Thoughts on Korean Business by Don Southerton

Busy times here, with one eye on North Korea and another on Korean business. That said, we’re back in the media and discussing Korea market entry.  I was honored to be interviewed by Kathrin Bussmann, the Founder & Principal of  Verbaccino . The interview is shared in The Worldly Marketer Podcast. TWM 057: How Western Brands Can Succeed in South Korea Here’s a link to the show:  http://bit.ly/2pT4Gcm  Please feel free to share it with your friends and social network.  And if you’re able to leave a quick rating and/or review for the show  on iTunes , we’ll be very grateful. Meanwhile, we look and encourage your Korea-facing business questions and Comments, go to  questions@koreabcw.com

I now turn to sharing some thoughts for local western teams working with Korean teams based in Korea. With the shift to ever-increasing daily interactions with Korean HQs via web and phone conferences, western teams need even deeper practical insights into working within the Culture along with new skill sets.  In particular, the Executive Coordinator/ Advisor model has had its limitations...but the Koreans assigned as expatriates do learn local norms and adapt over time. This mean the Coordinators molded to local operations with a little need for many in the local teams to become skilled in Korea workplace norms. In contrast, Korea-based teams follow deeply imbedded HQ and company norms. They are not likely to model or adapt to their overseas subsidiaries. This now means strong skills in managing the relationship and understanding the Korean workplace “in’s and out’s” and “do’s and don’t” as well as effective communication take on a new heightened significance....

In this Part 2 of my “Working with Korea 2017” series, I cover several scenarios with best practices for supporting overseas team. All take finesse and collaboration, plus recognize norms and practices differ… as well as require working “within the Culture.” To again clarify, my perspective is based on years working with Korea and especially in daily mentoring and providing strategy for their overseas operations—Koreans and Westerners. Scenario One It’s common for a Korea expatriate, frequently called a Coordinator, to directly request members of the team to gather information or data on the local operation. Usually, Korea has asked for this information and the Coordinator is executing the request. These always have a sense of urgency.   The Challenge is the local departmental head may be circumvented (often unintentionally)…. and requests disrupt operations and designated priorities.  More so, the line of management for the department is blurred—i.e. s...

For most of my career I have worked with Korean teams—many based in Korea, many in local overseas operations. I find both exchanges rewarding, but very different and require a varying set of skills. In this Part 1, I offer some insights into the overseas teams assigned to local subsidiaries. Part 2 will cover my recommendations and best practices for supporting overseas teams, including work-arounds to common issues that surface—for example when department-level expats assigned to “support” local executives begin to assume more direct control over day to day operations. Part 3 will look at working with Korean teams based in Korea. To begin We find with Korea facing international operations the communication channel between the Korean HQ and local subsidiary is through expatriates-- although it is shifting some and I’ll cover more in Part 3. In key positions, Korean expats serve in roles including the CEO who is responsible for managing the local company or region. The CFO and t...