Lee Byung-chul- Founder of Samsung
                     Lee Byung-
chul- Founder 
of Samsung
Early Life
Born on 12th February, 1910 in Uiryeong County in South 
Korea Lee was the only son of a wealthy family. His family 
was of landowners and left behind huge wealth for him to 
inherit. Chull attended Waseda University in Tokyo but left 
his degree incomplete. 
Initially, he used his inherited wealth to start a rice mill. 
Although he dedicated himself in this first business it failed 
to float and sunk without generating any major profits.
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Export business 
After the failure of his first business Chul established an 
export business in Daegu on 1st March, 1938 and named 
the company Samsung Trading Co. The company exported 
varieties of goods and eatables like fish, vegetables, and 
fruits to the regions of China. 
The company saw a major boom in growth as it was 
supplying goods throughout Korea and even to other 
countries by 1945.
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Impact of War
Samsung Trading Co. was considered to be one of the ten 
largest trading companies during that time. But, Chul had 
to face another difficulty. This time, the war. As the war 
broke out Chul had to shift his company to a safer location 
in Busan around 1950.
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Impact of War 
Cont.
But this shifting came as a boon for Chul. The massive 
influx of US army troops and the military equipment 
boosted his trucking business for the next year and a half. 
Chul also started a sugar refinery which saw the light of 
success quite early. 
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Largest wool 
factory 
After the war, he went on to set up a wool factory in 1954 
in Daegu which later became the largest wool factory in 
the country. As the business was growing Chul ventured 
into various other sectors like finance, insurance, retail, 
and security.
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Industrialization
Chul had a strong belief in industrialization and wanted 
Samsung group to become leader in every sector. It was in 
the 1960s that Samsung ventured into electronics industry 
to take over the market just like other sectors. 
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Innovative 
products 
Samsung focused on creating innovative products and 
soon the company released their first product – a black and 
white television. By the mid and late 1960s Samsung 
already had six divisions focused on departments like 
semiconductors, telecommunications, hardware, etc.
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Success in the Electronics 
Business
In 1980, Samsung acquired Hanguk Jeonja Tongsin, a major 
company in telecommunications. This was the same year 
when the company had its own electronics division under 
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. unit. The company then 
started producing telephones, fax machines, and various 
other electronic devices on a large-scale.
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Death of Lee Byung Chul
The founder of Samsung, Lee Byung Chul, died on 19th 
November, 1987 in Seoul, South Korea. But the company 
kept following his philosophy of large-scale expansion. 
The company expanded as never before setting up their 
plants in New York, Texas, London, etc. Samsung’s 
construction company garnered major projects including 
that of the Burj Khalifa in Malaysia.
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Major Successes
Samsung raced on the top of the list as the number one 
memory chip production company in the whole world in 
1992. Soon it also acquired second position, just behind 
Intel, in the chip-making industry. The year of 1995 came 
with a huge success as Samsung made first LCD screen 
revolutionizing the television hardware industry.
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