The Year of the White Rat. South Korea (as well as China and Vietnam) celebrate two New Years’. One on Jan. 1 and the Lunar New Year celebration, which this year falls on Saturday, January 25.
For your Korean colleagues (living and working in Korea), you can wish them Happy Lunar New Year on Wednesday afternoon by phone, text, or email, which is Thursday AM in Korea and their last workday before the holiday.
Koreans this year will have a 4-day weekend starting Friday K time.
For expatriate Koreans working outside Korea/ globally, you can wish them a Happy Lunar New Year and Year of the White Rat on the day itself, Saturday, January 25, or at some time prior on Friday.
Here is the formal greeting.
Sae hae bok mani ba deu say yo
One more thing… The year of the rat opens up a new 12-year cycle of animals in the Chinese zodiac. As the first animal to finish the Great Race of the Chinese zodiac legend, the quick-witted rat represents new beginnings and versatility.
According to legend, a Great Race was organized by China’s Jade Emperor to determine the order for the annual calendrical signs. The competition saw the small but clever rat crossing a final river race obstacle by riding on the back of the ox. Then nearing the finish line, the resourceful rat jumping off to cross before the other animals. Thus, being name first among the animals of the 12 Chinese zodiacs.
In Korean folk tales, though the tiniest among the zodiac animals, rats are seen resourceful, nimble, diligent and productive—this translates into 2020 being seen as a year of wealth and abundance.
As always, I appreciate your comments and thoughts, as well as any inquiries to support you and teams by steering through Korea facing business issues with a proven strategy, work throughs, and solutions.
Who is Hancom? How does Hancom envision Robotics, Smart City and AI Life Blockchain technology?
For Immediate Release
SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA, Dec. 13, 2019 /Hancom Group, South Korea’s leading ICT company today announced that it will participate at CES 2020, Jan.7-10, 2020, in Las Vegas. The company will present its visions for making the world better through pioneering future innovation for an ever-evolving tech industry.
Rendering of the Hancom Group CES 2020 Exhibit
The new exhibit will be located at South Hall 2, AI & Robotics, Booth 25628 of the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Who is Hancom?
Hancom like the other highly recognized South Korean market leaders will share with the industry how it uniquely envisions Robotics, Smart City and AI Life Blockchain technology.
How Hancom sees Robotics
Led by Hancom’s Convenient World vision for work and life, Toki is one in a line-up of specialized robots for home and educational use. With customized AI conversations through face and voice recognition tailored to each family member, Toki also has home monitoring and video calling capabilities. Come experience Toki live at the Show.
Toki, Home and Education Robot
How Hancom sees Smart City and Blockchain
Driven by Hancom’s Safe World vision, the innovator has developed an Intelligent City Platform, the next-generation smart city platform creating a secure urban ecosystem by connecting everything to each other utilizing the latest technologies. This connectivity will improve city services and infrastructure, as well as the quality of life for urban dwellers.
The Intelligent City Platform acts as urban control tower integrating AI technology, blockchain and IoT, while utilizing real-time data for easy visualization.
Intelligent City Platform
On Life Blockchain, Hancom’s efforts are game changing and wide ranging. They include a seamless, private blockchain platform to allow privileged user access, providing electronic contracts, document notarization services, civic applications/certifications and public data access.
Life Blockchain
“As South Korea’s leading ICT company, we look forward to sharing at CES how Hancom will contribute to make the world Smarter and Better,” Dr. Peter Wonsok Yun, President of Global Business, Hancom Group.
Pre-show and Show media interviews are welcome.
About The Hancom Group
Founded in 1989, today Hancom Group is a leader in creating innovative ecosystems that will lead the world through the convergence of technology.
With its reach of 13 affiliate companies covering Hardware, Software, and the Finance industry, the Group’s mission is to create a “Convenient World, Connected World, and Safe & Secure World.”
Convenient World
Hancom Inc. Global smart work solutions from AI to productivity software solutions.
Hancom MDS Intelligent convergence solution leader based on IoT and embedded technology IoT.
I’ve been in editing mode for the past few days. Plans are for an end of December release of my new book Korea 2020: A workplace in transition.
Many thanks to those of you who previewed the manuscript and shared comments. If you, too, would like to preview and comment, I’ll email you a draft copy.
Korea 2020: the book, shares not only what’s behind the current corporate trends but also the impact of Change both in South Korea and for operations outside Korea.
Exploring this change is at the core of this new book. Topics include the restructuring of age-old corporate norms such as more casual dress, a simplification of workplace titles leading to flatter organizations, and the pushback against workplace bullying and gender discrimination.
It also drills deeper and provides readers with workarounds, work throughs, and insights.
Today is an exciting day for me. I just launched my Patreon page.
Staying on top of Korea facing business issues and breaking news that impacts you makes a large demand on my time.
Don Southerton
The research, analysis, writing, and delivering the best content possible to you every week has become a full-time job.
In order to continue providing the very best content I can, I could really use your help. I feel Patreon is a great option to offset the costs. If you aren’t familiar with Patreon, it’s an easy way for those interested in my work to see new exclusive content and have access to a range of my services.
