Key executives of Samsung Group’s Future Strategy Office, the South Korean conglomerate’s top decision-making body, toured Silicon Valley in San Francisco earlier this week to examine operations of Samsung Electronics and learn from the liberal and inventive environment of the U.S. innovation and startup hotbed. Samsung Electronics last month announced so-called Startup Initiative to change its corporate culture and work environment better to incubate and experiment with new ideas and breed innovations.

According to multiple industry sources on Tuesday, 10 president- and vice-president level executives of Samsung Group’s Future Strategy Office arrived in San Francisco for a four-day visit - the biggest-scale for the conglomerate. The group included key operation leaders Kim Jong-jung, head of corporate strategy 1 team; Lee Joon, chief communications officer; and Lee Soo-hyung, director of planning team.

Upon arrival, Samsung executives visited the new office building of Samsung Electronics that houses the company’s display division.

South Korea’s tech giant manages Samsung Strategy & Innovation Center (SSIC) to find future growth engines of its component business that includes semiconductors and displays and also Global Innovation Center (GIC) to nurture companies that develop assembled products. SSIC, which is headed by Samsung President Sohn Young-kwon who previously was with Intel Corp., has offices also in Korea, Israel, and London. It is currently engaged in various researches on digital healthcare, artificial intelligence and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. GIC, which is headed by David Eun, who had attained the highest position at Google Inc. as a Korean, is known as a center that has contributed to boosting Samsung Electronics’ businesses. Through GIC, Samsung acquired SmartThings, a leading IoT open platform company in the U.S., in August, 2014, and also, LoopPay, a software company dedicated to developing mobile-payment system, in April last year.

The technology held by SmartThings has become the standard technology of Samsung Electronics’ various projects in the field of IoT while the technology of LoopPay has been applied as a core function of Samsung Pay, a mobile payment system supported by the flagship Galaxy device.

In San Francisco, Future Strategy Office executives were also briefed about businesses promoted by Samsung Research America (SRA). The subsidiary of Samsung Electronics is currently involved in research and development in various areas including hardware and software, service and platform. SRA was behind the development of the round-shaped display of the Gear S2 that was released last year and also the smartwatch device’s rotating bezel.

During the visit, Future Strategy Office executives also looked into the overall corporate culture of Silicon Valley startups. The move comes amid recent demand within the group for a need to introduce a new corporate culture.

The office will incorporate guidelines to reinvent corporate culture and identity in its roadmap for human resource development to be released in June.

By Lee Seung-hoon

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