The League of Gentlemen’s Extraordinary Path to Innovation Vol.3 Namyoon Kim

Daughter, son, and son-in-law “We are a Samsung Electronics semiconductor family!”

▲Former Vice President at Samsung Electronics Namyoon Kim has walked a single path in the semiconductor industry for 23 years. It has been 10 years since he retired, but the ‘forever semiconductor man’ is still working in the field.

“Even at family gatherings, we talk about semiconductors.”

Former Vice President at Samsung Electronics Namyoon Kim (63) is the chairman of the semiconductor department at e-CLUB. It was 2004 when he left Samsung Semiconductors. Ten years have passed, but there is a reason why he is still so passionate about semiconductors – to the point that he took the position of chairman of the department. There is an inextricable link between him and Samsung Semiconductors. Kim joined Samsung Electronics, his very first job, in 1979. He worked in the semiconductor industry for 23 years, and he has had the unique experience of having worked at all three centers of semiconductor business (Bucheon, Giheung, and Onyang). Not only that, his daughter, son and son-in-law all work for Samsung Semiconductors. What a family!

“Even at family gatherings, we talk about semiconductors. Surprisingly, we all specialize in different areas. My son-in-law works in planning, my daughter works in marketing, and my son works in process development. And I used to work in production and quality assurance. Our family alone is enough to produce semiconductors ourselves. We joke that we could set up a family business if we had the money.”

Donating talent after retirement

Kim is currently the vice chairman of Danyang SOLTEC (with CEO Jooseong Jeon). Danyang SOLTEC is a company that manufactures soldering materials, and is more successful internationally than domestically. In the past, the main soldering material was lead. However, due to environmental issues, lead-free soldering has become the norm. Danyang SOLTEC was the first to successfully localize the entire processing of the lead-free solder paste. Danyang SOLTEC’s solder paste is supplied to local manufacturers, including Samsung Electronics, as well as overseas companies. Since soldering is a technology that cannot be excluded in the semiconductor production process, Kim the semiconductor expert plays a crucial role here. Kim joined Danyang SOLTEC 3 years ago. And there was a clear purpose behind it.

“As I retired from Samsung, I promised myself I would donate my talent for the next generation. In particular, I wanted to use the quality management skills I acquired in Samsung Electronics to make contributions. Korean semiconductor production technologies are matchless. But support from surrounding industries isn’t as strong. They have developed thus far, but most of the main facilities and materials are imported. I looked around and saw many small enterprises with great technologies but weak quality management ability, struggling to get connected with larger partners. I wanted to be the bridge between the two and also provide technical consulting. Once I had set up a material-related company, but I realized I am not the owner type. At last, I sold the company and came back as an engineer.”

▲Danyang SOLTEC, where Kim serves as the vice chairman, is the first in Korea to localize the lead-free material soldering paste process.

Straddling the line between the first and second generation of the “legend of domestic semiconductor”

Samsung initiated its semiconductor operations in 1974 with the acquisition of Hankook Semiconductor. It was nine years later in 1983 when the company officially announced the launch of their memory semiconductor business. Big players in the semiconductor industry like the US and Japanese firms seemed unconcerned by the challenge of the small company from a small country seemingly without any technology, infrastructure, or human resources.

However in the following year, 1984, Samsung succeeded in developing 64Kb DRAM. This was third, ollowing the US and Japan and thus Samsung stirred up tension in the global market. In 1992, it successfully developed the world’s first 64Mb DRAM and achieved its market leadership position. Currently, Samsung Electronics is ranked first in the memory industry and second in overall semiconductor market share.

Kim is, so to speak, ‘Samsung Electronics semiconductor 1.5 generation’. He joined the company 5 years after the company entered the semiconductor industry and witnessed with his own eyes the brilliant success. His son and daughter witnessed the process as well. In fact, Kim’s daughter Hyeonjeong wrote in her personal statement, “When I followed my father to work at the Samsung Semiconductors plant, it was quite small. But now, I am surprised to see how much it grew – it’s impossible to get the entire view in just a glance.”

“Samsung Semiconductors? Is that a belt manufacturer?”

Nowadays people are well aware of what a semiconductor is. But back when Kim first joined the company, the public’s awareness of semiconductors was nearly zero. He shared a funny episode about it.

“It was in early 1980s when I went to the reserve duty training. Reserves from around the area gathered at one place. When my company served us, just us, a separate lunch, people from other companies asked me which company I work for. I told him I was from Samsung Bandoche (semiconductor in Korean) and he asked me if it was a belt manufacturer (laugh). It was because back then, people used to call belts “bando”. They were businessmen in their 30s with sufficient knowledge, but even they didn’t know what a semiconductor was. That’s how low the awareness was at that time.”

