Samsung is everywhere. You probably have one of their chips in your pocket right now, or maybe you’re reading this on a crisp OLED screen they manufactured in a massive factory in Pyeongtaek. But if you ask a random person on the street who is the founder of Samsung, you’ll mostly get blank stares. People know the brand, but they don't know the man. They don’t know Lee Byung-chul.
It wasn't always about smartphones. Not even close.
In 1938, Korea was a very different place, living under Japanese colonial rule. Lee Byung-chul, the son of a wealthy landowning family, didn't start by building semiconductors or flat-screen TVs. He started with forty employees and a dream involving dried fish and local groceries. He called it Samsung Sanghoe. "Samsung" basically translates to "three stars," representing something big, numerous, and powerful. He wanted his company to last forever, like stars in the sky. It sounds a bit poetic, honestly, considering they now sell everything from life insurance to cargo ships.
The bumpy road from noodles to electronics
Lee wasn't some tech prodigy. He was a ruthless, meticulous businessman with a knack for seeing where the wind was blowing. After the Korean War nearly leveled everything he had built, he didn't quit. He pivoted. This is the part of the story that most people miss when they look up who is the founder of Samsung. Lee realized that a war-torn nation needed sugar, wool, and basic supplies. So, he built the Cheil Sugar refinery. Then he moved into textiles.
He was obsessed with "national service through business."
He believed that for Samsung to thrive, South Korea had to thrive. This led to a very cozy, sometimes controversial, relationship between the company and the government. It’s what we call the Chaebol system. These massive, family-run conglomerates basically rebuilt the country from the ashes. Lee Byung-chul was the architect of that entire mindset. He didn't just want to make money; he wanted to dominate every single sector he touched.
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Why 1969 changed everything
If you're wondering when the "tech" part of the story starts, mark down 1969. That’s when Samsung Electronics was born. Imagine the guts it took to jump into electronics when you were previously known for selling sugar and flour. Lee saw that Japan was winning the electronics game and decided Korea shouldn't just watch from the sidelines. They started with black-and-white televisions. They weren't even that good at first. They were just cheap and functional.
But Lee had this insane focus on quality control.
There’s a legendary story—though it involves his son Kun-hee more directly later on—about burning thousands of defective phones in a bonfire to show employees that "second rate" wasn't acceptable. That intensity started with the founder. Lee Byung-chul was known for being incredibly detail-oriented. Some say he even sat in on job interviews for new recruits well into the company's later years because he wanted to personally judge the "energy" of the people he was hiring. He was looking for a specific kind of hunger.
The semiconductor gamble that paid off
The biggest "bet the house" moment happened in the early 1980s. Lee Byung-chul decided Samsung needed to get into semiconductors. At the time, the US and Japan owned that market. People thought he was crazy. High-tech silicon wafers are a world away from textiles. But Lee saw the digital age coming before it had a name.
He poured money into R&D.
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He sent engineers to the US to learn everything they could. By 1983, Samsung announced they would produce 64K DRAM chips. The industry laughed. Then Samsung actually did it. That single decision is why Samsung is a global superpower today. Without that specific pivot by the founder in his twilight years, Samsung might have just remained a regional food and clothing company.
The Lee Byung-chul philosophy: More than just profit
To understand who is the founder of Samsung, you have to look at his personal tastes. He was a massive collector of Korean art. He founded the Ho-Am Art Museum. He wasn't just a corporate shark; he was a man who deeply valued Korean culture and wanted to prove to the world that Korea could be world-class in every category—from high art to high tech.
He lived by a few core tenets:
- People first (hiring the best talent was his obsession).
- Rational management (everything had to be backed by data and logic).
- Contribution to the nation (business as a tool for societal growth).
Wait, let's talk about the succession. Lee Byung-chul passed away in 1987. Usually, in these massive dynasties, the eldest son takes over. That’s the tradition. But Lee broke tradition. He skipped his two older sons and picked his third son, Lee Kun-hee, to lead the empire. He saw something in Kun-hee that the others lacked—the same fire, the same willingness to dismantle everything and start over if it meant being #1. It was a cold, calculated move that defined the modern era of the company.
Common misconceptions about Samsung's origins
One thing people get wrong all the time is thinking Samsung started as a government-owned entity. It didn't. It was purely private. However, it’s true that Lee Byung-chul had to navigate some incredibly tricky political waters. He was actually out of the country for a while following a coup in South Korea because the new regime was cracking down on "corrupt" businessmen. He eventually struck a deal: he’d help build the economy if they let him keep running his businesses. It was a marriage of convenience that changed history.
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Another myth? That they just "copied" Apple.
While the legal battles of the 2010s are famous, Samsung was an industrial titan decades before the iPhone was a sketch on a napkin. By the time smartphones became a thing, Samsung already controlled the supply chain for the parts inside those phones. They were the ones making the screens and the memory for their competitors. That’s the ultimate flex Lee Byung-chul baked into the company's DNA: vertical integration.
How the founder’s legacy looks in 2026
Today, the Samsung Group is a sprawling beast. It's not just phones. It's biopharmaceuticals. It's heavy industry. It's insurance. It's construction (they built the Burj Khalifa, by the way). All of this stems from the diversification strategy Lee Byung-chul implemented in the 40s and 50s. He never wanted to be reliant on one product.
If you want to understand the modern tech landscape, you have to respect the hustle of the man who started with dried fish in Daegu. He was a visionary who was also a realist. He knew that technology would eventually become a commodity, so he focused on manufacturing scale and speed.
Actionable insights for business enthusiasts
If you're looking to apply the Lee Byung-chul method to your own life or business, here are the actual takeaways that matter:
- Pivot or Die: Don't get emotionally attached to your first product. Samsung started with groceries and ended with 3nm chips. If the market shifts, you move with it or you get left behind.
- Talent is the Only Asset: Lee famously spent a huge chunk of his time scouting and interviewing. He believed the right person in the right seat was worth more than any piece of machinery.
- Think in Decades, Not Quarters: The semiconductor move took years to turn a profit. Most companies would have folded under the pressure. Have the stomach to stay the course if the logic holds up.
- Quality is a Non-Negotiable: You can't lead a global market with "good enough" products. Extreme quality control is what separates a brand from a commodity.
- Vertical Integration Wins: If you control the components, you control the product. Try to own as much of your "supply chain"—whether that's your skills or your business processes—as possible.
Lee Byung-chul wasn't a perfect man, but he was the exact kind of leader South Korea needed at that specific moment in history. He transformed a small trading post into a global name that defines the cutting edge. Next time you see that blue logo, remember the fish and the noodles. That's where it all began.