Shortly after being appointed Managing Director of Samsung Techwin Europe, Mr Jong Wan Lim presented his vision for the future of the company at a conference attended by the company’s business partners. Mr Lim stated that 2014 would be “A year of change – A new beginning”. Eight months after taking on the responsibility of leading one of Europe’s fastest growing electronic security brands, Mr Lim now explains how his vision for change is developing.
What would you say are the most significant changes that have taken place since you joined Samsung Techwin?
Our world is changing, our customers’ requirements are changing and we are changing the way we do business to meet the challenges of the future.
To meet this change we have reviewed and are continuing to review the way we manage our business model. Our new ‘regional powerhouses’ have enabled us to be more efficient in our use of resources to provide a more sales oriented structure. We can better utilise the expertise of our sales and support services across the countries within these regions to provide a fast, efficient and consistent service to all.
To ensure the success of our regional powerhouses, we are continuing to review the way we manage our operations within the countries. This will provide the platform for the continuous drive for sales and service in our “key sales target” areas.
Our aim is to be number one in these “key sales target” areas and the key to the success will be achieved through concentrating our focus on these areas.
We all know that successful business partnerships are built around trust. At Samsung Techwin we are no different as we look to have the highest level of trust with all our; distribution, system integrators, end-user customers and technology company partners. This new sales orientated strategy is improving the quality of our processes and policies to strengthen this trust. These shared values are further strengthened by engaging end-users through our vertical market Business Development (BDM) specialists, who are concentrating on key vertical markets in their regions such as Transport, Retail, Banking and City Surveillance where all this business is being driven through our distribution partners. This has resulted, for example, in Samsung Techwin being awarded PADs approval (Network Rail) for a large number of network products, including our award winning open platform WiseNetIII camera range. This places us in a position of currently being the only manufacturer to have IP cameras approved for use on the UK rail network.
Samsung Techwin has just introduced a new analogue solution. With the market moving towards IP solutions, can you explain why you have chosen to do this?
Without doubt, the future is with IP solutions, but we must also support all our customers and there is a countless number of existing analogue CCTV systems where users are not ready for various reasons to migrate to a network based solution. The new Beyond Series harnesses the power of 1280H camera technology to enable the analogue cameras and DVRs to deliver 1000TVL. The key to supporting all existing solutions is that the Beyond Series is interoperable with existing analogue products as it conforms to the PAL standard.
What other areas of your business do you see growth coming from?
Answer: In 2014, our Business to Consumer (B2C) range has grown rapidly into Retail Stores, On-line retailers and telecommunication companies with products such as the Smart Home camera SNH-6410 that uses the WiseNetIII technology designed for the professional market in a form that would grace the smartest of homes. This B2C range has expanded rapidly to meet a growing demand for end-customers who are embracing Smart Technology and High Definition images in the home.
So what does the future hold for Samsung Techwin?
In 1962, Marshall McLuhan said that we live in “a global village” and this was just when electronics were in their infancy. Today our world is changing rapidly and it is becoming more compact, showing us that ‘big is not always best’. Our changing approach has already delivered value added tangible benefits for our targeted vertical markets, through our partnerships with end-customers, integrators, distributors and technology partners, delivering quality products, services and support. One clear example is the Gabling Prison project where our BDM team have worked with the end-user and systems integrator, HSS Sicherheit Berlin, passing the project through to the distributor, Dekom.
