My Cart - The world of electronics is a fast moving business because the technology advances so quickly. For the companies involved, this means that from year to year, the daily operating and trading of their business can change dramatically as they embrace the new technology that becomes available. Some of the larger companies started a long time ago before electronic gadgets were commonplace in every home. This can mean that their business model is now entirely different to how it was when the company first started.
It is interesting to take a step back in time and take a look at how some of the world leading conglomerates of today started out. Samsung for example, today is a multi-national company that is the leading producer of information technology and the world’s second largest ship builder – two industries that would seem to be entirely different, and are a very long way from the small Daegu city in South Korea where the company made its start. The first trade that Samsung was involved in was to do with the trading and delivery of groceries and making noodles. As things progressed they moved between many different aspects of business until they came into electronics (arguably it’s most famous subsidiary today) in the 1960s with a black and white TV.
Today Samsung is a well trusted and prolific producer of electronics and the brand is known worldwide for their excellence in the field of cutting edge technology. Without seeing any of the steps in between, it’s hard to imagine a noodle producing company becoming such a powerful multi-national conglomerate. But today, when people talk about the Samsung they have at home, they are more likely to be referring to the Samsung LCD TV in their living room than the Samsung brand noodles they’d have had in their kitchen 70 years ago. As we look at what Samsung is doing today, it’s impossible for us to imagine what they could be producing in the future, or indeed any large company; maybe by the year 2050, we’ll all be sitting down in front of the ‘Dolmio virtual reality system’.
