King back to the throne

At long last!

After two years of waiting for the right timing, Lee Kun-hee is finally back to Samsung, this time as CEO of Samsung Electronics.

Of course the company has been building up its case why former chairman of the Samsung group should come back. Here is what Choi Gee-sung said last september.

“To achieve ‘strategic focus,’ we need owner’s determination.’ We need owner’s vision for the future.” He went on to say “there are many times when we need to put together all the strength the company has in order to win in this highly competitive world, which is not possible under the current system.”

The company put out this morning the statement that read :

As of today, Lee Kun-hee returns as chairman of Samsung Electronics.

Samsung presidents’ council discussed his return to management on 17th and 24th, and agreed that Lee’s experience and leadership is needed to Samsung in taking a lead in the global market amid rising uncertainty and rapidly changing management conditions in the global economy.

The council wrote up a letter asking his return after the Fabruary 24th meeting, and Lee Su-bin, Chairnman of Samsung life insurance, gave the letter to Lee Kun-hee.

Lee Kun-hee said “now is a real crisis. Best companies in the world are collapsing. We don’t know what is going to happen to Samsung too. In the coming 10 years, businesses and products that represent Samsung today will mostly disappear. We need start anew. No time to hesitate. We should go forward."

So the company need a hero to salvage it from a 'real crisis'? Does this giant comapny still need a babysitter? This whole claim is to about scarying the Korean people into a belief that Samsung can't survive without its founding family. What does this company take its countrymen for?

To be fair, the country's biggest conglomerate might need to treat the old hero better for his substantial role over the past decades in the company's astronomical growth.

Lee Kun-hee stepped down April 2008 over tax evasion and breach of trust charges against him. His regination then helped this scandal to fizzle out. He later paid fines and received a suspended jail term, as widely expected.

It was a disgraceful departure of chairman of the Korea's biggest chaebol surely for the founding family and many executives who have been close aides to Mr. Lee.

Though some people close to the matter say he is not going to be involved in day-to-day business matters, most Koreans consider this as the 'return of the king.'

No one will doubt that he exerts enourmous influence over the group. In fact he has never lost that power since he took the helm.