Global Buisness Plan

Jared Linscombe

January 29, 2019

MGT/411

Dr. Deb

Innovation and Competitive Advantage: Changing Environments

The organization selected for this assignment is Samsung, Inc. This is a consumer electronics company that is one of the world’s greatest producer of television and mobile phones. The organization is also a top manufacturer of flash memory maker. Being this successful in the electronics technology industry means that Samsung has a strong culture of innovation. The company currently employs more than 310,000 people across the globe both directly and indirectly (Samsung Newsroom, 2018).

The organizational leadership philosophy on innovation

In the late 1990s, Samsung’s management established a philosophy of devoting and committing their technology and human resources to the creation of superior products and services, thus contributing to bettering the world. This is an indication that the organization has a strong determination to contribute to the wellbeing all over the world. With such kind of a message, every worker within the organization is encouraged to work innovatively with a clear objective of being a superior producer globally.

With the key objective of fostering creativity and innovation, Samsung has a strategy of sourcing key individuals from both business and technical backgrounds. Its branding policy is not only to create products and services which can be trusted by people, but also to create a reputable brand that attracts and retains top talent. In this regard, the organization has developed a global strategy with the aim of catching the attention of gifted individuals, recruiting, and retaining them. Once the world’s smartest innovators are recruited into the company, they are trained and integrated into the company’s culture, philosophy, and history. They are also taken through one week of the Korean regular conversation class. Recruiting the world’s top inventors, innovators, and designers is vital to the organization’s success in building technology for the future.

Activities the organization is actively engaged in to sustain competitive advantage within its industry

In addition to having the best talent for the creation and development of groundbreaking abilities, Samsung has developed a tool to recognize main players such as team leaders, project leaders, concept champions, gatekeepers, or promoters within the company. An example of such an activity is the Samsung Semiconductor unit where 90 managers were arranged into groups and given an assignment of creating a new equipment using Lego blocks. Despite the tool being a simple Lego blocks, the equipment built in the process had to be functional. This activity required both collaboration and creativity and gave managers the opportunity to comprehend the role played by each member of the team. Through the activity, each manager was able to understand who the promoter is, the critical thinker, supporter, and idea generator.

The company is also involved in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities with the aim of supporting the local communities where it operates. For example, Samsung Tech Institute emboldens self-reliance and independence among young people through organized vocational training. By the end of 2015, this initiative had reached and benefitted 39,659 youths. The organization also runs what is popularly known as Samsung SMART School which seeks to tackle the key gap in universal education by bettering educational environment for students who live in underprivileged and marginalized areas. This program has been highly successful and helped 224,753 in 2015 alone.

Another key CSR activity rolled out by Samsung is dubbed Samsung Nanum Village and its aim is to target the causes of poverty by providing a successful infrastructure to help the parts of the populations which are socially marginalized. Within this program’s scope, the organization partners with local and national administrations to provide a far-reaching support medical facilities, infrastructure for education, building community centers, and availing clean water for domestic consumption.

R&D initiatives the organization is involved in for long-term competitive advantage

Samsung has been heavily investing in its Research and Development (R&D) for as long as it has been in existence. For instance, the company’s mobile communication division in China set up two key R&D initiatives. In 2000, the Communication Technology Research Centre was created in Beijing, China. The objective of this R&D center is to investigate mobile communication system technologies (Pearce, 2012). In 2017, the company restructured its R&D to start operating 22 centers across the world. The organization launched a research initiative to restructure and amalgamate the division in charge of software R&D with Digital Communications R&D.

References Pearce, R. (2012). China and the Multinationals: International Business and the Entry of China Into the Global Economy. Cheltenham, United Kingdom: Edward Elgar Publishing. Samsung Newsroom. (2018, March 22). Samsung Recognized as One of LinkedIn’s Top Companies of 2018. Retrieved January 28, 2019, from https://news.samsung.com/us/samsung-recognized-linkedin-top-companies-2018/