Samsung Electronics Co. will hold a three-day, bi-annual global strategy meeting in South Korea this week with its key local executives and heads from its overseas operations in hopes of finding remedies that can help the Korean tech giant regain consumers’ confidence after its Galaxy Note 7 fiasco and fight back growing protectionism on the global trade front.

The meeting, which is held in July and December every year, will kick off on Monday, and each business unit will present its future goals and set up action plans for next year. On the first day of the meeting, Samsung Electronics’ information technology and mobile communications (IM) division will discuss its plans, followed by the meeting by consumer electronics (CE) and device solution (DS) divisions on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively. Each division meeting will be led by its head - Shin Jong-kyun, president of IM business, Yoon Boo-keun, president of CE business, and Kwon Oh-hyun, vice chairman of DS business. The three-day meeting is expected to be attended by roughly 500 officials including those from overseas operations.

Until recently, it has remained uncertain whether or not Samsung Electronics would convene its bi-annual global strategy meeting in December as the country’s largest conglomerate Samsung Group had been embroiled in an alleged corruption scandal linked to President Park Geun-hye and her close friend Choi Soon-sil. Its year-end president-level reshuffle has been already delayed.

An unnamed official from Samsung Electronics said the company has, however, decided to convene the meeting as planned because setting up preemptive business strategies has become more important than ever before amid growing uncertainties over economic conditions at both home and abroad.

Samsung Electronics executives at home and heads of overseas operations are expected to mainly focus to come up with measures to fight against negative external factors such as heightening trade tensions across the world. The United States, in particular, is expected to lay out new economic policies under its newly elected president Donald Trump who has been hostile against foreign companies under his America First agenda. The election of Trump as the next president of the U.S. has sparked concerns that Korean made products would lose ground against their U.S. rivals in the world’s biggest economy.

Samsung Electronics has already been notified of anti-dumping duties on its washing machines shipped to the U.S. from its factories in China. The company is expected to devise action plans in the upcoming meeting to cope with the fast changing business environment in the U.S., its major export market.

Samsung Electronics’ executives are also expected to discuss strategies on the North American and European markets whose economies have started to show signs of recovery. The company is facing great challenges from its rivals in China that have been introducing budget consumer electronics items, eating away at Samsung’s overseas market share.

During the IM business meeting, most discussion will likely be centered on the strategic direction of the new Galaxy S8 smartphone series slated for release next year and follow-up measures to clean up messes left from the discontinued production of the Galaxy Note 7 that catch fires due to battery defects. Company executives will also likely discuss how to maintain robust sales of the company’s quantum-dot ultra-high definition (SUHD) televisions and other premium consumer electronics, as well as share next year’s strategies to target the global premium market.

By Kim Dong-eun

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