Samsung’s New Boss in China Struggles to Save TV Business.doc

Samsung?s New Boss in China Struggles to Save TV Business Kim Young-Ha is going to leave China after two years? tenure as the president of Samsung China though he said in May that he would go to Chinese rural areas for more surveys. Recently, Samsung Electronics is conducting a shakeup to its executive structure in China. As an insider from Samsung said, Kim Young-Ha, former president of Samsung Electronics Greater China will return to Korea to occupy other positions. His position in China will be taken by Park Jae Soon, former vice general manager of Samsung Electronics who was previously responsible for Samsung?s business in Korea. The insider said that Park Jae Soon holds a higher position than Kim Young-Ha in Samsung. For a Korean company which attaches importance to the hierarch, this change means that Samsung gives more priority to its business in China and the main point lies with the TV business, which is the soft spot of Samsung?s business map in China. Compared with the 20% market share of Samsung TV in the world, the Korean company has a rather embarrassed situation in China. According to the statistical data of GFK, Samsung only took 7% of the TV market in China in 2011. A source close to Samsung said that Samsung sets up the goal of increasing the shipment volume of panel TVs in China by 30% this year. This is a rather challenging goal since the whole Chinese home appliance market is under depression. It is said that Park Jae Soon, who once contributed to the prosperity of Samsung TV in the North American market, will carry on the responsibility as the “firefighter” in China again. Failure in Moving Down Distribution Channels Localizing Samsung?s operations in China and moving down the distribution channels closer to consumers are what Kim Young-Ha devoted himself to in the past two years. According to him, two years ago, only 20% of the department directors of Samsung China were taken by Chinese while now the proportion increased