Samsung is considering a major shake-up in upper management in an attempt to revive itself after a difficult financial year.
The company has had a third quarter profit decline of around 60 percent, and the personnel reportedly on the chopping block include J.K. Shin, the CEO of the company's mobile division.
"A large-scale leadership change at the mobile division may come," said Chung Chang Won, an analyst at Nomura Holdings Inc., located in Seoul. "The top leadership who misstepped in the mobile business will have to pay the price."
However, the restructuring may include more than just the mobile division. According to sources familiar with the company, it could span many of the 70 companies that make up the Samsung Group.
If Shin is moved out of his role as an overseer of the mobile division, it could mean that co-CEO B.K. Yoon, who oversees the company's home appliance and television business, will take on the mobile division. This would put the company, and specifically Yoon, in a good position to move further into its everything-is-connected mentality. Yoon has long been one of the company's main proponents of the push toward connected devices.
The decline in Samsung's profits is largely out of the company's control. A few years ago the company was extremely present in markets such as China, but Apple now sells the iPhone on China Mobile, which is the largest mobile carrier in the world with about 700 million subscribers. Not only that, but a number of other Android manufacturers have caught up to Samsung, such as Xiaomi, which is currently the third-largest manufacturer of smartphones in the world, in terms of unit sales.
Unfortunately for Samsung, it is having a hard time differentiating itself from companies such as Xiaomi. Both Samsung's and Xiaomi's flagship smartphones are similar in specs, but Samsung's costs $650 while Xiaomi's costs only $300.
While the news of the personnel shake-up certainly is possible, it seems as though a final decision is yet to be made. The company has declined to comment on the issue.
Traditionally, Samsung has operated with one CEO, which was Kwon Oh-hyun, the current CEO of the company's semiconductor business, until 2013, when B.K. Yoon and J.K. Shin were promoted. The fact the company has changed its structure so significantly in the past few years suggests it could definitely do it again without raising too many eyebrows.
The company is also set to restructure, and likely trim offerings, from its product lineup, focusing on major product releases rather than saturating the market with hundreds of devices.
