This Korean group takes its name from the Korean word meaning three stars, or tri-star. Samsung is in fact the largest conglomerate in the world, a group which is comprised of three stars of its own. One being its Samsung Electronics group, the second is its Samsung Engineering and Construction company arm, and its third is Samsung Heavy Industries, which is the biggest shipbuilding concern on earth.

The group is so powerful in its homeland of South Korea that the area is sometimes referred to as the Republic of Samsung. As well as the three core industries mentioned above, Samsung have also branched out into a myriad of other sectors, such as the entertainment and retail industries.

Unbelievably, this giant global empire began as a humble exporter of dried Korean fish. Its founder Lee Byung-Chull started the business in Daegu, Korea on 1st March 1938. He began exporting foods to Beijing and Manchuria, and within a decade has his own food manufacturing operations including flour mills and sweet factories.

Not even the iron grip of communism could stop Byung-Chull and his Samsung vision. Rebuilding the business from 1951 onwards, he continued to build on export trading, and then opened the first post-Korean War manufacturing plant in South Korea which refined sugar on a massive scale.

It seemed that every sector Lee Byung-Chull entered, he mastered, and he was a success in each. This led to further investment potential, and in 1969 he was able to start Samsung Electronics. Their first product was the black and white television, of which they had produced one million of by 1976.

Samsung were fortunate to have a President in place at the time who was aware of the importance of growth within the fledgling industries of Korea, and the company was offered government funding and support which helped the company to grow strong enough to compete on a global scale.

And this it did when it began catering for the huge new consumer electronics demand that flooded the global markets throughout the 1970s. New electronics products were being developed all the time, and Samsung were at the forefront, producing television sets and microwave ovens for the homes all over the world.

Samsung have returned to their tri-star roots, downsizing recently so that it can concentrate more heavily on its three core industries, chemicals, engineering, and electronics.