Thoughts on Korean Business by Don Southerton

On a recent client workshop and mentoring session in NYC I was introduced by the team leader to the group of participants noting my long history supported Hyundai, Kia Motors and others. Then pausing for a moment the team leader added I was known as the “Hyundai Whisperer.”  I smiling and graciously acknowledged, but at the same time was quite puzzled…. What took me back in a very flattering way was how the phrase has journeyed. As context, the phrase is derived from a “Horse Whisperer” – these are highly regarded experts working with horses who have developed a natural communication style through an understanding of ethnology coupled with a deep insights into behavior. What is intriguing is how the term Hyundai Whisperer has gone ‘viral.’ For me, it first surfaced just a few months ago in a Starbucks’ meeting in California where a new acquaintance (a top creative long involved in the car business and with Hyundai) used it to describe what he had come ...

Some quotes to start the Vodcast… 1. Working with and within a culture is sensible, practical and effective. 2. Within an overarching corporate culture, there are generally several subcultures each with the own unique elements. 3. Use the culture you already have.                                                                            ….take pains to stay within the most essential tenets of existing culture. 4. [it’s]  Critical to fully understand the culture, then be able to de-construct and simply aspects relevant to your situation.   These quotes are from a well crafted article titled, “Stop Blaming Your Culture” A colleague recently shared the article recognizing the concept had value for his own company in working with and within their Culture.  In particular...

One of my recent themes has been Context vs. Data.    Background matters. Decisions, strategies and tactics need to take into account circumstances---some reaching back decades. I like to think I provide Context.  In part, I have invested years of research, study and first hand experience looking at Korea facing business. My books and commentaries reflect this work. This short book I authored several years ago, Hyundai and Kia Motors The Early Years and Product Development focused on the Korean brands mid 1960s to 2000. At this time Korean automakers went through a dramatic transformation.  They went from essentially partnered for technology and design with Ford, Mazda, and Mitsubishi.... to developing their own integrated research, development, and manufacturing, not to mention the economies of scale needed for the Korean automakers to compete globally with industry heavyweights such as Toyota, Ford, GM, and VW.  In the book I look at Hyund...

In Korea Perspective, which I released at the beginning of the year, I discuss the complexity of the Korean workplace. What stands out in Korea facing work is the innerconnectiveness of their workplace. Author Richard Nisbett describes the concept well in The Geography of Thought : To the Westerner, it makes sense to speak of a person as having attributes that are independent of circumstances or particular personal relations.  This self— this bounded, impermeable free agent—can move from group to group and setting to setting without significant alteration.  But for the Easterner (and for many other peoples to one degree or another), the person is connected, fluid, and conditional...     The person participates in a set of relationships that make it possible to act and purely independent behavior is usually not possible or really even desirable. Since all action is in concert with others, or at the very least affects others, harmon...