[Full Text] Heo Chang-soo's Eulogy "Lee Kun-hee, You Are Forever Number One"

Huh Chang-soo, Chairman of the Federation of Korean Industries, wore a mask before delivering the statement at a press conference announcing the "Urgent Economic Proposals" in response to the spread of COVID-19, held on the 25th at the FKI Building in Yeouido, Seoul. Photo by Yoon Dong-ju doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyewon] On the 25th, Huh Chang-soo, Chairman of the Federation of Korean Industries, issued a eulogy titled "You Are Forever Number One" regarding the passing of Lee Kun-hee, Chairman of Samsung Group, recalling him as "a great elder of South Korea's business community who guided the path our companies should take and comforted the wounded parts of society," and "a business leader who rooted the semiconductor industry in this land and practiced business patriotism by creating future growth engines for South Korea."

Chairman Huh praised the late chairman as "a gambler who demonstrated decisiveness and leadership at crossroads of choice," "a reformer who shouted that survival depends on change," "a perfectionist who never compromised on quality," and "a patriotic business leader who loved the country more than anyone else while striving to build a better future nation," honoring his spirit.

Below is the full text of Chairman Huh's eulogy.

You Are Forever Number One.

Chairman Lee Kun-hee,

Are you leaving so suddenly without even a farewell word to say goodbye? We waited to see you rise from your sickbed and meet you in good health, but your sudden departure brings unbearable sorrow and shock. As a great elder of South Korea's business community, you guided the path our companies should take and comforted the wounded parts of society. Now that we must send you off to a distant place, we cannot hide the deep grief and emptiness in our hearts.

Looking back, you were a business leader who rooted the semiconductor industry in this land and created future growth engines for South Korea, practicing business patriotism.

You handled countless electronic devices to the extent that you purchased and disassembled the most electronic products in Korea, realizing early on the importance of semiconductors. After experiencing two oil shocks in the 1970s, you became convinced that the way for resource-poor Korea to survive was the high value-added semiconductor industry and decided to pursue the business.

However, since the business involved great uncertainty and enormous capital, making group-level promotion difficult, you personally invested your own funds to acquire a small semiconductor company and pushed the business forward. You explained the possibility and justification by saying that our people, with chopstick culture and good manual skills, and valuing cleanliness in residential life, were suitable for the semiconductor industry. Your passion and effort for semiconductors finally bore fruit in 1983 with Samsung's entry into the semiconductor business.

You were a gambler who demonstrated decisiveness and leadership at crossroads of choice.

In 1987, when no one could decide whether to develop the 4-mega DRAM using the stacking method of circuits upward or the trench method digging downward, you instructed to choose stacking. You decided that the stacking method was simpler and easier to fix if problems arose. Later, competitors who chose the trench method experienced yield drops during mass production transitions, which became an opportunity for Samsung, then a latecomer, to leap forward.

In early 1993, you instructed to increase the wafer size for semiconductor integrated circuits from 6 inches to 8 inches for mass production. Despite strong opposition due to the risk of losses exceeding 1 trillion won if it failed, you said that success would double production and urged bold investment to leap forward to become number one in the world. In the same year, Samsung and Japanese competitors developed 16-mega DRAM simultaneously, but based on the powerful production capacity of 8-inch wafers, Samsung surpassed Japan and finally stood tall as the world's number one in the memory semiconductor field in October 1993.

You were a reformer who shouted that survival depends on change.

In June 1993, in Frankfurt, Germany, you declared the so-called "New Management Declaration," saying, "Change everything except your wife and children." You said that in the era of globalization, if you do not change, you will forever be second-rate, and held meetings with 1,800 executives and employees over 68 days. You made a cold self-assessment that even if a company was first-class domestically, it was far behind on the global stage, urging to leap forward with a sense of crisis.

On the 20th anniversary of the New Management Declaration in June 2013, you said, "From now on, we must fight the crisis of being number one and the crisis of complacency. Do not stay in place but run ahead." This was your pioneering spirit and expression of first-classism to widen the gap with competitors even after shifting from a follower to a leader.

Your steadfast progress toward the future continued with massive investments in research and development and talent discovery, which became the foundation for creating world-leading advanced industries such as semiconductors, mobile phones, displays, and secondary batteries that lead the Fourth Industrial Revolution on the Korean Peninsula, which lacks technology and resources.

You were a perfectionist who never compromised on quality.

The "burning of defective products" at Samsung Electronics' Gumi plant in 1995 is still vivid. When the defect rate increased due to rushing the release of wireless phone products, under your firm will to eradicate defects, 150,000 wireless phones were thrown into the fire. The expressions of the executives and employees watching this showed solemn determination, and the public received the company's thorough reflection and commitment to start anew.

You declared, "Now is the time to shift from quantity to quality," and instructed to focus on quality control, including halting production lines entirely if defective products were found. You said quality is the character of employees and an expression of respect for customers, and the driving force to become a world-class company. You showed strong responsibility and direction by saying you would bear losses caused by quality issues and that it should be the top priority.

You were a patriotic business leader who loved the country more than anyone else while striving to build a better future nation.

You said the only way for our economy to survive was talent development and established a scholarship foundation selecting overseas students on the sole condition that they "work for Korea." You said, "Talent development is not about getting apples but planting apple trees," creating a foundation to nurture talent in this land and further gathering talent worldwide.

You emphasized the so-called "Trinity Theory," that for the nation to prosper, the people, government, and companies must unite and move in one direction. In 1993, you proposed 20 SOC projects to the government, including building an international free trade city, saying companies should find ways to contribute to enhancing national competitiveness.

As a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for over 20 years, you helped raise Korea's profile worldwide. Especially for the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics bid, you traveled over 210,000 km?more than five times around the globe?over 10 trips totaling 170 days. When the 2011 announcement of Pyeongchang's hosting was made, you shed tears. Your warm sincerity as a private diplomat with a mission to "work for the country" was deeply felt.

Chairman Lee Kun-hee,

I remember your words that today is an era of invisible "economic warfare," where there is no helping hand or ideology to protect the loser. There are no eternal enemies or allies, and the increasingly strengthened protectionism of countries worldwide confuses the path our export economy must take. This is a time when your absence, as a pioneer of crisis management, is felt even more deeply.

The path you walked was an unyielding pioneering spirit and a relentless journey toward a super-first-class nation beyond a super-first-class company. Human life is finite, but companies can gain new life and perpetuity through transformation with painstaking effort. We will never forget your words.

"Abandon the second-place mentality. You cannot survive unless you are the best in the world." We, your juniors, will cherish your great will and walk the path of number one.

Now, please lay down all your heavy burdens and rest in peace.

October 25, 2020

Huh Chang-soo, Chairman of the Federation of Korean Industries

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.