Product Design: Raising the Bar At Samsung

An article in the NY Times looks at why Samsung, despite its success, is still frustrated:

So why is Kim Byung Cheol, a senior executive at Samsung, so anxious about his company’s future? Because, Mr. Kim and others fret, Samsung still has not mastered one crucial factor: originality.

With deep pockets, Samsung has won over consumers with clever designs and multifunction gadgets, like camcorders that download songs and refrigerators that also surf the Internet. It has swept up awards for cellphone designs that look like dashboards, tuxedos or pebbles in a stream. Last year, the company had $59.2 billion in sales and reported profits of $7.9 billion, 13 times as much as the 2005 earnings forecast by its rival Sony.

But Samsung executives worry that the company, while excellent at refining other people’s inventions, is relying on an outdated strategy that worked fine only as long as the company was climbing to the top. Now that it is the leader, they say, Samsung has to set itself apart by creating novel products of its own, especially if it wants to stay ahead of fast-rising rivals from China and Korea and fight off the comeback efforts of its Japanese competitors.

Raising the Bar at Samsung – New York Times