Coming off the Memorial Day Weekend Holiday here. I use holidays as a time to write, read, recharge and re-focus. This means opting out perusing Facebook and Twitter, as well as checking emails. I’m happy this year both the American holiday and Buddha’s Birthday (a legal holiday in Korea) fall together.
I was again asked what’s been on my reading list. I recommend for starters, Brian Grazer’s (the Hollywood producer and with creative partner Ron Howard founded Imagine Entertainment) new book A Curious Mind
A second Book: The start-up of YOU, by Reid Hoffman, co-founder and Chairman of Linkedin
And, Hatching Twitter, by Nick Bilton
All three give some great insights into the varying aspect of American business–behind the scenes and sub-cultures.
This brings us to today’s topic—these recognizing diverse sub-cultures. To often like an iceberg what is seen on the surface only shares a potion of a business and in particular for that business model in a respective market or region.
What is truly deceptive is that on the surface business is business, and all can appear similar. Where the challenge emerges is that each business sectors can vary considerably in the West, and the three books I mention highlight just how different.
For example Brian Grazer, as a Hollywood insider and successful TV and film producer talks about expectations within filmmaking and specifically Hollywood that require special mindset— which at the core is “creating ideas.”
Building on this, the other two books look at recent trends and sub-cultures that exist within…
As the Linkedin Chairman points out that in contrast to an old model embodied by the once great Detroit, we find the entrepreneurial mojo of Silicon Valley embracing a willingness to take bold risks and accept failure, coupled with a network of alliances to work in collective action.
More revealing to inner workings, we find in Hatching Twitter that can things vary lots even across startups. Cited in the book one of the Twitter co-founders Biz Stone willingly went to a startup which would become Twitter from “unlimited free meals, free snacks, free buses to work, and a free inexhaustible everything at Google and replaced with a office where homeless people slept in stairway, the only free transportation was his two feet, and the only free food and drink was a beer after work if EV [his boss] picked up the tab.”
This said, the author notes, “ The cultural difference was incalculable. The sterile, robotic culture of Google, with its know-it –all engineers and bossy bosses, was now replaced with tattooed hackers with a do-what-you-want mentality.”
So what am I saying…
To my friends and clients in Korea, I’d share these are just several examples of the diversity in Western work culture and norms—a deep understanding required to be effective in the local market.
In contrast, although no two Korean Groups are entirely alike in their mindset and even Divisions and sister companies within a Group can vary some—workplace culture, norms and process are very relatively similar. For example, hierarchical titles, role of Finance, a team focus, a junior’s deference to seniors, pressure to take action over considerable upfront critical thinking, as well as top down oversight and decision making.
All said, I am often asked about a pet project of mine over the past year Mad For Garlic. My Korean friends and the expat community in Korea know the brand well. In short…. Mad For Garlic is known for its unique and innovative menu with garlic-specialized Italian cuisine.
I was asked to assist the team in US market entry. A rare and very smart move by the Korean team who recognized the need for local support. Our first round was getting the word out to the FSR industry. This is summed up nice in a PDF study. Link below.
As if often the best case, our original strategy to find a master developer for the US market has evolved to now finding a VC or Angel to invest in the International development of the brand. This makes considerable sense with a recent $48 MM investment by Standard Chartered Private Equity (SCPE) in the now 40 plus domestic Korea Mad For Garlic operations. This new partnership with SCPE will accelerate Mad for Garlic’s Korea expansion. Working with the Korean team we seek to accelerate the International development though a similar partnership. Questions, thoughts or an interest, please contact me directly and we’d love to discuss more.
Oh and one more thing…. I am off to Nashville, Tenn. area this week and more specifically as speaker a panel on international development held in Clarksville-Montgomery County, soon be home to a $180MM Hankook Tire plant.
So until next time….
