A sense of doom and gloom prevails at Samsung as the company is reeling from the Galaxy Note 7 fiasco. It’s believed that many will be shown the door at Samsung’s mobile division as punishment for the entire episode. Samsung began its annual performance assessment of executives earlier this month, it then reshuffles the top brass and executives come December, according to reports Samsung might cut its entire executive strength by up to 20 percent.
Samsung has nearly 1,000 executives and it might sack around 200 of them, reports Korean broadcaster MBC. The company reduced the strength by 129 last year and Samsung is expected to apply more strict performance evaluation rules this year, that’s independent of firings related to the Galaxy Note 7 crisis.
Word on the street is that president of Samsung’s mobile division Koh Dong-jin and some of his top aides might be relieved of their duties to hold them accountable. Koh took over as president just last year, he previously served as the head of Samsung Mobile’s R&D division for many years and been credited with playing a leading role in developing the Galaxy S and Galaxy Note series.
His top aides include Rhee In-jong and Roh Tae-moon who head the software and hardware units of the R&D division, respectively. These two executives were actually considered as potential candidates for the post of president once Koh moved further up the ranks but their future at the company looks unclear as Samsung is yet to confirm whether or not heads will roll for the botched Galaxy Note 7 launch.
It won’t exactly be easy for Samsung to make such a big change at the top, an unnamed Samsung source mentioned in the report points out that dismissing Koh just one year after he took over as the mobile division’s president is only going to undermine the morale of other executives and is likely going to put too much pressure on his successor.
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