More than 20 years ago, Samsung Electronics was still producing cheap, imitation electronics for other companies. The Company leaders put the speed, scale and reliability on the top. Very few designers are involved in the new product and engineering department. The efficiency and engineering is seriously paid attention by the enterprise, the designers don’t have much influence or position.
Until 1996, Mr. Lee Kun Hee, the late Chairman of Samsung Group, instructed: to become a leading brand, Samsung needed to design, which he believed would become “the last front in the global race of the 21st century”. He targets to form a design-centric culture that is worthy of the world-class innovations.
His target was accomplished. In 2019, Samsung had about 1,500 designers. Their creative process began with the researchers conducted by various teams of designers, engineers, marketers, ethnographers, musicians, and writers. The company has won more design awards than any other in the recent years. Samsung’s TV design is considered to be bold, while Samsung has also introduced new smartphone categories such as phablet, flip smartphone. Design becomes an important part of DNA Samsung.
Samsung’s design journey is not easy, despite the strong support from the senior leadership. Transitioning to a creative culture without losing a technical advantage is not a simple matter. A risk in-preferred culture must learn to adapt to trial and failure.
Internal capacity development
If there is no breakthrough creativity, Samsung’s mobile division is impossible to survive in the iPhone-led smartphone revolution. A series of “giants” like Nokia, Motorola, BlackBerry or Ericsson all collapsed. Besides, Samsung has also led the global TV market since 2006 with many successful products.

The design leaps all started with Mr. Lee’s 1996 determination to revolutionize the company’s design. The fastest way to change is to use the design from outside experts, however, many directors persuade Mr. Lee to nurture internal design experts, to focus on the company’s long-term interests rather than the private projects.
To do that, Samsung invited lecturers from a prestigious art university and opened 3 training programs. One is to train internal designers, to provide them with a 2-year leave; the other two programs involved to pupils, students and interns. The programs are Mr. Lee’s personal priority to avoid the objections from business and design leaders.
Many Samsung officials now agree that the depending on outside experts will harm the company. Meanwhile, although it stakes more labor than creates consistent perspective for the development of an internal design team. Said An Yong Il, the former Vice President of Design Strategy, “Once we had our own place in the organization, we started to pay more attention to corporate culture.” Designers also develop the strategic thinking and the tenacity helping them overcome the resistance in the long run.
Empathy with the organization
The innovation process is often lengthy and tortuous in the big companies. Even if the design team’s new product idea is supported by the management, it still needs the approval of engineers, programmers, user experience specialists, team leaders, managers, and suppliers in some cases. Each decision can interfere with the original idea and tend to follow the safe, petty route rather than radical innovation. Said Kang Yun Je, Vice President and Chief Creative Officer of Samsung TV, other departments often think to earn higher profits simply by using available technology, making products work little better and faster.
To ensure the complete original concept, the designer must empathize with the decisions made by other departments throughout the entire process. For example, Lee Min Hyouk – Creative Director of Samsung Mobile – used to design a flip phone without an external antenna. To convince the engineers to remove the antenna, he had to find the right reasons and put himself in the position of an engineer, coming up with an unusual design. It’s a new hinge design, creating space inside for a bigger, more efficient antenna. He is also studying on paints to improve the signal reception. As a result, Lee convinced the engineers, while “Benz phone” model sold more than 10 million units.
The design must also be supported by the suppliers. If the component manufacturer is not willing to cooperate, no new design will survive. For example, when Samsung developed One Design flat-screen TV, they must face the resistance from LCD panel suppliers, which used to supply panels with inside filter screens to protect the components. As Samsung designers wanted a TV of thin, metal shell, they wanted to get rid of this component. However, “they didn’t listen to us,” said Jung Hyun Jun, Samsung TV’s vice president of engineering. “They sold standard LCD panels to many other TV manufacturers and they didn’t see any reason to do any different thing because of one TV model of a customer.” As a result, Samsung designers, together with engineers developed a supply chain model for LCD panel system, reducing much shipping costs. Samsung shared the costs with the suppliers and finally got the ideal panels.
Visualizing the future, framing the problem
The Directors are trained to imagine the future based on the past and present. In contrast, designers are trained to break the old ones. If a designer wants to convince the leader to give them a chance, the designer needs to have a management mindset. Visualization is a powerful tool for bridging the two ways of thinking and getting skeptics to support the new idea.

Galaxy Note developing process is a prime example. Right after Samsung Electronics introduced Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab, some design team members find that un-satisfied need in the market: In Korea and Japan, many office workers have a habit of taking notes and save the schedule in small notebooks. Neither a 4-inch phone nor a 9-inch tablet can replace them. So the “smart diary” idea developing team uses a stylus and a 5.5-inch screen.
When the idea was presented to the management, intense debates about the idea took place continuously. At the time, the marketing team believed that mobile phones should not be larger than 5 inches. Even the design team comes up with a simulation, the leaders are still worried that users will not accept such a large smartphone.
Expressed Lee Min Hyouk, “Although everyone aims at creativity, no one wants to change when we mention about details. We are told that it cannot be sold, you can’t hold it in your hand, how can you put it near your face or the only reason to buy it is to make your face look smaller”.
The design team found a different presentation way. They prepared a product (which later became a Smart Cover), which displayed an interactive screen when the cover was closed. It looks like a notebook and thereof it doesn’t look too big. Thus, the idea was approved and Samsung opened a whole new category that is a phablet.
The design revolutionization effect within Samsung initiated by the late Chairman Lee Kun Hee has been successful. After more than 20 years, Samsung has escaped from its image of a cheap, copycat device maker and Samsung has risen to become one of the world’s most respected technology companies.
Source : Ictnews