Links
A Curious Mind, http://ww w.amazon.com/dp/147673075X
a startup of YOU, http://www.amazon.com/dp/0307888908
Hatching Twitter, http://www.amazon.com//dp/1591847087
Mad for Garlic Market Entryhttp://www.bridgingculture.com/assets/madforgarliccasestudy.pdf
Everything Korea, July 13 Episode: a Roadmap for Creative Class Korea and US
In the two previous posts we looked at the dynamics required to nurture a creative and innovative workplace. In particular, Korean work values, norms and attitude surfaced as polar opposites to the characteristics of the western creative class workplace. In turn some core change would be required if Korea aspired to develop a strong sustainable innovation-driven economy. In fact, the current South Korean president, Madame Park, Geun-hye recognized this and upon election boldly had proclaimed a “Creative Economy” as her platform for Korea’s economic growth over her 5 year term in office.
Frankly most in Korea’s private and public sector have found this high level government mandate hard to embrace—in part because the overall concept was difficult to grasp within their current society. And, as I have pointed out what drives a creative economy is creatives as well as the unique communities that align with values and sustain their lifestyles. For example over-hearing a tech startup chat in edgy Golden, Colorado coffee shop Pangaea, I quizzed the three young entrepreneurs on “why Golden?” They response was 1) lifestyle, and more specifically rock climbing 2) access to established startup and incubator hubs like Boulder and Denver, and 3) available local funding for startup, the community quite wealthy.
To give another snapshot, Biz Stone former Twitter co-founder shared in a recent weekly update on his current venture Super.me, his partner Ben Finkel’s view on their work culture
* The world is our oyster. We get to build awesome software, dream up future products, use the best technologies, and get well paid for doing it. There’s no handbook, but the challenge is part of the thrill.
* We have tons of flexibility in our work style, no micromanaging and minimal bureaucracy. Of course, we can still improve our work processes, but this is another problem we get to collaboratively improve together.
* Working with a small, creative group thinking up and building future products—that has always been my dream. Of course, the products won’t work as planned, we’ll have to adapt, redirect, and persist.
In a future Everything Korea episode, I’ll suggest some steps Korean companies need to take if they look to build a creative workforce in their domestic Korean divisions, but before I tackle that set of challenges, I would like to address the need for Korean overseas operations to be sensitive to the needs, values, and attitudes of the creatives with their local organizations. Studies show that up to 1/3 of the American workforce are now part of the creative class. The best companies recognize this trend. Sadly, firms that ignore this reality, suffer.
My big concern is that Korean companies with global operations may fail to recognize this reality, too. This reality was well captured by Authors Josh Hammond and James Morrison in their book The Stuff Americans Are Made Of.
The authors cite seven cultural forces that define Americans:
I feel Korean companies need to recognize and adopt a creative culture in local markets to sustainable recruit and retain this talent — a difficult challenge even for many American companies strongly rooted in older workplace norms. Again quoting Richard Florida, “ Many companies are merely presenting a cheap, façade of the alternative [creative culture]—a Ping-Pong table, perhaps an espresso machine.”
So for starters, Korean companies that need to draw upon local creative class talent will find that locating in right community can be half the battle. This means a locale that embraces diversity and openness, with some edgy counter-culture thrown in. Interestingly, we know there is considerable synergy between the creative class workforce in these communities like San Francisco, Austin, TX and Boulder, Colorado—a huge side benefit to any firm looking to nurture their workforce.
Perhaps the greatest hurtle is ensuring that Korea workplace norms and company practices do not over-power and overtake local norms—resulting in a stifling of the very creativity the Korean company so desires… In the worst cases, top creatives will exit and those that stay make no attempt to tap their creativity.
Again this is not an easy task, and frankly one I spend considerable time as a consultant providing leadership and teams—Korean and Western– with strategy work arounds and solutions. And, I do have solutions.
More to come on this topic, in the meantime if you and your company would like to discuss, I would be happy to chat. I’ve found each company has it’s own dynamics and I approach case-by-case crafting an approach tailored to the client.
So until next time…
Oh, one more thing…. I am back in SoCal and OC two days this week. Some time still open.
Schedule a chat? http://www.meetme.so/southerton
or
Direct Questions? Go to questions@koreabcw.com