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IN SEPTEMBER 1950 UNITED Nations forces arrived and recaptured Seoul.
Three months later, B.C. decided to sell off Samsung’s remaining assets—
whatever hadn’t been looted—and use the proceeds to buy five trucks to
evacuate Samsung employees and their families, as the communist forces
advanced on Seoul for a second time.
“I loaded up company employees and their families, and we left Seoul.”
They joined the deluge of refugees headed south. He was en route to his
family home of Daegu.
The North Korean army, reinforced by China’s million-man armed
forces, retook Seoul. B.C. fled to the country’s southern tip at the port town
of Busan—the last remaining South Korean stronghold.
In rebuilding his company, B.C. learned the art of reading people as a
means of survival. He established a human resources–centered approach
modeled on Japanese corporate practices. Talented people were in short
supply during the war. Managerial aptitude became a prized Korean asset.
“[The Japanese] steadfastly valued loyalty, and prioritized the cosmic
self over the individual and the public over the private,” he wrote. “The
Japanese capacity for unity and diligent work comes from that patriotism,
which values a greater public cause.”
Since B.C. prized lifelong loyalty, he believed in a careful and cautious
approach to each new hire. He personally sat in on almost every employee
interview—reportedly about 100,000 in his tenure. He hired professional
physiognomists, or face readers, to help him interpret the structure of a
candidate’s eyes, nose, lips, ears, and face to get a sense of who they were.
“Be prudent in hiring someone,” he wrote. “But once you’ve hired them,
be bold in entrusting them with tasks.”
His philosophy was similar to that of the Japanese zaibatsu, where the
ruling family sets the vision and the executives execute it without
micromanaging employees.
While American companies were keen to snap up technical specialists
and give them short-term projects rewarded with short-term incentives,
Samsung (like many East Asian companies) became obsessed with
cultivating lifetime generalists—creating what became known as “Samsung
Men”—rather than short-term employees, future managers shuffled into
new roles every few years by a powerful HR department. Company was