On March 1, 1938, founding chairman Byung-Chull Lee started a business in Taegu, Korea, with 30,000 won.

At the start, his business focused primarily on trade export, selling dried Korean fish, vegetables and fruit to Manchuria and Beijing. In little more than a decade, Samsung—which means ''three stars'' in Korean—would have its own flour mills and confectionery machines, its own manufacturing and sales operations and ultimately evolve to become the modern global corporation that still bears the same name today
In the 1970s, Samsung laid the strategic foundations for its future growth by investing in the heavy, chemical and petrochemical industries.

During this time, the company also took steps to enhance its competitive position in the world's textile industry, integrating its manufacturing processes from raw materials to end products. As a result, many new companies were created, including Samsung Heavy Industries Company in 1974 and Samsung Shipbuilding and Samsung Precision Company (now Samsung Techwin) in 1977.
Another burst of growth for Samsung came from the burgeoning home electronics business. Samsung Electronics, already a major manufacturer in the Korean market, began to export its products for the first time during this period. Samsung also acquired a 50 percent stake in Korea Semiconductor, further solidifying Samsung Electronics' position as a leader in semiconductor manufacturing
Samsung's core technology businesses diversified and expanded globally during the late 1970s and early 1980s.

In 1978, Samsung Semiconductor and Samsung Electronics became separate entities. Samsung Aerospace Industries (now Samsung Techwin) was launched in February 1987 and Samsung has been developing its aerospace capabilities with unprecedented speed ever since.
Samsung also entered the systems development business, establishing Samsung Data Systems in 1985 (now Samsung SDS) as a leader in information technology services, including systems integration, systems management, consulting and networking services.
Samsung's increasing focus on technology led to the creation of the company's two research and development (R&D) institutes that helped expand its reach even further into electronics, semiconductors, high polymer chemicals, genetic engineering, optical telecommunications, aerospace and new fields of technology innovation from nanotechnology to advanced network architectures.
In 1987, Samsung's founding Chairman Byung-Chull Lee passed away after almost 50 years at the helm of the company. His son, Kun-Hee Lee, succeeded him as the new Chairman. During this period, Samsung challenged itself to restructure old businesses and enter new ones with the aim of becoming one of the world's top five electronics companies.
The early 1990s presented tremendous challenges for high-tech businesses.

Mergers, coalitions and buy-outs were common while competition and consolidation flourished. Companies were pressed to rethink their technology and services offerings. Business began to flow across borders between countries and companies. Samsung made the most of these opportunities by refocusing its business strategy to better respond to market demands.
In the mid-1990s, Samsung revolutionised its business through a dedication to making world-class products, providing total customer satisfaction and being a good corporate citizen – all under the vision of ''quality first.''

During this period, 17 different products—from semiconductors to computer monitors, TFT-LCD screens to colour picture tubes—climbed into the ranks of the top-five products for global market share in their respective areas and 12 others achieved top market ranking in their areas.
Being No.1 also means fulfilling corporate social obligations, whether the cause is social welfare, environmental conservation, cultural events, or sports. To that end, Samsung actively participated in sports marketing and as a result of its intensive efforts, its then-chairman, Kun-Hee Lee, was selected as a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in July 1996, greatly enhancing the company's image as a key contributor to world athletics.
Despite the 1997 financial crisis that affected nearly all Korean businesses, Samsung was one of few companies that continued growing, thanks to its leadership in digital and network technologies and its steady concentration on electronics, finances and related services.

Samsung responded to the crisis by reducing the number of its affiliated companies to 45 (according to the Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act), decreasing personnel by almost 50,000, selling 10 business units and improving the soundness of its financial structure, lowering its 365 percent debt ratio in 1997 to 148 percent by late 1999.
The digital age has brought revolutionary change – and opportunity – to global business and Samsung has responded with advanced techno-logies, competitive products and constant innovation.

At Samsung, we see every challenge as an opportunity and believe we are perfectly positioned as one of the world's recognised leaders in the digital technology industry.
Our commitment to being the world's best has won us the No.1 global market share for 13 of our products, including semiconductors, TFT-LCDs, monitors and CDMA mobile phones. Looking forward, we're making historic advances in research and development of our overall semiconductor line, including flash memory and non-memory, custom semiconductors, DRAM and SRAM, as well as producing best-in-class LCDs, mobile phones, digital appliances and more.