Burning the Cellphones in Seoul
Frank Rose is one of my favorite reporters, each month's Wired usually has an informative, only-in-wired type of story. He writes about Samsung's supercharged rise to the top of the consumer electronics world.
"Even today, people talk about the "voluntary incineration" at Gumi. A drab factory town in south-central Korea. Gumi is home to one of Samsung's cellphone biggest plants. Samsung president Kun-hee-lee sent out phones as his 1995 New Year's gift. Word came back that they didn't work. So that March he paid a visit to Gumi.
At Lee's command, the factory's 2000 employees donned headbands labeled "QUALITY FIRST" and assembled in a courtyard. There they found their entire inventory piled in a heap--cell phones, fax machines, nearly $50 million worth of equipment.A banner before them read "QUALITY IS MY PRIDE." Beneath it sat Lee and his board of directors. Ten workers took the products one by one, smashed them with hammers, and threw them into a bonfire. Before it was over, employees were weeping."
"Even today, people talk about the "voluntary incineration" at Gumi. A drab factory town in south-central Korea. Gumi is home to one of Samsung's cellphone biggest plants. Samsung president Kun-hee-lee sent out phones as his 1995 New Year's gift. Word came back that they didn't work. So that March he paid a visit to Gumi.
At Lee's command, the factory's 2000 employees donned headbands labeled "QUALITY FIRST" and assembled in a courtyard. There they found their entire inventory piled in a heap--cell phones, fax machines, nearly $50 million worth of equipment.A banner before them read "QUALITY IS MY PRIDE." Beneath it sat Lee and his board of directors. Ten workers took the products one by one, smashed them with hammers, and threw them into a bonfire. Before it was over, employees were weeping."
posted by Max Hartshorne at 6:26 PM
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