Before the economic crisis in Asia, Samsung had been reluctant to sell
phones in the United States, because it could sell them at a significantly
higher margin in South Korea’s protected market.
But with the economic crisis, Skarzynski was told, “You’re the most
important guy in the company because you can bring in hard U.S. cash
currency and we need that.”
The plan? The fast-rising and soon-to-be CEO of Samsung’s mobile
division, a former factory floor manager named Lee Ki-tae (K.T.), flew out
to Texas—and Skarzynski occasionally flew to Korea—as the two plotted
how to win carrier contracts.
Their strategy was simple: They would bend over backward for the
carriers, charm them, massage them, buy them drinks. They’d win them
over by elevating Samsung’s product quality. They’d release novel designs
and give them lots of marketing money. They’d position Samsung phones as
the best value for what the carriers offered, not simply the cheapest.
“In my view,” Skarzynski said, “I had ten customers. We’d go see the
CEOs of the ten customers.”
Back then, carriers were the gatekeepers of the cellphone industry, the
channel through which cellphones were sold and marketed.
Skarzynski and K.T. quickly got acquainted on the Samsung corporate
jet. On one long-distance trip from Texas to Seoul, Pete was about to put
on his headphones and watch a movie when a clamor arose in the back of
the airplane.
“You could hear K.T. yelling in the back of the plane,” he told me.
For about three hours, K.T. shouted and berated his dozen or so
staffers, rattling off the Korean equivalent of “sons of bitches” and worse.
Their transgressions? To K.T., they were not working hard enough. Work
harder, go faster, he yelled at them.
I’m glad I’m not a part of that, Skarzynski thought.
When they landed at Seoul’s Gimpo International Airport, K.T.
gathered his staff in the airport lounge, where he continued to let loose as
he chain-smoked. Nor did he stop at the company lunch. His staffers
solemnly bowed their heads at the table, not daring to touch their meals.
Unsure of what to do, Skarzynski started eating, along with a non-
Korean colleague. No one seemed to care.
“It was a couple hundred dollars’ worth of food no one ate other than