Earn Key Joo, a vice president with the Human Resources Development Center of Samsung Electronics, is a current fellow with the Corporate Affiliates Program of the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) at Stanford University. Joo, who has worked with Samsung for 25 years, is based at the company's headquarters in Seoul, South Korea. He has extensive auditing experience, including evaluating the management and operational business units and investigating the illegal activities of employees.
While Samsung's headquarters are based in Seoul, the larger research and development and operational offices are located in Suwon, a city in close proximity to Seoul. Samsung is the current leader of the global electronics market, manufacturing everything from televisions to refrigerators, and semiconductors to mobile phones. It is especially strong in the LED television, color monitor, memory chip, and LCD panel product sectors. Samsung is now trying to advance in the mobile phone market with the introduction of its Galaxy S smartphone, which is available in the United States.
Joo is currently researching ways for Samsung to maintain its market lead. Even as the current leader, he said, market changes could affect the company's success. Joo is studying the case of Sony, a previous electronics market leader, and the factors that led to the loss of its position. His advisor for the project is Gi-Wook Shin, director of Shorenstein APARC and the Korean Studies Program.
In addition to his research project, Joo is taking advantage of his time at Stanford University to improve his English-language skills. He is proficient at reading English, and is using the opportunity to strengthen his speaking ability. He also hopes in the coming months to attend more events, especially in order to learn about the systems of other companies. Joo has already participated in site visits to Cisco, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, and Palo Alto Utilities.
Joo, who has previously not had the experience of living abroad and has had few opportunities to engage with people from other countries, says, "This is a very good time for me to widen my global perspective." He wants to interact as much as possible with the other fellows-who come from diverse work sectors and different countries in Asia-to exchange information, including best practices, based on each fellow's unique professional experience.
After he returns to Korea, Joo plans to take some of the information he has gained from his research and his exchange of knowledge with other fellows and share it with different development and marketing teams at Samsung, in addition to applying it in his own job. Samsung, Joo believes, is in need of creativity now and he is exploring ways it can develop this in its employees.
In between research and company visits, Joo has been able to spend valuable time with his family, which has traveled with him from Korea. They are planning to visit as many places as possible in the United States and have already visited Yellowstone National Park and are planning a trip to Alaska.
FSI researchers strive to understand how countries relate to one another, and what policies are needed to achieve global stability and prosperity. International relations experts focus on the challenging U.S.-Russian relationship, the alliance between the U.S. and Japan and the limitations of America’s counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan.
