Former Samsung head Lee Kun-hee had a heart attack in 2014, and his son Jay Y. Lee took over. I don't know if that had any effect on the alleged culture problems the article talks about.
Semiconductors is a space where mistakes take a while to bit you.
Although as we've seen with AMD, it is possible to come back from them. With the right course correction, Samsung is diversified enough to tough things out. Didn't they have a massive turnaround sometime in the 80's too?
It's interesting. I read about how Samsung learned and followed a lot of processes from Boeing and lately Boeing has been faltering quite a bit and Samsung seems to be following suit.
You can also read that as trying to do both might be too broad for a smaller company to tackle. Apple is a clear example of how chip design and chip manufacturing don't need to be linked and may in fact hinder.
Most folks blame the culture shift on Paul actually. He was the cause of it all. Brian being a horrible symptom of what he created, and Brian definitely propagated it far.
His mistakes weren't seen clearly until almost 2019, when it became obvious 10nm was a disaster, and 14nm++++++++ was their only workable product.
We're still seeing it today as Intel has 250w TDP products competing with AMD 140w TDP products.
Semiconductors is a space where mistakes take a while to bit you.