Asia’s Richest Families 2017: How The Lees Made South Korea The ‘Republic Of Samsung’

This story is part of Forbes’ coverage of Asia’s 50 Richest Families 2017.

“Lee Kun-hee, the chairman of Samsung, was a master of careful, cautious and shrewd decision-making,” says Geoffrey Cain, writing a book about the empire. He was suffering from lung cancer when he made “the incredibly risky decision in 1983 to enter semiconductors,” Cain goes on. “It worked. This allowed Samsung to turn Korea into a Republic of Samsung.”

Read more about the Samsung’s founder family and their third-generation long management at Forbes