Supporting clients and their challenges requires getting to the core issues. It’s distinguishing between what are the organizational and what are the cultural impasses then providing practical solutions and work through’s.
Much of my work is first listening carefully to clients and their challenges. Equally valuable is walking around the corporate offices, observing and capturing multiple viewpoints. Nothing beats being onsite. Nothing beats getting face to face.
Too often, I find challenges as murky, complex and layered with frustrations, so a deconstruction is needed. Not to mention there is a growing Korean business dimension to an overseas operations.
In most cases I bring a fresh perspective—one rooted in years working with Korea-facing business. I’d like to share that in addition to mentoring, I have recently began to work directly on specific and very select high profile projects with clients. To often an initiative that can dramatic improve local operations fails to get the needed support or approval from Korean local leadership or from the mother organization in Korea. I work to ensure these proposals get taken seriously.
Don Southerton, CEO and president of Bridging Culture Worldwide, a global consulting firm that focuses on Korea business ventures, is one of 10 companies that rents and operates from Perc. Photo by Amy Woodward
1.Working with and within a culture is sensible, practical and effective.
2. Within an overarching corporate culture, there are generally several subcultures each with the own unique elements.
3. Use the culture you already have.
….take pains to stay within the most essential tenets of existing culture.
4. [it’s] Critical to fully understand the culture, then be able to de-construct and simply aspects relevant to your situation.
These quotes are from a well crafted article titled, “Stop Blaming Your Culture”
A colleague recently shared the article recognizing the concept had value for his own company in working with and within their Culture. In particular, I was asked then to assist with providing insights into the Korean side of my client’s Culture. Echoing the article “Culture matters!”
I strongly recommend you download the article and study. I’d then be happy to share my thoughts on how to work within your specific Culture.
One of my recent themes has been Context vs. Data.
Background matters. Decisions, strategies and tactics need to take into account circumstances—some reaching back decades. I like to think I provide Context. In part, I have invested years of research, study and first hand experience looking at Korea facing business. My books and commentaries reflect this work.
This short book I authored several years ago, Hyundai and Kia Motors
The Early Years and Product Development focused on the Korean brands mid 1960s to 2000.
At this time Korean automakers went through a dramatic transformation. They went from essentially partnered for technology and design with Ford, Mazda, and Mitsubishi….. to developing their own integrated research, development, and manufacturing, not to mention the economies of scale needed for the Korean automakers to compete globally with industry heavyweights such as Toyota, Ford, GM, and VW.
In the book i look at Hyundai and Kia models from the past such as the Pony and Excel, Brisa and the Pride, and the Sephia, as well as some still very popular and successful such as the Sportage, Rio and Santa Fe.
To access a complimentary copy of Hyundai and Kia Motors: The Early Years and Product Development, go to:
In Korea Perspective, which I released at the beginning of the year, I discuss the complexity of the Korean workplace.
What stands out in Korea facing work is the innerconnectiveness of their workplace. Author Richard Nisbett describes the concept well in The Geography of Thought:
To the Westerner, it makes sense to speak of a person as having attributes that are independent of circumstances or particular personal relations.
This self— this bounded, impermeable free agent—can move from group to group and setting to setting without significant alteration.
But for the Easterner (and for many other peoples to one degree or another), the person is connected, fluid, and conditional…
The person participates in a set of relationships that make it possible to act and purely independent behavior is usually not possible or really even desirable.
Since all action is in concert with others, or at the very least affects others, harmony in relationships becomes a chief goal of social life.
In addition philosopher Donald Munro pointed out that East Asians understand themselves in “their relation to the whole, such as the family, society…” I would include the workplace in Munro’s paradigm.
An Example
The Korean workplace is a complexity of interrelations. Decisions must consider relationships and the impact to the organization. To share an example from a global project in which I was engaged, a meeting concluded following a high level presentation to division heads with the Korean leadership pleased, but deferring decisions until they “internally discussed.”
To the dismay of the Korean project leads in the days following the presentation assignments for portions of the project were distributed to a number of departments. In private the project’s lead team was not pleased but accepted the mandate. There was no recourse since the parceling came from leadership. The team did not wish to create an issue despite knowing that the other teams with only domestic Korea experience were poorly equipped to handle the global assignment. Following the cultural norm, the lead team accepted the situation and sought to maintain harmony above all—even knowing their project would suffer.
