本文选自《经济学人》10月31日刊文章。韩国人一生中有三件事不可回避：死亡、税收、三星。10月25日，一手缔造三星帝国的三星前掌门人李健熙去世，享年78岁。1978年，李健熙从父亲手中接手三星时，三星还只是一家山寨日本产品的小制造商，此后，他对公司进行大刀阔斧的改革，秉承“质量取胜”的理念，押注智能手机和半导体行业，一步步将三星打造成涉及众多行业的商业帝国。三星的壮大与韩国的经济发展同步，三星资产占到韩国GDP的20%，如此庞大的商业帝国已经不可能不和政界发生联系，李健熙在世时就两次被判刑、豁免，而他的儿子继承的不仅是三星帝国，还有无可避免的指控、判刑。
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Samsung after Lee Kun-heeThe death of its patriarch leaves South Korea’s biggest conglomerate with familiar challenges三星掌门人的去世让这家韩国最大的企业集团面临熟悉的挑战IN THE SPRING of 1995 word got to Lee Kun-hee that a batch of Samsung’s brand-new mobile phones, which it had doled out as new-year gifts, did not work. Incensed, the group’s chairman ordered employees at the factory that had made the offending devices to pile up tens of thousands of them in a courtyard. A cool $45m-worth of equipment then went up in flames.在1995年春有这样一件事关于李健熙的事，作为新年礼物分发出去的一批全新手机不能用，三星集团的主席被激怒了，他命令生产这些不能使用的设备的工厂员工将数万部价值4500万美元的产品堆放在院子里，在大火中烧毁。The episode is emblematic of the way Mr Lee (pictured), who died on October 25th aged 78, turned a South Korean maker of knock-off electronics into a technology powerhouse. He was obsessed with quality and demanded total devotion from executives. Every decade or so he made bold bets. His last one, on smartphones and semiconductors, paid off handsomely. Samsung Electronics, the group’s crown jewel, has a market value of $311bn, more than JPMorgan Chase, America’s biggest bank.这是李健熙（如图)统治三星的标志性事件，李健熙将三星从一家韩国山寨电子产品制造商变成科技巨头，他10月25日去世，享年78岁。他对质量非常执着，也要求高管们要注重质量。每隔十年左右，他就会进行一次大胆的下注。他的上一次投资是关于智能手机和半导体的，获得了丰厚的回报。三星电子是三星集团皇冠上的明珠，其市值为3110亿美元，超过了美国最大银行摩根大通。The patriarch’s death was not unexpected—he had been incapacitated since a heart attack in 2014. It will not prompt leadership changes. But it highlights two challenges facing South Korea’s biggest chaebol (conglomerate). The group must find growth beyond maturing smartphone markets. And it has to grapple with Mr Lee’s other legacy: an over-cosy relationship with politics that has embroiled his company, as well as his son and successor, Lee Jae-yong, in corruption cases.- incapacitate：使失去正常生活（或工作）能力
这位掌门人的去世并非意外——他自2014年心脏病发作后就丧失了行动能力。他的去世不会促使（三星）领导层发生变化，但这凸显了韩国最大财阀所面临的两大挑战。该集团必须在成熟的智能手机市场之外找到增长，此外它还必须要努力解决李健熙遗留下的其他问题：与政治关系过于亲密，这让他的公司、还有他的儿子也是继任者李在镕都卷入了腐败案件。
