Thoughts on Korean Business by Don Southerton

Annually, I share thoughts for the new year in an executive-level commentary. My purpose has been to communicate Korea-based global business cultural insights and popular trends. Last year the message was quite simple—it was all about the economy. 2010 will be more complex. Concerns over an economic recovery exist, but they are tempered by amazing 2009 global market gains by Korea’s leading corporate groups. First, expect continued austerity. Marketing budgets and especially head counts will initially stay the same — even though cuts in personnel early last year have left many organizations lean and understaffed to meet bolder sales goals and expectations. Why? I feel there are 2 reasons. The first reason is to uphold record profitability. (Watch for a strengthening Won against the U. S. Dollar). Second, is more subjective — it’s a “what do we have to lose by trying,” and a “let’s see what we can achieve without adding staff and resources” approach. In other words, there is sentime...

Bridging Culture Worldwide's “Year in Review” report shares the scope of our expertise as well as some of our recent achievements. 2009 milestones included: 1. Hyundai Motor Company Global Training Program , Inside Hyundai , DVD worldwide release: October-November 2009 2. U.S. State Department and Republic of South Korea MOFAT WEST (Work, Study, and Travel) internship program : Year-long support plus host to events in NYC and LA. 3. Chemulpo to Songdo IBD: Korea’s International Gateway book launch —Incheon, Korea August 2009 4. Hyundai MOBIS Global Leadership Training Program : Jeju Island and Seoul, Korea October 15-26, 2009 5. Hyundai Translead Korean culture and Hyundai heritage workshops: San Diego, California October and December 2009 6. Kia Motors America quarterly Korean culture and workplace workshops: Irvine, California February through November 2009 7. “Korean Cars Drive to the Top,” Business Roundtable : The Korea Society NYC, September 9, 2009. (Note: many of B...

Sae hae bok mani ba deu say yo! Season's Greetings, I hope all have a wonderful holiday season. Great success in the new year. Look for the upcoming BCW Year-end Report next week and the 2010 Executive Commentary due out January 1. Do n

As the holidays approach, you may wish to greet your Korean colleagues with: Sae hae bok man i ba deu say yo ! (Season's Greetings) (I will modify the Romanization for easier pronunciation). Hint: Break the greeting into: sae hae bok—mah ne—bah deu say yo In South Korea, the government recognizes Christmas December 25 as a public holiday. Christians, who make up about 30% of the population, celebrate the occasion as a religious holiday. Like in the West, both Christians and non-Christians may engage in some holiday customs such as gift-giving, sending Christmas cards, and setting up decorated trees in their homes. Each year I see more signs of commercialism in Korea with stores and buildings displaying Christmas decorations and offering holiday sales. What may surprise some is that public and company Christmas trees and decoration stay up way past the holiday. In fact, many stay in place to the Lunar New Year. Sae hae bok man i ba deu say yo ! works well and is a common se...

Interested in Korean history, Incheon, and Songdo IBD? 'Tis the season , so a high quality complimentary web version of the pictorial history book is available online. Click Here . The book was crafted bilingual, Korean and English.

One of my longtime Korean friends has a request. I hope you support this project. All that required is some Korean language training.... novices welcome. I am Yongjoon Cho, PhD student at USC. The experiment is a part of my dissertation. Its purpose is to help me better understand the acquisition of the Korean language as one’s second language, and how it is related to the knowledge of one’s native language. I know that there is a developmental sequence in second language learning , but I want to understand more about the differences in how the second language users move through that sequence. The study will be conducted in both Korea and the United States. If you agree to participate in this study, you will first complete an information questionnaire about your language background. The main task consists of a set of acceptability judgment tasks. A short Korean proficiency test will follow the main task. It will take approximately 60 minutes in total. The experiment will be conduc...