100% of all funds contributed through Patreon will be used to cover my bandwidth, so I can focus on creating great content. As a friend, I wanted to share the news with you before promoting more widely.
So, if it feels right to you, anything you or the company contribute is most appreciated. With each tier there are some cool benefits, too.
Korean business and talking points. American holidays allow me to step back, see what I may be missing, take a deep breath and uncover the best solutions to current challenges. My goal is to provide frank insights and pro-active recommendations. Below are a couple of helpful talking points.
Talking Point #1 As with all individuals, no two of us are alike—and the same goes for westerners and Koreans …. Each has his or her unique cultural workplace strengths, skills, and experiences.
That said, one topic I constantly revisit is the assumption that executives and teams engaged in Korea facing business will simply “get it” and “learn as they go.” Without ongoing coaching, this common default seldom works. More damaging is that some team members without support and mentoring may “never get it.”
Arguments that such support can wait often come with a price tag—missteps along the way, poor productivity, and miscommunications.
Push back attributed to the costs for support is often cited, too, as well as what appears to be dismissing or delaying any action until there is a real unavoidable need. The later, can range from denial with hopes that things will work out—to concealing these issues because they might reflect poorly on some in local management. Again, regardless such hopes to dismiss and not engage fail to recognize what I see as decades of history to the contrary.
Talking Point #2 Most non-Korean executives employed to run Korean business divisions are veterans of their industry. They know the business. They are experts. Sadly, they can know little of Korean business and/or feel their past work knowledge is sufficient.
Even more significant, I found that some feel that given time, they will get Koreans to do business their way following the model and methods they polished and acquired working for other firms—often Japanese or German.
Contrary to this hope and recognizing the considerable work practices and corporate structure changes underway in Korea, such as dress codes, fewer hierarchical titles, and a more balanced workday, I do not see Korean firms changing much in their core and deeply rooted business values and processes. More so, American, German, or Japanese business practices like Korean are rooted in their own respective intrinsic cultures.
My suggestion for division executives eager to bring change is to first become fully versed in Korean methods. Learn about the company and their partners. Learn how Koreans manage. Drill deep.
This learning does not occur without considerable insight, mentoring and coaching. In turn, once this ground work is completed, I have found and can offer some sound approaches for introducing new business methods and practices without push back.
In both cases… Ongoing support of non-Korean management is a must for all Korea facing organizations. Mentoring and coaching is the key. Experience and skills vary, so support must be tailored to address individual needs.
More significant, mentoring requires a deep mutual understanding of both Korean and western business, not to mention the specific Western and Korea-based firms and the industry in general.
I look forward to answering any questions and providing recommendations.
North Korea and a Measured Displeasure?. There is always some concern among Western teams when North Korea saber rattles… I will try to give some perspective.
I see no need for alarm even amidst a new round of missile launches and an alert by the North for “full-combat posture.”
Having followed North Korea since 1989 including a mix of academic work, friendships with some of the top experts on North Korea, as well as watching the more recent Trump-Kim talks… I’ve always felt any negotiations with the North seem like two steps forward, and one step back — not to mention North Korea is skilled at brinkmanship.
My take on the latest missile launches is that the North appears to be demonstrating measured displeasure with the breakdown in talks following the February Hanoi summit between leader Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump.
The North also seems to be determined to put pressure on South Korea and Washington for the resumption of dialogue. Missle launches do get our attention.
For North Korea resumption of high-level Trump- Kim talks are the key to getting sanctions lifted, which is much needed for North Korea’s struggling economy.
And finally, resumption would help Kim show his leadership — many feel his failed efforts in Hanoi were damaging…including loss of face.
Just a reminder as Korea has some May 2019 holidays coming up…
In South Korea, May 1st is known simply as “Workers’ Day,” a paid holiday under the Designation of Workers’ Day Act.
A National Holiday, Children’s Day falls on a Sunday May 5. In 2019, Monday, May 6 will be celebrated as the holiday. Workers get a day off work and children get a day off school.
Families make an extra effort to do something special on Children’s Day. Parents will often take their children somewhere special and treat them to snacks or ice cream. Theme parks, zoos, and historic sites are popular places for Koreans to take their children, too.
This year Buddha’sBirthday, a National Holiday, falls on Sunday, May 12. Buddha’s Birthday is not only an important and auspicious day for the nation’s practicing Buddhists (a religious group that makes up approximately one fifth of South Korea’s population), but it is also a public holiday that is widely celebrated across the country.
Festivities surround the holiday and Buddhist temples are transformed into kaleidoscopes of color–vibrantly colored, lotus-shaped lanterns hung throughout.
This Part 2 Korea Q & A looks at how to offset the unexpected.
In many cases, leadership and team do need direct support. I want to strongly encourage you to reach out to me. At least for a neutral second opinion. Best, too, to engage early, and not put off until issues escalate or go sideways. Waiting rarely makes things better.
Korea’s Evolving Workplace Culture
This week in Branding in Asia, my article on South Korea’s evolving workplace culture 2020.
Questions? Comments?
Don