Korea's top conglomerate Samsung Group, which celebrates the 23rd anniversary of the Frankfurt Declaration this year, said Monday that it will announce a set of reform measures next month to break away from its traditional top-down management.

In 1993, Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-hee made the landmark declaration to spearhead the new management strategy, calling on his employees to "change everything but your wife and kids," during a gathering with senior officials in Frankfurt, Germany.

Samsung's vision for the next decade was focused on implementing sweeping reforms and changes based on management principles announced earlier in 1983.

The Tokyo Declaration was announced in 1983 by Samsung founder Lee Byung-chull, which prompted the company's entry into the memory chip business despite wide-scale skepticism in the market about the company's capabilities.

After 23 years, Samsung said it is preparing to make the next leap forward by changing from a top-down management to reforming the group from the bottom of the group.

Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, the group's heir apparent, has been seeking innovations through "creative thoughts and autonomy" instead of the "group's power" based on the Frankfurt Declaration.

The group said it plans to release a set of "global road maps for personnel innovation" sometime next month that centers around four goals --simplifying ranks, horizontal titles, selective promotion and compensation based on outcome. (Yonhap)