SAN JOSE, California ― Samsung Electronics is making a big push to
expand its presence in Silicon Valley, the heart of the tech world and
the backyard of its archrival Apple.
Although it is still rare
to find Samsung’s top executives mingling with their younger
counterparts, outfitted with a hoodie and sneakers, for spontaneous
meetings on the street or at restaurants, the winds of change are
clearly blowing.
The Korean tech giant has increasingly acquired
tech start-ups, and incorporated their innovative and open corporate
culture over the past couple of years.
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| Samsung’s new Silicon Valley headquarters in San Jose. Samsung Electronics |
In
September, Samsung opened its new Silicon Valley headquarters on a
100,000-square-meter site north of downtown San Jose and some 20
kilometers from Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino.
The $300
million campus, including a 10-story office tower and seven-story
parking garage, is the tallest and fanciest facility in the area.
Flexible
working hours, hallway conversations, impromptus meetings and convivial
lunches all are part of daily lives at the center.
“Silicon
Valley is a marketplace where local talent, entrepreneurs, venture
capitalists and our partners flock together,” said Young Sohn, president
and chief strategy officer of Samsung Electronics. “This building is a
kind statement as their partner.”
The center houses research and
development and sales operations for the company’s chip business.
Samsung is the world’s largest memory chip vendor and the second-biggest
maker of processors after Intel.
The center used to focus on
storage systems in the past but now it seeks diverse software
applications such as those on the Internet of Things, health care and
cars.
“We are also engaged in mergers and acquisitions of
start-ups to fill innovation gaps,” Sohn said. “The Seoul head office
allows us substantial autonomy.”
Last year, the center reviewed more than 1,000 start-ups for investment, with 54 of them gaining funding.
“We now join from the initial stage of a start-up to accelerate its technological innovation.”
 |
| Flexible
working hours, hallway conversations, impromptus meetings and convivial
lunches all are part of daily lives at the center. Samsung Electronics |
While
the center focuses on chip solutions, Global Innovation Center,
Samsung’s start-up accelerator also based in Silicon Valley, aims to
have more encounters with local talent and entrepreneurs on software
services overall.
“We are like a start-up in Samsung,” said
David Eun, president and head of the center. “We don’t take a big
company approach. We move quickly and always stay hungry.”
Eun was recently promoted to president, a signal that he said shows Samsung’s renewed commitment to software.
The
center, under his leadership over the past four years, has poured
resources into connecting all devices, not just from Samsung, but also
from other manufacturers, via the Internet. Under the vision, the center
led several acquisitions such as SmartThings, the smart home platform
developer.
Eun said Samsung’s integration of hardware and software would offer more thoughtful and useful experiences for customers.
“We
mix the best practices learned in Silicon Valley and Samsung. That
seems obvious but many companies don’t execute on this,” he added.
He
hinted the company would continue to seek new acquisition opportunities
especially on big data analysis and security, the IoT, virtual reality
and health care.
“As part of Samsung, a start-up will still have
freedom and control, while having great access to decision-makers and
collaborations with wide distribution and marketing sources,” he said.
“Working with Samsung can be very attractive.”
By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)
