After much deliberation, B.C. was convinced.—
IN FEBRUARY 1983, B.C. woke up early in his suite at the Hotel Okura in
Tokyo to call his right-hand man, Hong Jin-ki. He told him to publish a
statement called the Tokyo Declaration in the JoongAng newspaper.
“Our nation has a large population in a small territory,” he said, “three-
fourths of which is covered with mountains but almost completely lacking
in natural resources like oil or uranium.
“Thankfully, we have high levels of education and a rich supply of
diligent and hardworking [people], which enabled us to see rapid economic
growth through mass-exporting cheap goods. But with countries around the
world experiencing recessions, and with the rise of trade protectionism, the
export-based method of building national strength has reached its limit.
“We hope to advance into the semiconductor industry,” he declared, “on
the strength of our people’s great mental fortitude and creativity.”
—
AT THE INSISTENCE OF the chairman, Samsung began a series of physical
and mental conditioning exercises for its managers.
“The people I’m going to call are going on the march,” a manager
announced to the room one morning.
Kim Nam-yoon’s face lit up as he told me about the hike over Korean
barbecue one night.
Nam-yoon, a semiconductor engineer, along with a hundred others,
began his hike that night near Samsung’s Everland theme park, traversing
the mountains around Yongin—a distance of sixty-four kilometers (about
forty miles)—through the day and overnight.
The hike was designed to test the team’s mental toughness as they
prepared to race forward making a 64K DRAM chipset, an early
semiconductor used in calculators.
“It was the dead of winter,” he said. A former infantryman in one of his
country’s toughest military units, Nam-yoon lined up in formation at the
foot of the mountain.
As they paced through the frigid January night, a unit commander