The sense of crisis and urgency to catch Apple drove Samsung designers and engineers to opt for a concept that best matched the look and feel of the iPhone, according to one unnamed Samsung designer.
"Designers have lots of unique and creative ideas, but these have to be loved by the top decision-makers. The problem was, because they were so fascinated by the Apple design, these ideas weren't really satisfactory to please the top level," said the designer.
"I think elsewhere top managers respect their chief designer's decision, but at Samsung, they overrule designers and have the final say about what design we go with. That limits our capability. To be better than a good fast follower, Samsung needs a more horizontal culture and to empower designers."
A Samsung executive, who didn't want to be named, countered that the group had started out with little innovation - it struggled even to make simple black and white TVs - but now drives new ideas internally through incentives and bonuses, with Lee himself very interested in new technology and design.
Wow-factor
One recent example of that top-heavy command structure came less than a fortnight before the launch of Samsung's Galaxy S III smartphone in May, when vice chairman Choi Gee-sung ordered half a million blue phone cases to be thrown away as the design, with thin, silver stripes, was unsatisfactory, according to a person familiar with the matter.
After a number of tweaks, Choi approved the final design on a Sunday just 10 days before launch, triggering an initial supply bottleneck and delaying shipments of some 2 million units, according to some analysts.
It's pretty much a top-down, hierarchical culture that doesn't do any good.
Similarly, when Choi visited Samsung's US telecoms operation a year ago, internal documents filed to the court during the US patent battle with Apple showed managers there were worried about a lack of initiatives to impress him.
"Overall plan is OK, but we are lacking a WOW idea to share with GS (Choi). Generally, lacking confidence in our plan to 'beat Apple'."
The react-fast philosophy is a far cry from how Apple worked. Christopher Stringer, a 17-year Apple design veteran, told the U.S. court that around 16 "maniacal" individuals from all over the world used to brainstorm around a kitchen table to come up with the company's mobile products.
By contrast, Samsung's design sanctum looks much like any other Samsung department, a Dilbert sprawl of desks and cubicles with framed aphorisms from the founding family on the walls: "Be with Customers", "Create Products that Contribute to Humanity" and "Challenge the World, Create the Future."
"It's pretty much a top-down, hierarchical culture that doesn't do any good in inspiring creativity," the designer added. "I don't think it's a unique Samsung problem, but one that plagues South Korean society as a whole. Samsung is making efforts to change it, but it's still very much top-down."
"Probably what we need now is the creative environment that Silicon Valley boasts."
