Samsung Electronics South Africa is reorganising its local operation, creating four new business units under consumer electronics (CE) division, which will be headed up by director Mike van Lier.
These four pillars will focus on sales, product management, commercial and retail management.
The strategic realignment of the local has been precipitated by pending sale of Samsung’s printer division to HP. The sale of this operation will facilitate a streamlining of Samsung SA’s remaining business-to-business (B2B) segments, which will now fall under the newly-created commercial unit of the CE division.
“The global sale of Samsung’s printer division is a fantastic opportunity for both organisations.,” says Van Lier. “Here in South Africa, it will allow us to sharpen our focus on our other enterprises, while at the same time improving our operational processes.
“The structural realignment will also lead to the creation of a number of new strategic positions within these entities. Ultimately, this is a new era for us and is an approach that will not only enable us to continue delivering the outstanding service we are renowned for, but also to gain a deeper understanding of our customers’ needs.
Van Lier explains that the new Sales structure has been created with a view to delivering increased value to the company’s existing channel partners, by ensuring that the end consumers’ needs are met and that the right products and solutions are put into their hands.
The commercial entity will now encompass the B2B units – apart from printers – that were previously housed under the enterprise business division.
This aims to maintain the integrity of the existing mature B2B channels that have been established over many years. Van Lier points out that Samsung understands that the needs of enterprises are very different to those of the consumer, which is why this newly streamlined and efficient structure will be positioned to deal with the demands of the various vertical markets.
He adds that the aim of the product management division is to realise synergies across the numerous ranges of Samsung products that exist within the overall CE division.
Retail management will focus on communicating and marketing the company’s innovative and award-winning technologies to the end customers. The goal being to provide them with the right information to make informed product choices.
“Samsung is excited about the potential this new structure offers to our organization,” Van Lier says. “We are thrilled that it will enable us to be even more focused and precise when it comes to meeting the needs of both our channel partners and the requirements of end consumers.”