Sang-Jin Park likes to smile. A lot. But for the president and CEO of Samsung Asia, it isn't the exultant grin of a dotcom entrepreneur at his first IPO. In fact, it's more a wry twist of the lips--a sure sign of a man who has obviously seen it all.

	Park was all smiles on his birthday

Yet for all his experience, it wasn't jadedness that colored his speech when we pulled this Piscean aside during his birthday celebrations at CeBIT, the giant tradeshow in Hannover.

"When I first joined Samsung, it was still a small company in the middle of a rice field in Suwon (a city 30km south of Seoul). Now when I look back at what Samsung has achieved over the past 30 years, it's amazing."

In his long career at the Korean firm, Park has shown he can tread the waters of change as well as his astrological counterpart--in different business environments.

Widely considered as one of the key persons behind Samsung's global success in the mobile phone business, where he once served as the executive vice-president and general manager of the Global Mobile Communication Division, Park left his handset behind in 2004 to helm the business in Southeast Asia and Oceania, which experienced double-digit growth in sales revenue in 2006 under his stewardship.

	Samsung's new hero product at CeBIT: The UMPC

"I would like to make a contribution, to help move Samsung from the hardware-based business to a solutions-oriented business," said the man who's still not done with what he wants to achieve.

Indeed, at CeBIT 2007 in Hannover, Germany, Samsung announced a new partnership with both Solution Printing Partners (SP3), a printing solutions company, and IBM. The solutions add-on to the printers is exactly what Park envisions as the new direction Samsung is taking to differentiate itself from its competitors.

"Software is increasingly important to us, but if we move too far away from our core business, the chance for failure is higher. We have to expand the business while bearing in mind our core competencies, such as expanding only within the neighborhood of the core business," he said of the new printer solutions alliance.

Such a solutions pairing may help Samsung printers gain more wins, but what about that printer giant in Palo Alto?

	Samsung's going all out for printers

"HP is the dominant player in the printer space. But being dominant also means being vulnerable. There will always be a way to penetrate the market which is why we are concentrating on printers. We hope to become a strong number two and eventually challenge HP."

While pairing solutions to certain products may work to gain market share, the real driver behind Samsung's growth has been its rally cry for digital convergence. But are people in Asia ready to embrace it?

"It's already taking place. MP3 players are one of our digital convergence products. For consumers, just the reproduction of audio is not good enough. It's the download of content from music sites that is raising the value of the MP3 player."

"Digital convergence is leading Samsung's product channels, but of course, we have to consider the conflicts this will create in our existing channels," he cautioned. "This is just the beginning of a big change. In Singapore, we are already talking to telcos like SingTel about bringing in TV phones. But which (product) channel will take it? TV or mobile? Big question."

Park had predicted earlier that 2010 will be the year that HDTV will go mainstream. During our interview, he further cited four key factors that will drive it to fruition: Government relations; broadcast dates; hardware availability; and content. However, Park admitted that these are mainly external factors and, naturally, it will be the consumers who will cast the deciding vote plus it will also depend on whether they know enough to cast an educated one.

"We have conducted consumer surveys on HDTV. Half the respondents polled do not know what HD is. And they can't tell the difference between LCD and plasma TVs. But they did indicate that they would like to know more."

To address this shortcoming, Park said: "We have already set up a partnership with both Discovery Channel and National Geographic to provide HD content and Samsung will also be starting a series of roadshows and training to let consumers see, feel and eventually know in terms of picture quality and TV hardware (what HDTV is all about)".

"Content is important, but the design and beauty of hardware make a difference. Samsung has a strength in design and we can make televisions with the best picture quality and exterior beauty. We also have a strong sales organization and, with proper marketing, we can be the leader in HDTV."

And faced with such a high-def future, this Samsung veteran is all smiles.