In this year’s Wednesday meeting of Samsung’s group of presidents, proportion of lectures that were based on economy and management was the highest out of any other lectures. Fact that new industries such as ‘Bio’, ‘IoT’, ‘Robot’ and others frequently appeared as topic of lectures applied Samsung’s interest in discovering new businesses in the future.

According to analysis done by Etnews from January till second week of December of this year on topics of Wednesday meeting of Samsung’s group of presidents, number of lectures based on economy and management was the highest at 18 out of total of 43 lectures.

Starting from lecture by Professor Cho Dong-ho of Ewha Women’s University on a topic of society economy with a title of ‘Unification and Economic Cooperation between North and South Korea’ in early January, there was at least more than a lecture based on economy and management in a month as there were other lectures such as ‘2015 Issue on South Korea’s Economy and Its Forecast’ by Director Kim Jun-kyoung of KDI and ‘2015 Group’s Strategy to Push for Safety Environment’ by Vice-President Baek Jae-bong of Samsung Institute of Safety & Environment in February and others.

Topics on new industries such as IoT, bio, robot and others consistently appeared per quarter.

IoT that connects every things into one and bio are emerging as Samsung Group’s major new businesses. Samsung Group’s presidents were able to study IoT throughout lectures such as ‘SNS’s 10 Faces’ by Professor Lee Jae-hyun of Seoul National University’s Communication Studies Department, ‘Complex Network and Data Science’ by Professor Jung Ha-woong of KAIST, ‘Hyper-Connected Generation’s Successful Strategy, Spread!’ by Professor Lim Choon-sung of Yonsei University’s Information Industrial Engineering Department and others.

Photo Image
<Samsung Electronics’ company building in Seocho (Source: Etnews DB)>

There were 3 lectures based on a topic of bio in 2015 and they were ‘Bio Science and Humanity’s Future’ by Professor Song Ki-won of Yonsei University’s Bioengineering Department in March, ‘Brain Science and Artificial Intelligence’s Opportunity and Risk’ by Professor Kim Dae-shik of KAIST in April, and ‘Bio Industry’s Forecast and Future Vision’ by Professor Kwon Young-geun of Yonsei University’s Bio-Chemistry Department.

Bio is seen as a next business that Samsung is focusing on. There was a time in the past when Samsung Electronics will achieve total of $1.52 billion (1.8 trillion KRW) in sales in bio sector by 2020.

Lectures regarding robots such as ‘Will Robot Bring Happiness for Humanity?’ by Professor Dennis Hong of UCLA and ‘Humanoid Robot and Future’ by Professor Oh Jun-ho of KAIST also brought many interest.

There were also many lectures on humanities as there were 12 lectures in a year. Starting from ‘Machiavelli, Most Dangerous Wise Man in the World’ by Professor Kim Sang-geun of YonseiUniversity in February, there were many lectures on humanities until the last one in end of November by Chairman SeoMyoung-sook of JejuOlleh on a topic of ‘Slow Approach on Life’.

Most of lectures were done by professors from universities. Out of group of 43 lecturers, 30 of them were professors. There were 9, 7, and 6 professors from Yonsei University, Seoul National University, and KAIST respectively. Presidents from Samsung Electronics, artists, senior reporters, employees from embassy, directors from museums and others also participated as lecturers.

Samsung Group’s presidents gather at Samsung Electronics’ company building in Seocho every Wednesdays. Even if they are not CEOs from affiliates, anyone with a rank of president can attend this meeting. Lecturers usually take about 50 minutes followed by 10 minutes of questions and answers.

Since meetings for Samsung Group’s presidents have many leading members from Samsung Group, many outside people are also highly interested in lecturers and topics of lectures.

“Instead of selecting particular trends or topics in advance and casting lecturers, Wednesday meetings for Samsung Group’s presidents select group of lecturers that are appropriate during time of meetings.” said a person affiliated with Samsung Group. “There won’t be any big changes in methods next year as well.”

Staff Reporter Park, Sora | srpark@etnews.com

Photo Image
<Analysis done by Etnews from April until August is like following: ▲ IoT = ‘SNS’s 10 Faces’, ‘Complex Network and Data Science’, ‘Hyper-Connected Generation’s Successful Strategy, Spread!’ ▲ Bio = Bio Science and Humanity’s Future’, ‘Brain Science and Artificial Intelligence’s Opportunity and Risk’, and ‘Bio Industry’s Forecast and Future Vision’ ▲ Robot = Will Robot Bring Happiness for Humanity?’ and ‘Humanoid Robot and Future’ Source: Samsung Group >