Samsung Case Study Samsung is one of the worlds largest companies in the field of electronics and advanced technology. The company specializes in producing and manufacturing a many different consumers and industries, such as, digital media devices, electronics, memory chips, semiconductors and integrated systems. The company also involved in the construction work as well as the army gadgets. The company became one of the most recognized brands in the technology field and it produces around fifth the total exports of South Korea. In the 1990s, the company enhanced its products quality and started the production of the computers monitors and LCD screens which gave the company its place between the top five companies in the global market. Later by the 2000s, Samsung started the production of its smartphone Galaxy series, which became later on the companys best product and also claimed its place between the best-selling smartphones in the global market. From there, the company continued on expanding the smartphones series to the computers and tablets, and became the worlds biggest manufacturer for the screens in its different shapes, types and uses. Samsung was able to reach the top of almost every consumer list of best products category when it comes to electronics, which was achieved by their plan of creating new innovative products that suites different lifestyles and needs. Samsungs management did set a goal to become the biggest consumer electronics company, which they succeeded to achieve this goal in less than two decades. The company was able to break through markets with creating innovative technologies and designs to be on top of the marketplace and to attract the consumers to get their products and even to keep looking out for their new ones. Besides that, Samsung has a verity of products categories which makes it unlikely for the company to be affected by any downturns in any of those categories. When a company keeps its focus and efforts all in one field, then, it will more likely be having problems in case the market started to slow down or by the competition of the market. Therefore, by having multiple production lines, mostly the cost of production will decrease by investing in the knowledge and sharing it between the different divisions, resources and experience whenever there are similar parts needed for different products. Other than that, products On the second of September 2016, Samsung stopped the sales of Galaxy Note 7 after the product designing team found a problem in the product which could cause the Li-Ion batteries to explode. That required Samsung to recall aa total of 2.5 million Note 7 phones from all around the world. After the lunch of the phone, a guy was unloading groceries out of his car while his brand-new Note 7 was inside the car, the guy looked at his car to see it in flames. After investigating for the reason of the fire, it turned out that the battery of the brand-new Note 7 had heated up and exploded. After two weeks from the lunch of the phone, the Consumer Product Safety Commission in the U.S. announced the recall of all the Note 7 phones in the U.S. where Samsung had to change the defected phones batteries from a different supplier, but that also didnt solve their problem. On the sixth of October 2016, an incident of a Note 7 phone battery exploded in its owner pocket and burned his clothes before he pulled it out of his pocket and throw it in the ground while was taking a flight. After all the reports of property damages, over heating phones and exploding ones, Samsung finally came to a decision to completely stop the production of the Note 7 phones, and announced a final recall, exchange and refund program on 13th of October 2016. (Green, B. & Passenger., 2017). After the decision of Samsung to recall the 2.5 million Note 7 phones, the company socialized the statement through its website, which were asking the customers to contact the place of purchase or to reach them on their call center to request for the replacement of the phone. The company also posted the message through all of its social media platforms as well as sending an update to the active phones to manage the battery performance and prevent it from overheating until it gets replaced. The customers and fans of the company were angry at Samsung for its ineffective way of handling the issue, and for allowing it to happen at first by ignoring the safety and quality measures and hurrying to push the product out for production, which had put peoples life in danger. After the recall of the replacement phones, Samsung posted a statement to all the Note 7 owners to switch it off and contact the retail points for a refund. (Green, B. & Passenger., 2017). The decision which Samsung took to stop the production of the Note 7 had cost them an estimated $6.2 billion. (Green, B. & Passenger., 2017). The shares of the company at the stock market had dropped even before the announcement of stopping the production of the Note 7, which was the biggest drop to face the company since 2008. (Green, B. & Passenger., 2017). Samsung had suffered from many losses other than the money like the public trust of their products, other than the media coverage of the incident and the other companies taking the chance to convince Samsungs customers to switch to their products. Moreover, signs which instructed that the Note 7 phones are not allowed in any public transportation, hotels or airports were hanged and posted everywhere which even was a bigger hit to the company since it made people stay away from their products. Not long after the Note 7 incident, Samsung and the U.S. product safety regulator have announced the recall of a total 2.8 million washing machines. Based on the safety commission, the mentioned that, the affected laundry machines from Samsungs best leading machines might have the possibility of interior components detaching from the chassis of the washing machine while in use, which might cause injuries. The company stated that, the cause behind this issue might be because the users use the machine in a high-speed spinning cycle for heavy items such as beddings. The U.S. safety commission mentioned that, Samsung had received 733 reports related to the issue of machines having strong and unusual vibration which in some cases might cause for the top of the machine to detach. Moreover, nine injuries reports had been filed which included injuries such as broken jaw and injured shoulder. (Chen. Brian X., 2016). Furthermore, Samsung has offered the consumers an option to have the machine fixed at their homes by reinforcing the top of the machine or to have a discount voucher to buy another washing machine from Samsung. The company made its refund option to be only for the customers who have bought a recalled machine. (Chen. Brian X., 2016). In Australia, similar scenario happened where 144 thousand washing machines from Samsung were recalled to the possibility of causing fire. The customers were unhappy of the solution which Samsung offered which is fixing the machines, but what the customers were mad about is the fixing process was inefficient and ineffective since it involved covering some connectors with plastic bags. (Chen. Brian X., 2016).

A) Base on the case study what would be your recommendations for the above scenario? There are 2 problems stated in the case study and student needs to refer to the problem and give their views.

B) Xiaomi presently leads the global smartphone sales charts with a market share of 17.1 per cent in June 2021, followed by Samsung at second place with 15.7 per cent, and Apple at third place with 14.3 per cent. What can Samsung do better in terms of its competitors? Student would need to analyse the competitors and give constructive feedback.