Samsung has shifted to “emergency mode” and is now asking executives to work six days per week.
The news, revealed in a report by The Korea Economic Daily, comes as the company battles ongoing business challenges. The company-wide policy affects executives and top managers across Samsung’s various divisions.
Recent disappointing financial results in 2023 saw Samsung record revenue of around $51 billion in last year’s final quarter, down 3.8% year-on-year and down 2.2% compared with initial analyst predictions.
Samsung enters “emergency mode”
Even worse was the company’s operating profit, which dropped a staggering 34.6% year-on-year to near $2 billion, bringing the company’s entire balance sheet for the year into the negatives – around 14.88 trillion Korean won worth of deficit, or $10.8 billion.
A company executive told the Korean publication: “Considering that performance of our major units, including Samsung Electronics Co., fell short of expectations in 2023, we are introducing the six-day work week for executives to inject a sense of crisis and make all-out efforts to overcome it.”
The policy shift is likely part of the South Korean company’s effort to tackle increased competition in the chip market, where it faces stiff rivalry from the likes of SK Hynix. Other major chipmakers, like Intel and AMD, have also emphasized AI-capable components in recent months.
That’s despite Samsung’s overtaking Apple in the latest quarterly smartphone shipment figures, giving it a 20.8% global market share.
Executives from the company’s various businesses, such as Samsung Electronics, Samsung SDI, and Samsung SD, will all be asked to work an extra day each week, but those below executive level will continue with five-day routines.
On the whole, Samsung has been pretty resilient, only laying off 30 workers in March 2023. Many of its rivals have laid off thousands, but things could be about to change for the company if the current outlook is as troubling as it seems.
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