“The Galaxy Note 7 is a beautiful, capable Android phone that
showcases Samsung’s best in design, battery life, speed and features,”
wrote CNET’s Jessica Dolcourt. TechRadar raved that the Note 7 “took
Samsung’s best phone to date and added even more features, like a larger
curved display and stylus pen.” Engadget awarded the Note 7 one of its
highest review scores ever, proclaiming, “The company wound up making
its best phone yet in the process.”
But it was a short-lived victory. Within days the YouTube videos and
social media cacophony started trickling into Samsung’s headquarters.
“How can you believe that? It’s all nonsense,” a senior manager told a
mobile phone marketer who dared to ask about the reports. Young-hee
Lee, Samsung’s executive vice president for global marketing, told
Bloomberg Businessweek that she didn’t believe the reports at first.
But eventually a gallows humor settled over employees.
“One mobile division executive described the Galaxy Note 7 as a
‘radioactive’ topic,” reported The Wall Street Journal, “with staffers afraid
of even discussing it in the company canteen.”
Several floors up, near the top of Samsung’s mobile-phone building in
Suwon, C-suite executives were frantic with fear for their jobs. The
company formed a task force under CEO D.J. Koh to contain the damage,
meeting every day at 7:00 A.M. for the next four months to coordinate
responses. The powerful enforcer for the ruling family, Vice Chairman
Choi Gee-sung (G.S.), also stepped in.
As South Korea’s EBN reported, “Now, speculation that DJ Koh...will
be replaced seems to hold more water.”
Although D.J. Koh was a CEO, Samsung treated its CEOs more like
COOs. While Koh headed the investigation, he ran one company within
the Samsung Group and still required supervision from an executive above
him. Ascend through the labyrinth of the Samsung empire, and the officers
become more secretive, their decisions more guarded and hidden. They
rarely speak in public. They descend on trouble spots within the company
with little forewarning and sometimes grave consequences to the
executives in charge.
Vice Chairman Choi was a lifelong Samsung employee who had once
been a semiconductors salesman and television marketer. He had a
methodical and calculating demeanor. One former vice president called
Choi a “terrorist” for his aggressive ways. Admired and feared, he was