As Samsung faces difficulties in the AI semiconductor market, Crystalline business has also shown large-scale consciences. Many engineers who are tired of Samsung's corporate culture have turned to SK Hynix, seeking to innovate the environment....
As Samsung faces difficulties in the AI semiconductor market, Crystalline business has also shown large-scale consciences. Many engineers who are tired of Samsung's corporate culture have turned to SK Hynix, seeking to innovate the environment. According to Korean media Chosun reports, the most important thing Samsung semiconductors are currently facing is structural problems.
According to the report, two engineers who left Samsung's job, they do not accept Samsung's "report culture" and "question culture". They mentioned that at Samsung, even if they find process or design defects when working with other departments, reports are often downplayed or even distorted, so as not to be held responsible. In addition, Samsung focuses on "question" and only decides the technical direction after "who is responsible for the accident".
In contrast, SK Hynix's multi-development units compete fiercely, and the management level is used from various creativity through bottom-up decision-making processes.
According to the industry, the weakening of technical leadership is one of the main reasons for the loss of core engineers. According to one of the engineers who changed jobs to SK Hynix, more and more Samsung engineers have been transferred to SK Hynix over the past 4 to 5 years. The recent phenomenon is more obvious. This is not a problem with pure salary, but is related to Samsung's rigid research and development environment and personnel system.
Engineers who left Samsung generally believe that in the absence of progressive internal competition, challenging innovation is often accompanied by the "question" label, which makes this culture deeply rooted.
Reports say that during the development of HBM, the R&D culture differences between Samsung and SK Hynix are particularly obvious, which is also the key turning point in the competition between AI memory. One of the former employees said, "When employees come up with new ideas, the first question is, "Can they do it? If not, will you be responsible?" to make the challenge more difficult."
Another employee who switched to SK Hynix from Samsung Crystal OEM department pointed out that due to the long-term constrained and low energy utilization rate, there are even reports that they are about to be split, "compared with the memory department, the gap between treatment and promotion opportunities also makes people feel bad." In addition, Samsung's memory department culture has a strong blood sectarianism. With a very small number of exceptions, it is almost impossible to allow people who are not from Samsung to take up key positions.
Experts believe that institutional reform is the key to let Samsung's semiconductor system erode crisis and return to the main body. Kim Yong-jin, professor at Xijiang University’s Business School, pointed out that “Samsung has always been a ‘management organization’ and operates under the framework of the personnel and financial departments with great power.” When organizations without technical expertise make decisions based on financial data, corporate competition will inevitably decline. He also believes that if the highest management level cannot make up its mind to reform the system, the future of Samsung's semiconductor industry will be difficult to guarantee.
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