Video on How the Korean War Created Samsung
Below is a well made Youtube video that goes into the history of Samsung.
I did not realize that Samsung was founded as a truck company in Daegu by Lee Byung-chul who was chummy with the Imperial Japanese. He eventually moved his business down to Masan which was the main port the Japanese were using to export out of Korea.
After the colonial occupation Lee would go on to become friends with President Rhee Syngman and business continued to grow. Then during the Korean War business continued to thrive as he had contracts to move U.S. supplies and equipment with his trucks. After the war is when Samsung grew dramatically as it expanded into building construction and other industries to where today it is Korea’s flagship global business conglomerate.
That’s kind of an oversimplification. It took more than truck in the right place, it took a great people manager.
After the war, one of my wife’s uncles bought a “factory” (actually a few small machines) and started making and selling those ever-present white gloves with the red rubber palms. After a few years, he sold that and made enough to buy a business visa and training to set up another uncle and himself in a big eastern city in the US. Most of the family followed. My wife’s branch stayed behind, which turned out well for me, because the only time I ever visited that ciry was when one of her aunts died, about 10 years ago.
So, Sangsung was started by a guy with a truck and ambition. Not everyone with a truck or two made out that well. Even those with connections to Rhee.
And a lot of people Rhee didn’t like made out big, too…