Samsung Rising Part One with Geoffrey Cain

In episode 326, Geoffrey Cain, author of “Samsung Rising” joins us in a two parts conversation on his journey across Asia as a journalist and author and discuss the backstory of his new book behind the Samsung Group and how it rise to be the most powerful Chaebol (large family-owned business conglomerate) in Korea. In the first part of the conversation, Geoffrey discuss the inspiration and the main themes behind “Samsung Rising”, and shares the origin story of Samsung and how they went from an agriculture business to a global technology giant today along with Apple and Huawei by a family owned enterprise spanning three generations.

Here are the interesting show notes and links to the discussion (with time-stamps included):

• Geoffrey Cain, author of “Samsung Rising”, and also regular commentator on The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), Time & The New Republic and former correspondent in The Economist (Website, @geoffrey_cain, LinkedIn) [0:26]
  • How did you start your career? [0:55]
  • What have you learned from covering North & South Korea, China and Cambodia in your career journey? [8:35]
  • In your career journey, what are the key lessons you can share with the younger audience? [10:55]
  • Comments on how the history of Samsung aligns with the story of South Korea’s rise as one of the top economies in Asia.
• Samsung Rising (Random House, Amazon, Apple Books) [15:45]
  • What is the inspiration behind writing the book “Samsung Rising”? [16:20]
  • Who are the intended audience of the book? [20:32]
  • If you will to summarize the key takeaways of the book, what would they be so that you can spark their interest to learn more? [22:22]
  • Can you talk about the origins of Samsung and what type of businesses that the family behind the company have grown from a small trading company  to modern technology giant today? [25:05]
  • What does Chaebol means in South Korea? [33:05]
  • The family behind Samsung have gone through three generations: the founder Lee Byung-chul (or B.C Lee in short), Lee Kun-hee and recently to Jay Lee. Can you talk about how each leader has been different and what their contributions to Samsung have been? [36:50]
  • Can Jay Lee step up for Samsung as his father and grandfather have in the past? [49:04]
  • Jay Lee’s investments in Silicon Valley and how he is thinking about Samsung’s future given that the environment is currently becoming more complex with US protectionism. [52:00]

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The show is hosted and produced by Carol Yin (@CarolYujiaYin) and originally created by Bernard Leong (@bernardleong, Linkedin). Sound credits for the intro music: Taro Iwashiro, “The Beginning” from Red Cliff Soundtrack.