of the late Chairman Lee’s passing. The memorial service was held two days early, taking into account that the anniversary falls on a Sunday. Around 9:40 a.m., the presidents of Samsung’s major affiliates arrived at the family cemetery in several vans. The remaining family members, including Hong Ra-hee, Honorary Director of the Leeum Museum of Art, are expected to pay their respects separately according to their individual schedules.

Immediately following the memorial service, Chairman Lee had lunch with the presidents at the Creative Hall of the Samsung Human Resources Development Institute in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province. The Creative Hall is where a bust of the late Chairman Lee is displayed. In previous years as well, Chairman Lee has dined with executives after the memorial service to reflect on the late chairman’s management philosophy.

This year’s memorial service was held four days before the fourth anniversary of Chairman Lee’s appointment as Chairman of SamsungElectronics. It was also the first memorial service held after the bereaved family completed payment of approximately 12 trillion won in inheritance tax. The memorial observances will continue with a sixth-anniversary memorial concert to be held on the 28th at the Concert Hall of the SamsungElectronics Talent Development Center in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province.

After assuming the position of Chairman of the Samsung Group in 1987, the late Chairman Lee successfully established SamsungElectronics as a global leader.

SamsungElectronics’ semiconductor business is considered one of the late Chairman Lee’s most significant managerial legacies. He took his first step into the semiconductor industry in 1974 by investing $500,000 of his personal funds into Korea Semiconductor, which was facing financial difficulties at the time. Back then, the domestic electronics industry relied on foreign technology for core components. Although there was skepticism within Samsung about the business’s prospects for success, the late Chairman Lee identified semiconductors as a future growth engine.

His proactive investments, which turned economic downturns into opportunities, played a decisive role. In 1984, while competitors were expanding their 4-inch wafer production lines, Samsung switched to 6-inch wafers. In 1987, even as Japanese companies scaled back investments due to the semiconductor slump, Samsung built new production lines. Subsequently, by proactively establishing a mass production system for 8-inch wafers, the company boosted productivity and cost competitiveness.

The late Chairman Lee also called for a thorough transformation of the organizational culture alongside technological innovation. A prime example is the “New Management” initiative he declared in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1993. At the time, the late Chairman Lee urged a shift from quantitative growth to a quality-centered approach, stating, “Change everything except your wife and children.” In 1995, he demonstrated his commitment to quality management by scrapping approximately 50 billion won worth of products—including defective cell phones—at the Gumi plant in North Gyeongsang Province.

These investments and innovations have led to Samsung’s current competitiveness in the semiconductor sector. According to SamsungElectronics, the company ranked first globally in the second quarter of this year with a 39.4% market share in DRAM and a 29.3% share in NAND. As demand for high-performance memory surges due to the spread of artificial intelligence (AI), the importance of forward-looking investment and securing technological competitiveness—as emphasized by the late Chairman Lee—is once again coming to the fore.