Samsung has gone into “emergency mode” and is now asking its managers to work six days a week.
The news, revealed in a report from Korean economic daily, comes as the company faces ongoing business challenges. Company-wide policy affects executives and senior managers across Samsung’s various divisions.
Recent disappointing 2023 financial results saw Samsung post revenue of around $51 billion in the final quarter of last year, down 3.8% year-on-year and down 2.2% from to analysts’ initial forecasts.
Samsung goes into “emergency mode”
Worse, the company’s operating profit fell 34.6% year-over-year to nearly $2 billion, putting the company’s entire balance sheet for the year in the negative – around 14,880 billion Korean won in deficit, or $10.8 billion.
A company executive told the Korean publication: “Considering that the performance of our major units, including Samsung Electronics Co., did not meet expectations in 2023, we are introducing the six-day work week for leaders in order to inject a sense of crisis and make all-out efforts to overcome it.
The policy change is likely part of the South Korean company’s efforts to combat increased competition in the chip market, where it faces strong rivalry from companies like SK Hynix. Other major chipmakers, like Intel and AMD, have also placed emphasis on AI-enabled components in recent months.
This is despite Samsung overtaking Apple in the latest quarterly smartphone shipment figures, giving it a global market share of 20.8%.
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 the management level will continue with five-day routines.
Overall, Samsung has shown some resilience, having laid off just 30 employees in March 2023. Many of its competitors have laid off thousands, but things could be about to change for the company whether the current outlook is as worrying as it appears.