This is the first of a two-part series on Lee Byung-chull, the late founder of Samsung Group. The 100th anniversary of his birthday falls on Friday. - Ed.

By Jin Hyun-joo

Lee Byung-chull, the late founder of Samsung Group, is back in the limelight with the 100th anniversary of his birth this Friday.
In 1938, Lee started a small trading firm, which grew into Korea`s largest conglomerate, contolling 37 affiliates and raking in 14 trillion won in annual sales by the time he died in 1987.
Samsung Group generated revenue of 200 trillion won last year, which accounted for nearly one-fifth of Korea`s gross domestic product. Now Samsung employs 277,000 people, more than 1 percent of the country`s economically active population of 24 million.
Samsung Electronics, the flagship unit of Samsung Group, and Korea`s biggest exporter, saw its annual sales exceed 100 trillion won and its operating profit surpass 10 trillion won last year. The company, the world`s biggest technology firm, is the world`s top maker of LCD TVs, LCD screens and memory chips and the No. 2 maker of handsets.

Sugar, textile manufacturing

The youngest of the four children of a wealthy family, Lee was born in Euryeong, South Gyeongsang Province, in 1910 when Korea came under Japanese colonial rule.
In 1930, he entered Waseda University in Tokyo, but he did not complete his degree because of illness.
He started a rice mill in 1936, and then bought a trucking firm. The young businessman also invested in real estate with money he borrowed from banks. But after the outbreak of war between China and Japan, banks stopped extending loans, hitting his real estate business. He sold his land, rice mill and trucking firm to repay the debt.
The following year, he opened trading firm "Samsung Sanghoi" in the southeastern city of Daegu, which exported fruit, vegetables, dried fish and other products to China. He also acquired a brewery, which achieved great success.
He entered the manufacturing industries by setting up a sugar manufacturing firm, Cheiljedang, currently known as CJ, in 1953 and a textile firm, Cheil Industries, in 1954. At that time, Korea relied heavily on imports for its needs for such necessities as sugar and textile.
He moved into the capital of Seoul in 1948 when he set up a trading firm -- the predecessor of today`s Samsung C&T Corp. But his business was soon hit by the Korean War that broke out in 1950. He was able to rebuild the trading company in the southeastern city of Busan, thanks to help from executives of his brewery firm.
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Semiconductor

Under Lee`s tutelage, Samsung further expanded into electronics, petrochemicals, shipbuilding, machinery and other businesses.
He established Samsung Electronics in 1969. A decade later, Samsung overtook Japan`s Matsushita Electric, which was later renamed Panasonic, by producing 2 million black-and white televisions.
The most crucial decision made by Lee was to begin the semiconductor business, which has become a major cash cow for Samsung Electronics. At the age of 73, Lee announced a massive investment plan for semiconductor manufacturing under the so-called "Tokyo Declaration."
His new business initially met with skepticism because of the massive investments required for the business, and its short technology life cycle. But Lee`s bold bet paid off, with the company rapidly catching up with its Japanese and U.S rivals. Now, Samsung is the world`s top maker of both DRAM and NAND flash memory chips.
In 1987 -- five years after his company started the semiconductor business, Lee died of lung cancer. After his death, Samsung Group was separated into Samsung Group and three other conglomerates -- Shinsegae Group, CJ Group and Hansol Group -- by Lee`s children.
One of his key business philosophies is to contribute to the country`s economic growth, people who knew him said.
"My dream is to develop a company and contribute to building national wealth. ... It is a businessman`s social responsibility and obligation to make a company profitable," Lee said in a speech to chief executives at the Federation of Korean Industries, in 1980.
Lee also placed a great importance on employing and training talented workers.
"Even a company picks excellent talents, they become useless if they are not being ceaselessly trained. There are many factors behind Samsung`s growth, but key to that is the power of talents," he said in an interview with KBS in 1985.
(hjjin@heraldcorp.com)