Report: Samsung's Innovation Challenges and Kotter's Eight-Step Model

This report examines the innovation challenges faced by Samsung, a leading multinational corporation in the smartphone market, which is experiencing declining sales and a perceived lack of innovation. The report analyzes Samsung's situation, noting its past successes and current struggles. It then applies Kotter's eight-step model for leading change to assess how Samsung can overcome these challenges and foster innovation. The report highlights each step of Kotter's model, including creating urgency, forming a powerful coalition, creating a vision for change, communicating the vision, removing barriers, creating short-term wins, building on the change, and anchoring the changes in corporate culture. The analysis discusses specific actions Samsung has taken or could take to implement each step, such as communicating problems, forming innovation teams, establishing new centers, and rewarding creativity. The report concludes that Samsung needs to embrace a new modern strategy aligned with its core competencies to successfully build and sustain long-term innovation and adapt to the changing market.

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Samsung

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Introduction
Samsung is a South Korean based multinational organization. The company leading the
smartphone market at the largest level and beats many biggest brands such as Apple and Sony
and many others (Qumer, 2019). But in the past some few years the company facing many
challenges such as lack of innovation.
The report will assess that what changes the organization has to adopt in order to
overcome the issue with an analysis of Kotter’s eight steps model.
Samsung
Samsung first entered the market in 1988. The company started growing in the year of
2002 and the company continued to grow until 2014 and become the largest market share across
the world (Samsung, 2019). But in the recent past, some years the company’s facing challenges
as its smartphones sales have been decreased around 13 percent in the year of 2017 and it can be
seen that the company is losing the ground in the smartphone market because of the lack of
innovation (Warren, 2018).
The company has to find and adopt some changes to overcome the issue and has to
introduce new creativity and ideas and develop the products the same as other smartphone
companies. The company needs to change its environment and culture. Here is Kotter’s 8 step
model which can assess that what changes the company has to adapt and also know how to
deliver it (Das, 2019).

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Step 1: Creating urgency
Change is only can happen when whole staff members and company wants it. The
company has to help its employees and empower them to give feedback on the areas which
required changes immediately. And to creating urgency spokesman of Samsung James Chung
states that company has broadcast program on its company’s internal television channel that help
to communicate the existing problem and instils awareness to overcome the issue (Seoul, 2015).
Step 2: Form a powerful coalition
After creating urgency Samsung has to convince its employees and members that the
company needs to change its strategy as their most products faced decreased sales. It is important
to build a coalition to help company. After drop of sale they have formed a product innovation
team which has different range of skills and experience. The purpose of this team is to
developing production provide solution using customer insight and trendy technologies and
innovation for commercialization.
Step 3: Create a vision for change
The leader has to align new change with the company’s strategy. The company has to
create a strategy and maintain such a culture where employees can receive more flexible culture
and empowered has to be rewarded for creativity and innovations. The company also opened a
software development center which has high technology also providing flexible working shift
and attires that lead employees to lead more creativity (CULC920314, 2017).

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Step 4: Communicate the vision
Samsung has to communicate through many sources for its vision to change across the
world or wherever it is operating the business. They can use websites and hoardings to
communicate their vision. Samsung also implement changes and its new corporate mission ad
vision statement focuses to enable innovation for its customers the company is spreading the
message through its annual report and websites.
Step 5: Remove barriers
The culture of the company has led to high attrition rate, as around 30% of the employee
left the company in the last three years (Seoul, 2015). They have to determine the areas and
issues and motivate employees to overcome the issue. The leader also has to empower especially
those who have skills what is required to this vision of the change. Reward people for
determining the week areas.
Step 6: Creating short term wins
The company has to make short goals and advice employees work for a short term goal.
It is not possible to make a huge change in a short period of time. For instance keeping
innovation in mind the organization’s goal was to establish an innovation center and it
successfully builds a new design innovation center which’s objective is to provide big change
with real impact.
Step 7: Build on the Change
Kotter claims that most projects fail because most companies declare quick winning and
does not focuses on build the change. For instance Samsung has implemented the change as it
was suggested by Professor of NUS (National university of Singapore) that it is important for Lee
Jae-yong to introduce creativity and innovation but it is more important to sustain its core and strong
competence which is speed of execution to build and sustain its change for long-term (Seoul, 2015).
Step 8: Anchor the Changes in Corporate Culture
Samsung has to talk about the development and progress and reward employee for their
spirit and participation. The company has to ensure that they continue until they build this
change deeply and become strong enough. The company settled C-Lab to enable its employees

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to nurture their contribution to innovation and ideas and they give the time, tools and support to
integrate the ideas (Samsung, 2016).
Conclusion
It can be concluded that the company is facing challenges and issues with its traditional
strategy which has a lack of innovation. The leader has to initiate the change that should be
aligned with its new modern strategy and that will only help to build the change and sustain it for
the long term.
Bibliography
CULC920314. (2017). Leadership and Change. Retrieved from CULC920314:
https://culc920314.wordpress.com/2017/03/14/leadership-and-change/
Das, V. (2019). Comparative Study of Kotter’s and Hiatt’s (ADKAR) Change Models. Journal of Leadership
and Management,, 1(15).
Qumer, S. M. (2019). TECNO Mobile’s Growth Strategies in Africa. In China-Focused Cases. Springer,
Singapore.
Samsung. (2016, 07 08). How Samsung Helps its Internal Innovators to Spread their Wings. Retrieved
from Newsroom: https://news.samsung.com/global/how-samsung-helps-its-internal-
innovators-to-spread-their-wings
Samsung. (2019). Who We Are . Retrieved from Samsung:
https://www.samsung.com/us/aboutsamsung/home/
Seoul, C. O.-a. (2015, 01 28). Lack of innovation clouds Samsung’s future. Retrieved 06 15, 2019, from
https://www.ft.com/content/2988943c-0c31-11df-8b81-00144feabdc0
Warren, T. (2018). Samsung is losing mobile ground to its Chinese rivals. Retrieved from The Verge:
https://www.theverge.com/2018/11/2/18055094/samsung-smartphone-sales-decline-2018-
report

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