Samsung began life in South Korea being founded by Lee Byung – Chull in 1938 a very hard working and ambitious man. He always approached any market that he wanted into with the attitude that his company would quickly push to top of that particular field. His business started as an export company dealing in fruit ,vegetables and dried fish and had been doing fine building up to having forty workers at his trading company in Seoul until in 1950 when the communist’s invaded the south. Despite losing a lot of stock and money he relocated to Suwon in 1951 and in 2 short years his company increased its staff and profits by a staggering amount estimated at 2000%. Lee built his first production factory after the war in 1953 which was a sugar refinery until now he had worked only as a trader selling other peoples goods. Now that Lee had financial security he branched into opening department stores for trading then started selling insurance policies and securities.

The 60s and 70s saw the rise of Samsung Electronics which was founded in 1969 and benefited greatly from the policies of the then president Park Chung who strived to help anyone who was building a profitable company within South Korea. He would provide financial help when required and even banned foreign manufacturers from selling within his country to eliminate competition and allow Korean companies to grow stronger. In another very shrewd move he allowed certain companies access to Korea’s markets but to do so they had to supply technology to Korea’s industry which allowed Samsung Electronics to be able to produce electronic boards and chips. This allowed samsung to produce their own products and soon they had a range of household appliances such as fridges, freezers, washing machines and air conditioners sold at home and exported to foreign markets. The early 70s saw the company borrow money and branch into the booming communications industry building TV’s and audio equipment and opening their own television station called the Tongyang Broadcasting Company . It was also in the 70s that Samsung branched into heavy industrial projects such as shipbuilding, petrol refineries and home electronics. Various branches of Samsung were created such as Samsung Shipbuilding, Samsung Precision Company and Samsung Heavy Industries Company.

Throughout the 80s Samsung continued to grow in all the markets it had already entered and still continued to enter new ones including aerospace, genetic engineering and nanotechnology which it incorporates into it’s washing machines. They built large manufacturing plants in Portugal, England and New York between 1982 and 1987 for production of electronics and home appliances. It was in 1987 after running the company for over fifty years that Lee Byung – Chull passed on leaving the company to his son Kun - Hee Lee who took the title of chairman.

Today the company still grows and is a household name for appliances and regarded as one of the top five industrial giants on the planet. They are also the official sponsors of the Olympic games from 2010 to 2016 taking in both the Olympic games and the winter Olympic games.

Samsung will officially sponsor the Olympic Games and the Olympic Movement for the next eight years, a deal that covers the Vancouver Olympic Winter Games in 2010, the London Olympic Games in 2012, the 2014 Olympic Winter Games, and the 2016 Olympic Games.