Jong-Yong Yun
Jong-Yong Yun ferried Samsung Electronics through one of its most successful decades ever. As Samsung’s chief executive from 1996 until 2008, he saved a company that in Fortune magazine’s words, “seemed near death.”
In Harvard Business Review‘s ranking of the world’s best CEOs, Jong-Yong Yun came out no. 2, trailing Apple’s Steve Jobs.
Jong-Yong Yun topped the list, published 2009, for a good reason; his tenure saw Samsung kill the electronics competition worldwide. Under him, the company grew to become the world’s top maker of flat-screen TVs and memory chips. It has also become the world’s second-largest cellphone maker. At the same time, he led the phase out of loss-making lines like pagers, dishwashers and juicers.
Fresh with an engineering degree from Seoul National University, Jong-Yong Yun joined Samsung in 1966. He has since steeply ascended the company’s hierarchy, becoming vice president of its electronics group in 1990; CEO and president of the consumer electronics business group in 1991; and CEO and president of its Japan office in 1995.
Finally, in December 1996, Jong-Yong Yun became president and CEO of Samsung Electronics. He came in at a time of great financial crisis though.
Hastily, he started selling off Samsung’s assets by twice a billion dollars, raising their turnover rate. He also cut payrolls and inventories by a third. Moreover, he replaced many division executives with younger recruits. He accomplished all of this while stepping up the use of industrial engineering (IE) concepts, which he has successfully instated in the company since 1985.
By the end of 1997, Jong-Yong Yun saw a 100% productivity jump at Samsung. With that, the company began its phenomenal upward motion—while many of Yun’s fellow “chaebols” crashed.
Koreans highly praise Jong-Yong Yun for his efforts. In 1990, the South Korean government awarded him the Bronze Tower for Contribution to Industry—he received the gold equivalent two years later. The government gave him another gold award in 2003, for his Contribution to Science & Technology. In 1999, he was named Korea’s Most Successful CEO by the Korea Management Association.
In 2000, Fortune acclaimed Jong-Yong Yun as Asia’s Businessman of the Year. Four years later, as Samsung trumped Sony and Nokia in market value, the magazine included him in its list of Asia’s Most Powerful People in Business. In 2002, CNBC gave him an Asia Business Leader Award, while BusinessWeek proclaimed him one of the world’s best managers a year after.