In Samsung's Messy Phone Recall, Lack Of Transparency Takes Center Stage

By Alina Selyukh and Elise Hu
NPR

Oct 18, 2016

Geoffrey Cain, author of a forthcoming book about the so-called Samsung empire, says the validity of reports about replacement Note 7s catching fire was met with skepticism inside Samsung itself. Employees told him they felt like they couldn’t really touch the topic for fear of “being branded trouble-makers.”

“The fact that people have to rely on rumors and hearsay even within the company to figure out what’s going on just speaks to the level of secrecy and unusual secrecy that has come to typify Samsung,” Cain says.

The tech giant has been working to loosen its culture and spread more power to its offices outside of South Korea, but Cain says the shift has been slow. And Greengart says, the time to change attitude is now.

“I truly think that it’s in Samsung’s best interest at this point to have radical transparency,” he says. “Because this isn’t a product problem as much as it’s a brand problem. If you don’t trust Samsung, you aren’t going to buy their products and that spreads far beyond the Note.”

In Samsung’s Messy Phone Recall, Lack Of Transparency Takes Center Stage

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