Lee Jae-Yong, known as the crown prince of Samsung, took a major step forward in order to take control of the family-run conglomerate, after joining the board on Thursday. He´s the grandson of the firm's founder Lee Byung-chull and the son of Samsung chairman Lee Kun-hee. He is seen as one of the front-runners to take over from his father who has not been well since 2014.
Nepotism Over Meritocracy ?
According to the BBC, Lee Jae-Yong´s appointment has raised questions from his opponents, who believes that he haven't held any major role in the firm, and was taking a place on the board only because of his family rather than by merit. However, the nomination was approved by an extraordinary meeting of Samsung's shareholders who showed its support, and backed Lee in his new position.
In addition to this important decision, the meeting was also focused on the Galaxy Note 7 recalls fiasco, who hammered the reputation of the world´s largest smartphone maker, which has as a collateral damage a huge impact on South Korea economy.
Lee Jae-Yong To Solve Note 7 Fiasco
According to The Guardian, the Note 7 failure will be the biggest issue that Lee Jae-Yong will have to face, which have made a huge damage to the company, to the point where the company might show the door to nearly 200 executives, and apply strict performance evaluation parameters for the annual reshuffle scheduled for December. Apparently, one of the main reasons for Note 7 fiasco was the corporate governance structure, and the Lee Jae Yong could make a huge change.
"It was a problem caused not only by technical errors but also by rigid corporate governance structure. All the executives here are, I'm sorry to say this, those hired by [the Lee family] and remarks by such executives will not be enough to earn the trust of the market. Only messages delivered by Lee himself will be significant ... so I hope he will come out in public to talk about these pressing issues of how to improve corporate governance and corporate culture," Samsung shareholder and head of the Seoul-based monitoring group Solidarity for Economic Reform, Kim Sang-Jo, explained.
Lee Jae-Yong´s reign has just begun, and everyone´s looking for good results in 2017, wth the release of the new Samsung´s flagship. Although it is unknown how his performance will be, the only fact is that the biggest phone maker in the world has entered a new era.
