Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong (이재용) stressed a sense of crisis to executives. On Jan. 25, industry sources said Lee delivered a message at an ongoing seminar on "value education to restore Samsung-ness" for about 2,000 executives at vice president level and below across Samsung affiliates. "It is not the time to be complacent because the numbers have improved a bit," he said, calling it "the last chance to restore competitiveness."

Lee used the phrase "last chance" against the backdrop of losing leadership in the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) market. Samsung Electronics failed to supply HBM3E to Nvidia in time, handing SK Hynix the No. 1 spot in the DRAM market that it had held for 33 years. As a result, Samsung's DS division operating profit from its memory business in 2024, at 15.1 trillion won, lagged SK Hynix's 23.4673 trillion won. That meant it was still behind even in a recovery phase after posting a loss of 14.88 trillion won in 2023.

Samsung Electronics will announce final fourth-quarter results on Jan. 29. The company is expected to post record results on strong memory semiconductors. Based on preliminary figures, it posted fourth-quarter operating profit of 20 trillion won, becoming the first South Korean company to usher in an era of 20 trillion won operating profit in a single quarter. Annual revenue, at 332.77 trillion won, is also expected to hit a record high. Rising commodity DRAM prices coincided with an expansion in HBM supply. The shares have climbed almost threefold in a year, from the mid-50,000 won range in early January last year, to hover around the 160,000 won level.

Even so, Lee urged executives not to let down their guard because he believes the company's "super-gap" competitiveness has not been fully restored. In the foundry market, Samsung Electronics' share stands at 6.8 percent, widening the gap with top player TSMC at 71.0 percent. China's SMIC, with 5.1 percent, is also closing in fast.

A sense of crisis is also being detected in the TV business. China’s TCL and Sony recently announced they will set up a joint venture for their TV units. The prevailing view is that cooperation between TCL, which is strong in the mid-to-low-end market, and Sony, which has technological capabilities, will threaten Samsung Electronics' dominance in the premium TV market. The financial and securities industry estimates this year's annual operating profit for the VD and home appliances division at 500 billion to 600 billion won, sharply down from about 1.8 trillion won last year.

The training session screened a video containing the management philosophy of late former chairman Lee Kun-hee. His "sandwich crisis" argument, mentioned in 2007, was also brought up. Lee said South Korea still "cannot escape being sandwiched," adding that "what has changed is that the competitive landscape has shifted and the situation has become more serious." It is seen as meaning the company must face a complex management environment including U.S.-China rivalry, supply chain reshuffling and tariff uncertainty.