Samsung Electronics CEO Boo Keun Yoon today compared the UAE’s culture of innovation with that of his home country South Korea at the third annual Government Summit in Dubai.
Yoon said that the main drivers of his company’s innovation journey were led by three core pillars – product, process and people.
He told delegates that Samsung’s focus on the three aspects have propelled the company to its current position, and that they can do the same for governments in accelerating innovation.
Yoon said that Samsung has set a 100-year-goal rather than a quarter-to-quarter or year-to-year growth strategy. “Our vision has been to look 100 years into the future and accordingly activate scale and competitiveness with the ultimate goal of being a long-term industry leader,” he said.
He observed that the UAE and Korea share the same attitude towards innovation – that “anything is possible with imagination and anything can be built out of almost nothing.”
“Though our roots are far away in Korea, there are a number of cultural similarities between UAE and Korea,” he said. “The ties that bind us are deeper. True friendship is having one mind and one goal, but in two bodies. The UAE and Korea share one mind and one goal when it comes to innovation,” Yoon said.
“We always stay hungry for success. We follow the same model as the UAE – of imagining and doing. That attitude has taken us far. Our brand is the 7th most valuable in the world and the highest ranked Asian company on the list. The root is in innovation.”