According to Kim, it was 1984 when the awareness of semiconductors spread in earnest. That was when Samsung Electronics successfully developed the 64Kb DRAM. Since then, the word semiconductor has been familiar, even to elementary schoolers. “When we started the development of 64Kb DRAM, the entire team went on a 64km walk at night. We walked mile after mile for two days in a row, reaffirming our determination to develop.  Everyone was very passionate. When they were leaving work, they said “I’m going to quickly drop by my house” instead of saying good bye. Many days, we got off work and saw the morning stars.” Reminiscing as he shared his story, he laughed, saying “If someone told me to do it all over again, I’m not sure I could. But at that time, I didn’t realize how tough it was because it was so exciting.”

▲Kim explains behind Samsung Electronics’ success was the ABC Theory: aggressiveness, basic, and cooperation.

Similarity between Samsung Semiconductors and the Battle of Myeongnyang

Kim explained that behind Samsung Electronics’ success was the ABC Theory: △being Aggressive and enthusiastic in all you do, △sticking to the Basics, △and working together to Cooperate and not as an isolated hero.

It may sound like a theory from classic literature on quality management. As a matter of fact, it is something Kim came up with. It is the essence of what he experienced while working for Samsung’s semiconductor business for over twenty years. According to Kim, his ABC Theory can be applied regardless of time and type of organization. For example, the ABC Theory was proven right in one of Korea’s hottest films of last summer,  “The Admiral: Roaring Currents.”

“At that time, Joseon fought against hundreds of Japanese battleships with only twelve ships. Objectively, Joseon was numerically inferior. However Joseon managed to defeat the Japanese military miraculously with the aggressiveness, using the natural condition (Uldolmok) and keeping the basic strategy, and cooperating together. Each solider fought thinking ‘If I lose, Joseon loses.’”

Kim added, “Behind Samsung Semiconductors’s success were exceptional leaders like ‘the first generation of semiconductor’ former Vice Chairman Gwangho Kim (chairman of e-CLUB) and another former Vice Chairman Yoonwoo Lee (standing advisor of Samsung Electronics), and great followers who respected their leadership with distinguished ownership. Each and every employee was very proud of what they did. They were filled with commitment to the mission thinking ‘No one else can replace me. What I do is for my people.’”

Granting assistant managers the rights of plant manager

‘People-First’ is one of the founding philosophies of Samsung. As an extension of ‘People-First’, Kim considers ‘transfer of rights (to employees)’, or ‘empowernent’, as another aspect of Samsung’s competitiveness. Samsung’s way of working – giving complete trust and rights once work is assigned – is what enhanced the talents’ competitiveness.

Kim experienced Samsung’s corporate culture of staying away from blindly obeying the boss’ direction and promoting voluntary performance improvement through encouragement in person when he was an assistant manager. “Semiconductors is a delicate industry. Hundreds of processes are operated organically. Even the slightest error in the middle could stop the entire operation. One day, one of the chemical substances came into contact with air and caused a problem in the pipe. The production line was totally suspended. Nowadays it could be repaired internally, but at that time, the technology was not available. To make things worse, on this occasion the plant manager was on a business trip abroad. Though but an assistant manager, I was in charge so I stepped up and had an employee who was in Korea to take it overseas and fix it. It only took three days. If I were to blindly follow all the conventional practices, it would have taken over half a month. The roundtrip flight ticket and the cost of stay were quite expensive, but there was not enough time to get the approval. The plant manager returned later and complimented me for what I did, saying he would have done the same. If the company had a strict reporting-everything-before-you-do-anything system, it would not have been possible.”

Promotion after promotion, he continued focusing on this. “I tried to value my juniors as much as possible. I noticed their uniqueness and habits, and I strived to be considerate in all my actions and talks. While working and even when we were eating, I respected each one’s personality. I still meet up with those I used to work with.”

“Samsung is my second home and my pride.”

He has complex feelings towards Samsung these days. It is like seeing a little kid become a young man and a world-renowned, matchless talent. Having laughed and cried together at crucial moments in the history of the company, Samsung is his second home and his pride.

To his juniors, he asked for a ‘sense of duty’ and ‘sincerity’. “In the semiconductor industry, timing is everything. It’s similar to riding a unicycle. You have to pedal quickly or you will fall. Since 1984 with the development of 64Kb DRAM, Samsung has been pedaling without rest for thirty years. Back then when I was working, all the employees gathered in the morning and repeated the “ten commandments of semiconductor” which included ‘make it happen’ and ‘do your best’. There were some clichés, but because of them we were able to remind ourselves of our determination. Past and present, semiconductors play a pivotal role in leading the national economy. Please keep pedaling with the same strong sense of duty.”

* Views and opinions expressed above are of Namyoon Kim and do not represent those of Samsung Electronics.