South Korea’s tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. is facing may hurdles in seeking investments for the future or reform in its business portfolio amid the absence of vice chairman Jay Y. Lee, a high-ranking executive from the company said on Thursday.

“It is true that there are many difficulties in seeking investments for the future or reorganizing business portfolio as the captain of a ship is absent,” said Yoon Boo-keun, chief of Samsung Electronics’ consumer electronics business unit.

His comments were made at a press conference in Berlin on Thursday, local time, a day before the official opening of Europe’s largest electronics exhibition IFA 2017. They also come less than a week after the Seoul Central District Court sentenced Lee - who has been spearheading the country’s biggest conglomerate - to five years in prison for bribery and other charges in a massive corruption scandal that removed former President Park Geun-hye. Lee’s lawyers filed an appeal saying that the ruling was unacceptable.

“Tremendous change is happening in the information technology (IT) industry at the moment and (Samsung Electronics) is in the process of reorganizing its portfolio amid that change,” Yoon said, noting how it is considerably difficult for each of the business heads to reorganize business or seek merger and acquisitions.

The executive compared Samsung Group to a large fleet with its heir apparent and de facto leader Lee as captain and himself mastering a fishing vessel making up the fleet.

Yoon said that personally he hasn’t been able to sleep at night thinking that it would be in less than no time for a vessel to sink when changes are happening so fast.

“Others would say that there is nothing to going fishing without a fleet captain but we are devastated,” Yoon said. “The chip business is performing well but we are concerned that the absence of vice chairman could lead to negative consequences.”

Yoon added that making decisions based on not only basic data and information but also on-site experience and network with global leaders is crucial for group management but it is practically impossible to do this when the top title of the conglomerate is empty.

“There is a management commission under the company’s board of directors that is responsible for making decisions on reforming business portfolio or seeking large merger and acquisitions but it isn’t functioning properly at the moment,” Yoon said, noting that there has been a recent case where a deal in the artificial intelligence sector fell through in the last minute.

By Kim Dong-eun

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