SWOT Analysis:

SWOT analysis is a strategic planning method used to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities and threats involved in a company or a project.

Name Samsung Corporation Limited

Industries served Consumer electronics, Telecoms Equipment, Semiconductors,
Home Appliances

Geographic areas served Worldwide

Headquarters South Korea
Current Chairman Lee Kun-hee
Revenue US$ 327 billion (2013)
Net income US$ 30.1 billion (2013)
Employees 427,000 (2013)
Main Competitors Apple, Nokia OYJ, Intel Corporation, LG Display and LG
Electronics, Sony Corporation, Lenovo Group Limited, Hewlett-
Packard Company, Toshiba Corporation, Western Digital
Corporation and others.
Strengths:
 Hardware integration with many open source OS and software. Samsung is focused on
producing devices which can be integrated with most of the software and OS.
 In 2011 due to innovation and design, Samsung ranked second on the list of US top
patent assignees.
 Samsung holds significant market share in most of the product categories.
 Samsung has the ability to market the brand. Samsung is named as top rising brand by
Interbrand and is the 9th most valuable brand with value nearly $33 billion.
 Samsung is one of the largest and the most dominant smartphone manufacturer globally.
The company has sold more phones globally compared to its closest competitor Apple,
which is the second largest manufacturer. The Samsung Galaxy S series phones are the
main reason for gaining a large market share over a 4 year time period.
 Samsung enjoys the widest range of product portfolio which includes Mobile phone,
Tablet, TV/Audio/Video, Camera, Home appliance, Laptop, Printer, Memory cards and
other accessories.
 Samsung took advantage of the growing economy of Asian market by setting up
manufacturing plant in India there by reducing logistics and supply chain costs.

Weaknesses:
 Samsung Electronics is the largest technology business in the world in terms of revenues
but it has a low gross profit and net profit margins. Although its smartphones business is
quite profitable, Samsung’s profit margin is low due to its semiconductors sales and
aggressive price cuts.
 Lack its own OS and software. Software and OS production has a high profit margin, can
increase integration of company’s products and brand loyalty. Without strong software
and OS Samsung is at disadvantage over its competitors.
 Samsung Electronics serves four different industries with many different products in
them. Samsung is at disadvantage over its competitors because it loses a focus when
competing in too many industries and too many products.
 The laptop division and the tablet division of Samsung is somewhat lacking compared to
the overall market and its competitors. The company is trying to release new products
within this area but global sales of laptops have declined for a few years now and tablet
sales have increased.

Opportunities:
 Samsung should make an active effort to offer unique products to customers, in order to
grab more market share.
  The company could develop advertising platform for its mobile devices and significantly
benefit from this lucrative market.
 Samsung could open more stores to serve more customers.
 Samsung should participate in product development and attract more customers.
Samsung should also consider participating in various events to attract attention.
 There is a demand for quality application processors. Samsung is one of the key
manufacturers of application processors for smartphones and tablets. The growing
demand for these products requires best quality application processors that only Samsung
provide.
 Samsung could offer additional services to retain existing customers and attract new
ones.
 Samsung business has a strong position in tablets market and could expand it by
introducing newer, better quality tablet models, such as its current galaxy line.

Threats:
 Samsung has wide variety of product lines, failure of one product line will have impact
on the other and will result in brand dilution.
 Smartphones market in the developed economies is saturated and the sales will not be
growing at a high rate.
 Samsung is very scattered. It controls and operates different products while its
competitors use their resources and effort on one segment only. Diversification takes a lot
of effort and attention.
 The serious threat that Samsung and the other technology companies are facing is a rapid
technological change. Companies are under the pressure to release the new products
faster and faster. The one that cannot keep up with the competition soon fails. This is
especially hard when the business wants to introduce something new, innovative and
successful.
 Various companies have realized the importance of advertising, therefore Samsung will
be subject to a lot more competition as advertising creates and draws attention of
consumers.
 Samsung is the second largest semiconductors producer where the profit margins are very
thin, thus weakening the whole company's figures.

Organizational Structure:
SAMSUNG Corporation Ltd. Functional Organizational Structure

CEO

Personnel
Assistant To CEO

Marketing Engineering Finance Production

Manager Manager Manager Manager

Research Staff Engineering Financial Production

Adminstration Planning Team Planners

Marketing
Planning Staff Preliminary Industrial
Design Staff Budgets Team
Engineers

Advertising &
Promotion Staff Electrical General Production
Engineers Accounting Team Engineers

Sales
Administration Staff Mechanical Cost Accounting
Engineeris Team Purchasing

Sales Staff Statistics Analyzers &

Packaging Team Tooling Staff
data Processing Staff

Quality Assurance General

Team Production Team
 SAMSUNG Corporation Ltd. Divisional Organizational Structure

Chairman: LEE KUN-HEE

Regional Headquarters: North America, Europe, China, Southeast

Asia, Southwest Asia, Latin America, Middle East, and Africa

CEO

Device Solutions Corporate

Digital Media and Communications
Management

Consumer IT & Mobile

Electronics (CE) Communications
Memory Division S.LSI Division LED
Business

Digital
Visual Display Mobile Media Solution
Appliance Network IT Solutions
Division Communications Center
Division Division Division
Division
Semiconductor
Digital Imaging
Division
Division