Summary
My research was firmly centered on Samsung and its ability to maintain its reputation in comparison to competing companies such as Apple and Sony. The lawsuit between Apple and Samsung served as the primary focus of my research and assignment as it provided a simple glimpse or example of how Samsung has let its leadership team become overly involved in competition rather than harnessing its strengths, which it currently shares in the technological industry. This ultimately resulted in the company losing much of its reputation that was previously developed from a high level of leadership and effective business strategies. The thesis of my research was on better and more effective leadership and management to retain reputation and customer loyalty.

Many of its products were too similar to products provided by Apple such as an extensive focus on smartphone technology and making their phones ultra light and thin. The slide lock capability of Samsung’s phones was quoted as being almost identical to that of IPhone technology developed by Apple itself. This poses significant issues in regards to the future reputation of the company and its ability to continue inspiring customer loyalty and understanding of its products on an individual basis only. There also needs to be a certain level of diversity amongst its products and way of doing business. Many of its outsourcing methods are too similar to other companies and constrained in the sense that there is no flexibility for change or room for improvement and development. Samsung has become too engrained in smartphone technology and strategies that focus on improving this technology rather than making it more innovative and different for customers to use. Recently, Apple has started copying Samsung directed technology and this has been regarded as being a step in the right direction.

There are also apparent weaknesses in the company’s business strategies and being able to both inspire and retain customers through the use of other strategies such as change and better management of its staff and products. This is how a company retains its reputation, through smart, independent business strategies. If the company is able to change the way it manages its staff and products, then its products will inspire higher levels of creativity and be able to fulfill certain requirements in terms of the expectations of business and personal based customers. For example, it has been explained that Samsung provides a very technical product that business professionals such as architects can use but it has not altered other aspects of its products that fall too closely in line with the IPhone and general smart phone philosophy.

Recommendations
It has been recommended through my research that Samsung needs to diversify its focus with respect to the products that it provides and ensuring that there are some differences between competing products and its own in order to retain firstly, individuality and eccentricity, and secondly, company reputation. This requires a different strategy altogether and not necessarily improvements to the level of innovation of products being provided to both new and existing loyal customers. Furthermore, there are too many similarities between competing products and it is strongly recommended that Samsung attempt to alter its strategy to ensure that its focus and products are remarkably different from Apple products but also rapidly advancing in the right direction given its recent success in digitalizing its resources and respective products. Furthermore, it has also been recommended that Samsung adjust its customer interaction process to ensure that the customer can understand the technology that is being provided and that its reputation can continue to be upheld. This also relies on the leadership and management teams of Samsung developing future business plans that can cater for change and any dips or rises in revenue. The idea of a pragmatic approach is also clearly stipulated throughout my research as it requires that Samsung take a lead with respect to their technology and respective interests and requirements. These recommendations specified throughout my research need to be developed and strategically enhanced so that the final result benefits the company and leads towards a change in the quality and type of products being provided to new and existing loyal customers.

Additionally, Samsung will need to divest business divisions in order to expand its vision and subsequent future products. It needs to further diversify and this will require some substantial changes being made to the integration of its divisions as well as to its organizational structure. A more flexible organizational structure has been recommended.

A timeline for recommended actions for Samsung includes firstly, the implementation of Samsung’s Value Innovation program within the first 6 months in addition to its customer interaction program, which will further support the value innovation program. This recommended timeline also includes a review of the reputation of Samsung within the first 6 months to ensure that Apple continues to follow Samsung’s respective product trends rather than Samsung resorting back to followership. Leadership is also to be reviewed within the first 6 months.

Conclusions
The research methods used throughout this assignment have primarily focused on quantitative data collection and focusing on the number of sales and improvements being made to its respective products before and after the lawsuit where Samsung subsequently lost its reputation. The R & D data is lower then expected and the recommendation for a greater scope of leadership and more pragmatic approach is essential if Samsung is to continue leading the technology industry worldwide. There has been a recent dip in sales in comparison to a year ago when Samsung products were regards as the most innovative and popular worldwide. The results of the analysis determined that the quality and level of innovation of Samsung’s products are very similar to that of Apple and that its efficiency and productivity levels with respect to the accessibility of its products have decreased over the last year, despite its high level of ingenuity. This has resulted in the specified recommendations being provided throughout this assignment and the need for business strategies to be amended and further updated for Samsung in order to retain its reputation. It has been heavily identified that Samsung is a premiere technological company but needs to believe more in its products and its ability to inspire customers and draw away from the generic Apple brand, which has become so closely associated with smartphone ideology. If it can better lead its own technology and customers through improved interactions and greater innovation, then its reputation will be sustained worldwide.

It is expected that this substantial changes being made to Samsung’s business strategies and the way that it generates and sells its products, it will generate a large competitive advantage over the other major technological companies.

Based on this leadership knowledge of Samsung, I believe on a personal note that the company needs to become more confident in its products and ability to sell and be the best that it can in innovation and product development. By attempting to parallel the business strategies and products of other competing companies such as Apple, it is failing to advantageously use its respective resources and opportunities to improve and outcompete Apple. A pragmatic approach is recommended throughout my research. This can be seen to be frustrating from the point of view of loyal customers and those that are considering purchasing Samsung products. With future projects being focused on different products and software, customers may be more willing to remain patient with the company and provide longer term commitment, which has recently been absent for the company, Samsung.