By Bryan Harris
Financial Times
Feb 18, 2017
The arrest of Jay Lee, the de facto leader of Samsung, raises fears he shares Korean dynastic weaknesses
“There’s a generation gap on what people think about Jay Lee, and this reflects the cultural struggle in Samsung and in Korean society,” says Geoffrey Cain, author of an upcoming book on Samsung.
“The older Samsung people almost always tell me they have doubts because he’s smart but lacks his father’s charisma. The younger people, and the Western employees, say they like him a lot more — he knows how to listen and build relationships, the type of thing Samsung needs for the 21st century.”
“The arrest doesn’t seem to be shaking their image. They still think he’s a modernizer, even though he just showed that the old dynastic system of government patronage, which started with his grandfather, is still in place,” he added.
Read more about Lee Jae-yong, the vice chairman of Samsung and the company’s crown prince at Financial Times