Samsung advised to open communication with critics

A well-known economics professor advised Samsung Group on Wednesday to open communication with those who are critical of the nation’s top conglomerate.

Participating at a regular weekly meeting of the top executives of Samsung at its headquarters in Gangnam, Kim Sang-jo, a professor at Hansung University in Seoul, gave a one-hour lecture titled “Economic Democratization and Samsung,” with the subtitle “Samsung and Society.”

“Vice chairman and heir apparent of the conglomerate Lee Jay-yong has to break out of the closed walls and communicate with people on a wider political and social spectrum,” said the professor at the meeting attended by two dozen top executives.

“It is too late for chairman Lee Kun-hee to change. It is impossible. Instead, his son Jay-yong has to lead the change,” said the professor. He also said that the Samsung leadership had maintained a reclusive management style in the face of rapid social, political and economic changes.

He is often called the “sniper” against family-controlled conglomerates, or chaebol, due to his harsh criticism of them.

“Listening only to sugar-coated words, vice chairman Lee has turned a blind eye to people critical of the firm,” Kim said after the meeting.

“The world changed in 2008 when the financial crisis crippled the world economy, and so did Korean society in 2012 when economic democratization became the core political and economic subject much talked about during the presidential election. Now is Samsung’s turn.”

Most of the participants at the meeting were said to sympathize with his ideas, according to a Samsung official.

Samsung Group contacted Kim two months ago about holding the lecture.

Kim also said any measure for economic democratization without the rule of law was ineffective, emphasizing those firms abiding by the rules should be recognized and rewarded, but those that aid not should be punished.

The professor serves as a director of the economic group Solidarity for Economic Reform.

By Kim Young-won  (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)