Thoughts on Korean Business by Don Southerton

Monday is a South Korean Holiday that commemorates a nation-wide independence movement that took place in 1919. As a national holiday, many businesses are closed on Monday, and it’s a 3-day weekend. To share some background, after a decade of the repressive n a ture of Japanese colonization, on March 1, 1919, a group of Korean activists openly proclaimed the Korean right to self-determination from Japanese rule. This was in part motivated in the wake of the end of World War 1 and the call by American president’s Windrow Wilson for a nation’s right of self-determination — meaning that a nation — a group of people with similar political ambitions — can seek to create its own independent government or state. Wilson’s thoughts were counter to many European powers who at the time still promote colonialism and imperialism. That said, the Korean declaration led to massive crowds assembling, and although peaceful, soon Japanese police and military suppression turned to violence. The Seoul demo...

In a business inquiry this week, a company asked if I could assist with better understanding their Korean client. They wanted in general terms — an “insider” — some who knew current details on client’s internal corporate culture, and the ways of their thinking. This most often does require a savvy insider ( and not just someone employed by the company) — as beyond core values common within Korean companies, many norms do vary lots. And, without recognizing and being able to point out the nuances it easy to assume “one size fit all.” I’d ad d  a trusted insider in the broader sense is someone well connected, and well versed in related business areas — both globally as well as Korea. They can reach out and tap when needed to others in the know, too. To better define an insider, I was once reminded that staying current and relevant is critical. It also can mean that someone out of a sector for as little as 6 months may be seen as having lost touch. In fast paced sectors like Autonomou...

Welcome back to another episode of Everything Korea Office Chats.  First I’d like to thank everyone for subscribing to the YouTube Channel, Liking, and sharing the posts.  Your comments are also deeply appreciated, too. I’ll cover a few comments later in this YouTube episode.   With the Lunar Holiday weekend winding down, Korean teams and leadership will be back in the office.    We’ll also see the Q1 work pace speed up especially with Task Force Team (TFTs ) as leadership will be expecting now the holiday is behind up updates to see real progress.    I often find project flow as sprints vs marathons.  Weeks and even months of preparation, benchmarking, and correspondence at a constant pace, can shift to sprinting to meet deadlines or prompted by leadership calling for a status report.   This can apply to updates for ongoing projects, new 2021 initiatives, decisions on outstanding RFPs, or whether to move forward based on ...

One popular Korean Lunar New Year tradition is 세배 (sebae), which is respect for elders and ancestors. In the ritual families often travel to the family graves to show their respect. Also common is younger people will bow to their grandparents. They then wish them a happy New Year   by saying: sae hae bok mani badeu say yo (새해 복 많이 받으세요. ) Which translates as “Please receive good fortune for the New Year.”  In turn, the elders typically reward this gesture by giving children New Year’s money, or “pocket money” called Sebaet Don, usually new crisp paper money.  To learn more, go to this week’s post in YouTube  ###

    Seollal, Korea’s Lunar New Year is first day of the lunar calendar. It is one of the most celebrated national holidays in Korea.    This year, Seollal falls on Friday, February 12. Most years’ Seollal is a time for Koreans to return to their hometowns to pay respect to their ancestors, as well as catch up with family members. As is custom, the day before is also a legal holiday, so for most the holiday begins on Thursday, February 11.   With COVID we can expect greatly limited family interactions, so we need to extra sensitive and understanding as many will be missing family and friends. The Year of the OX Every Lunar year is represented by one of the twelve zodiac signs, which take the form of twelve guardian animal deities collectively known as Sibijisin. These signs change with every year, rotating over a 12-year cycle. 2021 is the Year of the White Ox.   The Korean Ox traits are hardworking, patient, and honest in nature, so too, good and much-neede...