“The chairman [asked] some incisive questions and the Japanese
designers frantically replied to all of them,” Fukuda told the JoongAng
newspaper. “We stayed up all night talking.”
Up to this point, Samsung managers had been ignoring Fukuda’s advice,
to Fukuda’s displeasure. Offices were siloed, refusing to share the most
basic information. Standards were lackluster. The parts inside electronics
products like microwaves and cellphones were sloppily arranged, and
quality control was abysmal. An expensive piece of testing equipment at
Samsung Electronics’ research and development center had gone unused for
several days because of a broken electrical socket.
The Japanese delegation continued talking with Lee until 5:00 A.M.,
leaving him with a report on their findings from their visits to the factories
and offices of Samsung Electronics. The chairman put the report in his
briefcase, preparing to fly to Frankfurt the next morning.
Official histories of Samsung don’t mention that the chairman’s trip to
Germany was about cars: He was scheduled to meet with the heads of
German automakers. He was eager to learn from them, as he was interested
in entering the auto industry, fulfilling a little-known pillar of his father’s
vision.
“Automobiles were the most important part of Lee Kun-hee’s tour,”
Hwang, his adviser, acknowledged.
On the flight, however, the chairman opened his briefcase to read the
report that the Japanese consultants had prepared.
Samsung’s designers, Fukuda said in his report, needed a stronger
mandate to work with the engineers who traditionally ran the company,
rather than under them.
He wrote that the true beauty of a product is on the inside. “The outer
shape is important,” the report stated, “but the inner design is also
important.” It is “not simply creating a form or color of the product, but
rather forming or tapping cultural activities to create a new kind of user
lifestyle by increasing added value, starting from the study of the
convenience of the product.” Design, in other words, is not about making
things pretty. It is about making things work.
As he read on, the chairman grew furious. Samsung’s management was
ignoring Fukuda’s much-needed advice. He called his five direct reports
over from the back of the plane.
“Why is this happening?” he asked them, repeating his question several