Why Samsung will never be Apple?

At the onset

This article is not debating which one is a better brand, its rationalizing the play of culture as a DNA for brands and the products they make hence.

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Past Friday, an old colleague decided to meet up for some catch-up time and I proposed, "why not call others also?"

Any guesses what followed? (the usual) 

He, in a jiffy, made a WhatsApp group and did the biggest blunder, asking everyone where to meet!

That in my books, is a FAIL!

In the hours that followed, most were being spammed on deciding where to meet and why so?

Let's meet there, the beer is "freshly brewed and it has just opened". Oye why not there, it has ale and the outdoor seating is conditioned, "no need to take breaks to the smoke room", and on and on it went. My watch told me its 7 'o clock and the traffic is buzzing. 

Irked, I called the "group admin" and told him to tell everyone to meet up at a place called Bronx by 8 'o clock. 

Abracadabra, the spamming stopped, all but one came to the decided place. 

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The Towering Beers 

Post the pleasantries, we gobbled towers of chilled ale and real life conversation (the meaningful ones) started. 

Three of them work at Samsung. Post the fourth mug of ale, began the conversations on how life at Samsung is a lil stressed. Mostly because all the decisions are open till a week before the product launches and then the theatrics that follows.

I asked them, why is that?

Of many other points, all three, agreed on the point that, most, if not all decisions needs collective buy-in and that always seemed to make mountain of a molehill.

I asked them, why?

They said, it's just the way it is.

We soon changed the topic to other things, that most of the mid to late thirties talk about after some mind damaging mugs of ale.

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The Drive Back Home

On the way back (in the back seat), the notifications kept coming in, pictures from the evening and everyone saying their final pleasantries and exiting the group, saying the venue was a find. 

I was squeaking my eyes, staring into the screen of my phone, and as I was exiting from the group, dots popped up in my mind. 

Those three guys complained about how things at Samsung were always in an open loop and decisions took time (dot 1) and hence the stress. Isn't that the same issue we just faced some hours back when, deciding on the venue (dot 2), was left to all? 

The 30 mins drive back home helped me connect a few dots.

We have a biking group and experiences over the years, made us bring the group down to 10 members and we always choose a person to lead from the front and one to lookout from the back, we all are at the command of the one person in the front (dot 3). It makes the trip more defining and seamless.

All the three dots had a story to tell.

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Why is Apple, Apple? 

Because of Steve Jobs. One man at the command center to dictate everything. In his biography by Walter Isaacson, it was clear how important it was for Steve Jobs to have absolute autocracy.

If you pull up the list of the Top 10 Valued Companies, 9 of 10 are Americans with one man at the Isle, and the one company that isn't American is Toyota, led by Akio Toyoda (from the same family who founded Toyota). He enjoys the same autocracy as his American counterparts. 

What's the point? 

Point is CULTURE.

Americans:

• Celebrate individualism
• Give the company founders superhero status (Elon Musk is the real life Iron Man)
• Capitalism is revered

American CEO's are the highest paid in the world. For that very reason they are the first ones to be shot at when bottom-lines go red. They are the Tigers of the corporate world. They bathe in solidarity when it comes to ownership, accountability and decisions. Most importantly decisions.

This culture is about Singularity. 

Koreans: (most of Asia actually)

• Work in groups and decisions need to be collective
• Individualism is seen as opposition
• Promote a conformist work culture (a chain reaction of "yes sir")

This culture feeds into a consensus-driven work environment, which is apparent inside Samsung headquarters. Managers report to managers, who report to more managers.

This culture is about Conformity.

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Zooming In

East Asia is having difficulty innovating.

The Korea Times reported on a doctoral dissertation written by Samuel Kim in 2008 on Korea's creative problem: 44% of Korean nationals attending top American universities dropped out half-way through. The study tracked 1,400 students between 1985 and 2007. The reason for the high dropout rate is that the rote learning that they grew up with doesn't prepare them for the creative, active and self-motivated work required in American universities.

Dr. Satoshi Kanazawa, an evolutionary psychologist from the London School of Economics, published a paper in 2006 analyzing Asia's creativity problem. In his paper, he notes that while "East Asians have slightly higher mean IQ's than Europeans; East Asians have not been able to make creative use of their intelligence." 

Kanazawa provides a number of reasons to why creativity is not easily expressed in East Asia, ranging from political circumstances, difficulty learning new languages, an education system focused rote memorization learning rather than self-expressive creativity, and conformist cultures.

Kanazawa writes "Scientific revolutions happen by challenging the established paradigms. No conformists have ever brought about a scientific revolution."

You need one person (not a group) to be calling all the shots to achieve the impossible. Steve Jobs, Carlos Ghosn, Elon Musk, Henry Ford, Lee Iacocca.

You need the opinionated (not conformist) to challenge the status quo to beget innovation. Disney, Google, GE, Coca-Cola, 3M, Tesla, John Deere, Mahindra, SpaceX, Blue Origin, Nike.

Samsung might not be both, because it's from a conformist culture.

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You are part of the problem 

(Quoted from a brilliant article I found a year ago, tells exactly that)

Kevin Lee, the former head of product strategy and user experience design at Samsung Design America, watched as the $100 billion Korean tech giant wrote check after check to countless Western design firms to develop future products for the Korean company.

The god level designers like Gadi Amit & Yves Béhar would dig in their heels, refusing to budge on their grand idea or see how it might fit into Samsung’s vast production line. And Samsung management would either discard the idea entirely, or water it down so much that the product became another meaningless SKU in the hundreds of products Samsung sells today.

Later, these designers stopped taking briefs from Samsung altogether. 

"It wasn’t a lack of good ideas, or Samsung’s stinginess in hiring good designers, he argues. It was a combination of problems - cultural, managerial, and structural - that prevented concepts from making it to market as real Samsung products."

"In a sweeping sort of way, the Korean culture in itself is hierarchical, Confucius-based, and group-minded rather than individualistic," explains Ivey Business School professor Lynn Imai.

In a consensus driven work culture, quantum leaps in innovational capabilities is limited.

Hard calls and tough choices will never be made, because the only decision made in consensus, are the ones that are risk-averse.

Risk-averse and innovation don't get along.

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The Tiger

Singularity Vs. Conformist, each have their own merits and demerits. While one would be at the influx of innovation and agility, other might be at the forefront of commodification, affordability and accessibility.

What is important is to be great at what your core is and stop chasing what you are not. This understanding is discomforting but it is important. To know your core, understand your culture.

Year 2007: The leader brand in the mobile phones category brought out a product it believed was revolutionary, same year a another brand launched a phone it too believed was revolutionary. 

 

The difference was one was doing evolution in the name of innovation and the other was actually innovating. 

In the same year, Samsung's best-seller was D900 and it shipped 15 million pieces. It was a slider phone playing catch-up to Nokia. 

Samsung sells triple the volumes of Apple (if not more) but makes a fifth of the profits that Apple makes. 

It might always be so for Samsung, because sustainable profitability needs innovation and innovation breeds in cultures like the ones USA and Europe have.

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Final Thoughts

Even after Samsung being a power vendor to Apple (making all major parts used in the iPhone and iPad), having access to Apple's R&D, hiring god-level designers that Apple at times worked with, poaching employees from Apple's ecosystem, it still be a brand that will be volume driven.

Coming back home that night, inebriated, the 3 dots connected and it foretold a story. 

Being non-conformist drives innovation, results in quick action and makes things possible. The reason why my friends at Samsung will always feel the way they do and why 9 of top 10 most valued companies are American.

Non-conformist brands will always show the way.

The power of singularity.

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