Where to begin? What are the essentials to better understanding the Korean mindset with regard to Korean business? I fall back on to three fundamentals
Hierarchy—place and order
Hierarchy is one of the most distinguishing characteristics of Korean culture and deeply embedded in the Korean workplace in Korea and overseas.
Reaching back to Korea’s Neo-Confucian past, social stratification is apparent in Korea’s top companies. More so, South Korea’s authoritarian military regimes of the 1960s, 70s, and 80s reinforced the model.
For Koreans hierarchy brings place and order to society and the workplace. Unlike the West, within this hierarchy no two individuals have the same place within the social matrix–age, education, family, employment and title /position with a company or organization determining where one stands within this matrix. So deeply does it impact Korea that rankings from one’s class standings to consumer rating of the major Group global brands matter considerable.
Status—Upmarket and Lux
Traditionally Korea was a status conscious society. For the elites this manifested in a wide range of status markers from Celadon pottery, refined behavior, ritual robes, distinct cuisine, and table manners. Today a former rigid class structure no longer dominates—class distinction and status more determined by one’s education, employment, job position, and personal income. More so, we have seen considerable upward social mobility within Korea—a direct results of the nation’s economic successes.
Going hand and hand with the upward mobility has been the demand for luxury and premium goods and products. In fact, these (most often Western) lux items have taken on the role of status markers. This list can include designer eyeglasses, handbags, and watches, as well ties, scarfs, belts and name brand clothing.
Although some Koreans have shown concern over the desire for pricey goods, in the eyes of many Korean customers, the more expensive and the rarer, the more desirable the brand. Consumers equate value with a high price tag.
All and all what we see unfolding is an ever growing demand for upmarket goods and product in Korea—this consciousness driving a repositioning of Korean brands globally, too, — Korean brands wishing to be seen as premium and among world’s leading consumer goods from cars to home appliances to electronics.
Generations—shared experiences
South Korea’s dominant age groups have great impact on Korean business culture, so there is value in understanding the differences in Korean generations. In South Korea, a generational group is defined more by its shared experiences than by a specific number of years.
For instance, older Koreans (50:60ers) who lived through the Korean War and its aftermath are more conservative, strongly allied with the U.S., and uncompromising towards North Korea.
In contrast, a group called Generation 386 (a phrase coined more than a decade ago, and comparable in some aspects to American baby-boomers) grew up in a period of great student unrest and tend to be more socially conscious and liberal than their forbearers. 386, no longer literally accurate term, stands for Koreans in their 30s in the late 1990s, born in the 1960s, and educated in the 80s. (Re-coined now as 486’s in some circles.)
A third generation of South Koreans, those in the age group of 26-35, is commonly referred to as the New Generation or Shinsedae. Many of this group have studied abroad, worked most of their careers on overseas support and projects, are fluent in English (and often another language or two), and have a global perspective.
This group grew up after the 1997 economic meltdown in Asia, which strongly impacted South Korean culture. This younger generation of Koreans is less concerned about ideology and more pragmatic. Their primary concern is finding a job. They are also a strong “gotta have it” consumer class and individualistic as a result of the impact of globalization, the Internet, television, and the high percentage of students who attended U.S. schools and universities.
All three noted, I see hierarchy, status and generations as a lens to better understand the Korean mindset, both within their society and in the workplace across their global organizations.
For more insights, questions or comments, I am available to discuss.
Everything Korea, November 2 Episode: Deconstructing the Murky
Supporting clients and their challenges requires getting to the core issues. It’s distinguishing between what are the organizational and what are the cultural impasses then providing practical solutions and work through’s.
Much of my work is first listening carefully to clients and their challenges. Equally valuable is walking around the corporate offices, observing and capturing multiple viewpoints. Nothing beats being onsite. Nothing beats getting face to face.
Too often, I find challenges as murky, complex and layered with frustrations, so a deconstruction is needed. Not to mention there is a growing Korean business dimension to an overseas operations.
In most cases I bring a fresh perspective—one rooted in years working with Korea-facing business. I’d like to share that in addition to mentoring, I have recently began to work directly on specific and very select high profile projects with clients. To often an initiative that can dramatic improve local operations fails to get the needed support or approval from Korean local leadership or from the mother organization in Korea. I work to ensure these proposals get taken seriously.
Don Southerton, CEO and president of Bridging Culture Worldwide, a global consulting firm that focuses on Korea business ventures, is one of 10 companies that rents and operates from Perc. Photo by Amy Woodward
Make sense?
Why not schedule a chat? http://www.meetme.so/southerton