Considerable successes it reaped in the mobile phone market and the general consumer electronics industry will not stop Samsung Electronics from moving further even in the face of a financial downturn across the globe.

This according to Samsung chair Lee Kun-Hee, who called on his employees on Monday to strive more and ensure the South Korean firm's continued glory amidst emerging threats of recession hitting Europe anew and possibly in other key economies around the world.

In order to deflect stagnation and slowdowns, Lee said that Samsung would do much better opening up to innovations and helpful changes.

"We should change our corporate culture in ways that are more open, flexible and innovative. We should only think about something new and breaking all existing rules," Lee was reported by Agence France Presse (AFP) as saying in exhorting Samsung employees to excel further during his New Year's day address.

Samsung has emerged as one of the major players in the lucrative consumer electronics industry, churning out products that either trampled that of its rivals or irked the usual dominating figures.

In the LCD TV competition, Samsung has largely toppled erstwhile leader Sony of Japan, which for decades ruled the market with little competition until the Korean firm gradually offered viable challenges.

By the latter parts of recently-closed decade, Apple had amazed the world with its flurry of gadgets that attracted millions into buying and setting by default its iPads and iPhones as the standards in tablet and smartphone markets.

Unfazed, Samsung developed its Galaxy product lines that collided head-on with Apple's flagship devices, earning the ire of the giant American tech firm that saw the two company tussling not only in stores but also in court rooms through strings of lawsuits on patent issues.

For a while, court orders in a number of countries sidelined the Galaxy products but reversals came in December 2011, and soon enough Samsung resumed selling its wares on Australia, the United States and key European nations.

It capped 2011 by earning the distinction as the largest tech company in terms of actual revenues, AFP said, while maintaining its reputation as the biggest chip maker in the world, supplying gadget parts even to its bitter rival, Apple.

Yet there is no stopping Samsung as Lee announced that notwithstanding the difficulties by many economists, the company will pour more attention and investments in coming up with new products for its consumers.

The challenges ahead offer opportunities, Lee pressed on his employees.

"Samsung's future lies in new businesses, new products and new technologies," the Samsung chair stressed, with definitive focus on "increasing investment and jobs and focusing on exports," he added.