Geoffrey Cain – Samsung Rising: How a South Korean Giant Set Out to Beat Apple and Conquer Tech

In Samsung Rising: How a South Korean Giant Set Out to Beat Apple and Conquer Tech, author and journalist Geoffrey Cain exposes the once suger, paper, and fertilizer producing company that became Samsung in the aftermath of the Second World War until Spring 2019, having beaten Apple as most profitable company, yet struggling with technology, sentenced board members, and more to survive. With 369,000 employees (compared to Apple’s 80,000, and Google’s 48,000), Samsung’s a global player, while making up more than twenty percent of South Korea’s exports.

The rise of Samsung was built upon the fabrics of politics mingled with entrepreneurship and clan-like governance. Years of being a follower, enabler, and then an innovator, yet fighting numerous court cases on patent infringements, and heavily leaning on U.S. presence and support from brilliant marketers. Luck and bad luck go hand in hand for Samsung. Geoffrey Cain interviewed a multitude of Samsung employees, managers, market watchers to describe the history of Samsung’s corporate culture, products, pivotal moments, successes, and failures. For this very reason, no official endorsement for the book was obtained from Samsung. Nevertheless, it served its purpose by showing me lots of yet unknown details, and background information.

About the author
Geoffrey Cain has spent more than ten years covering Samsung, South Korea, and technology for The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, Time, and other publications.

I received a free review copy from Random House Publishing through Edelweiss in exchange for my personal, unbiased review upon reading.