Everything Korea, October 10 Episode: Just Back from Seoul

I’m just back from Seoul. With “Meet and Greets,” more than once casually bumping into few longtime friends in the hotel and at the airport, a number of high level presentations, a VIP tour of Hyundai Card’s two newest venues—the Music Library and the Vinyl and Plastic retail store, and an even a day trip to PyeongChang, home to the upcoming 2018 Winter Olympics, the days and nights stayed busy.

Amid all the travel, I study the corporate Korean workplace. It’s the sub-culture within the different Groups and their affiliates—nuances-- that capture my attention. Marketing teams, for example, dressing ever more casual, ties less and less commonplace, meetings in coffee shops adjacent to corporate offices, not to mention many teams working Remote in the cafes with easy to access Wi-Fi.

Still often we see some constants—older senior executives in their company car, usually black Mercedes, BMWs or Hyundai Equus (now Genesis G90, but badged in Korea as EQ 900), the exchange business cards, although less formal in how they are presented, the dominance in the local market of the top Groups—Samsung, Hyundai, SK, LG and Lotte, as well as annual strikes underway—on this trip Hyundai Motor Company’s union and the subway and railway unions.

All said, what continues to linger in the workplace is rigid canons in the Day to Day -- hierarchical top down management and communications, risk avoidance and zero-sum mindsets, and although companies boasting their globalism, few wanting to move beyond the standard response “That wouldn’t work in Korea” when international teams seek to share their global approach to business.

Of course this is where I come in… giving perspective, providing context, sharing workarounds and facilitating change.

Care to discuss?

My personal assistant Stacey at stacey@koreabcw.com can coordinate a time for us to chat by phone, meet or handle by email.