Biographies are prominent sights on non-fiction shelves, and many become classics. Business bios? Less so. But a new entry to the genre – Geoffrey Cain’s Samsung Rising: The Inside Story of the South Korean Giant that Set out to Beat Apple and Conquer Tech (Penguin Random House, 2020) – is a corker.
By Andrew Salmon
Asia Times
Mar 20, 2020
Long before “Parasite” won the Oscar for Best Picture and K-pop groups performed on “The Tonight Show,” South Korea’s best-known export was Samsung, an obscure maker of cheap microwaves that Western expatriates in the country had taken to calling “Sam-suck.” Today, Samsung is a household name, and a bigger smartphone maker than Apple. But its path to the top was strewn with secret deals, price fixing, bribery, tax evasion and more, all of it overseen by an ultrasecretive, ultrarich family ready to use every means at its disposal to stay in command.
By Raymond Zhong
The New York Times
Mar 17, 2020
A court in South Korea turned down prosecutors’ request to arrest Samsung Group’s Jay Y. Lee on alleged bribery, perjury and embezzlement, letting him stay in place atop the country’s most powerful company while they continue their investigation.
Bloomberg Technology
Jan 19, 2017
If schools are a reflection of society, then they show Cambodia to be a limp and defeated nation. On the first day of class, Cambodian children learn they must bribe their teachers to get good grades, a practice that continues for the 3% of them who make it to college.
By Geoffrey Cain
The Wall Street Journal
May 19, 2011
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