Thoughts on Korean Business by Don Southerton

This week I’ll be sharing the second of  my time-proven approaches to Korea facing business.  This strategy is taking a Pilot or Trial Approach…. Recognizing the strong Korean cultural risk avoidance tendencies, I recommend offering a limited trial program as an option to mitigate fears and concerns—with costs scaled down proportionately from a bolder rollout.  Depending on the project, this often can be demonstrated in a test market or dialed back to limit in scope.  In all cases, the pilot program needs to be flexible to expand in stages with associated incremental costs. There is one caveat to this approach I often see taken in Korea.  Once they test market a project and then decide to move forward, they execute a full rollout incredibly fast.  My advice is to plan accordingly in advance with an action plan that includes a rapid roll out…. the faster the better.  This said, and as many of you have probably surmised, Strategy 1 and...

Last week I promised to share my strategies for tackling Korean facing business. Strategy #1 First, instead of the common western approach founded in considerable upfront research, discussion and review in which a sole, singular course of action is recommended—it's best to instead prepare three options with their related costs. This approach allows Korean senior management to consider alternatives, a common decision-making methodology in Korea. Some background on “Why 3 options?”  Stepping back to the mid-2000s and a joint American and Korean management workshop that I facilitated for a client, one of Korean team managers pointed out that in Korea it was norm to present multiple options.  He explained that to support their leadership’s decision-making at least 3 options would be prepared for his seniors… and as many as 5 if the proposal was going to be elevated for review by their Chairman. In most cases, following this initial presentation, leadership would ...

I consider my mission to be akin to the aphorism "a rising tide lifts all boats.” I work to build bridges among the members of Korean, American and global teams. I feel the issues and impasses that surface are less about “them and us”.  Frankly, it's more about working through the issue and collaboration, and rather timely with the challenges of the new year ahead, So, for starters…. I share Korea-facing business situations, issues and challenges using a methodology to first uncover and state the problem and then present solutions and workarounds. That said, at times readers of my BCW Vodcasts, media commentaries and publications question, “Don, you highlight the problem and indicate that there are solutions, but why not provide details on these workarounds?” I admit that offering detailed workarounds to the public would be beneficial. However, as a consultancy I do provide these services to clients after fully understanding the circumstances.  On a side note…...

In this week’s Everything Korea my thoughts again turn to discussing why some Korean businesses do well outside Korea, while others struggle. A caveat is tied to last week’s episode where although Korea entrepreneurs have and continue to launch some amazing new startup concepts—few ever gain the stellar funding and success achieved by similar startups the US in the past or now with concepts like Periscope, Meerkat or my favorite Super.me. Frankly, what works well in Korea may not work well outside Korea and with regard to the Startup Model even work within Korea. Same thing goes for global brands, what works well in each respective country or region needs some if not substantial localization—localizations a catch phrase that everyone agrees to but few truly embrace. In particular, I see with Korea brands looking outside Korea to often the same missteps re-occurring. In my recent case study “A Global Approach: For Korea Management Teams” I address many of the challenges.  ...