One of the things that surprised me most since joining Coupang is how much more frequently people change jobs or leave, compared to my previous workplace. At my old company, it was genuinely rare to see someone leave, and when it did happen, it was usually predictable. But since joining Coupang, of the people who interviewed me, only one is still here — everyone else has left. Many people around me, regardless of tenure or age, have also changed jobs or resigned, which got me thinking about turnover, and about the stark difference in organizational culture between the two places, so I decided to put my thoughts together.
First, back in my MBA days, a professor used to say something I still remember: “There’s no single right answer in organizational culture. But the reason any company has reached its current position is that its own unique culture has supported it along the way.” What follows is a purely personal set of observations, reflecting back on two organizations I know well — Samsung Electronics and Coupang.
(The content below is my own, though I used AI assistance to polish the writing for readability.)
- Samsung’s ‘Gardening’ Model: Building Technology Layer by Layer
Core strategy: Securing long-term competitiveness through preparation and accumulation
Talent flow: Stable development built on low attrition (roughly 2–3%)
Samsung Electronics values short-term performance, but it places even greater weight on long-term “preparation and accumulation.” Starting from open recruiting of new hires, employees go through a systematic development structure that builds a bond between the company and the individual, which translates into an attrition rate in the low 2% range — among the lowest in the industry.
The real strength this low turnover creates is ‘Robust R&D.’ Core elemental technologies for mobile devices have carried on unbroken across decades, and Samsung’s competitiveness stands on layers of technology that have been built up steadily, without ever collapsing.
- Coupang’s ‘Expedition’ Model: Breaking Through by Rapidly Deploying Experts
Core strategy: Strategic talent rotation and system innovation for growth
Talent flow: External expert hiring built on a relatively high turnover rate (estimated 15–20% attrition)
At Coupang, in the speed and tension characteristic of a tech company, talent turnover in the 15–20% range happens fairly naturally. This is closer to a strategic choice made to keep growth from stalling.
Seasoned experts brought in from outside are deployed immediately, working at a density close to that of a startup, under high expectations and high compensation. In the process, they clean up past technical debt and harden the systems, while rapidly building up internal technology assets for the future — cloud, AI, and the like. On top of that, the ability to continuously pay down the technical and operational debt that comes with short-term, high-speed growth keeps the business environment consistently up to date while still ensuring stability — and I think that, too, is one of Coupang’s real strengths.
- In the end, isn’t culture just another name for strategy?
Having spent many years at Samsung, I feel that the training and growth opportunities the company provided let me develop steadily over a long period. I believe this investment in talent development is precisely the foundation of Samsung’s organizational culture, and the core of the competitiveness it has accumulated over many years. Even just looking at the Samsung Human Resources Development Center, you can feel a concentration of know-how and systems that couldn’t be replicated in a short time.
Coupang, by contrast, feels like an organization that actively recruits relatively well-rounded talent and has quickly built the environment needed for them to perform at their full capacity. Because it places high expectations on individuals, its systems and decision-making structures have also continued to evolve, staying centered on execution.
In the end, I think a company’s growth is a process of finding balance between two axes: accumulating technology to prepare for the future, and securing the substance needed to sustain the present. As a result, Samsung has built long-term competitiveness on low turnover, keeping its technological lineage unbroken, while Coupang, even amid rapid talent rotation, is building its systems and technological foundation while preparing for its next stage.
※ This piece is based on personal experience and observation. Different perspectives and opinions are always welcome.
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