The Abu Dhadi event to showcase drones, robotics, components, and unmanned systems.
Seoul, South Korea. February 16, 2022
Grinergy, a South Korean headquartered lithium-ion rechargeable battery and battery management systems company today announced that they will exhibit at 2022 Unmanned Systems Exhibition (UMEX) and Simulation Training (SimTEX).
The conference set to kick off on February 20th in Abu Dahbi is dedicated to showcasing drones, robotics, components, and unmanned systems– key applications for Grinergy battery technology.
Grinergy offers multiple solutions to revolutionize the shortcomings of the conventional lithium battery industry. Grinergy’s proprietary technology offers remarkable safety with improved charging capability.
For more information on Grinergy at UNMEX or their battery technology applications, please contact Don Southerton at dsoutherton@grinergy.co.kr or +1-310-866-3777.
Year-end organization-wide promotions, restructuring, and new assignments for teams are traditionally a part of Korean corporate culture. Top to bottom within Korean companies they occur sometime between early December and early January, with the changes to senior leadership announced first, and team level changes as a norm made known the week just before or between Christmas and New Year’s Day.
After the Holidays, teams then report back to work. Some assume new roles frequently in departments where they have little experience—requiring employees to acquire new skills—sink or swim.
In the days that follow those shuffled brief their replacements, as staff remaining in their jobs update new management teams on the status of projects and issues.
Meanwhile, others will be en route to assignments in overseas operations; a challenge for those working outside Korea for the first time.
This can also be a challenge for local overseas operations. In particular, it is common for those newly assigned to be unfamiliar or have very limited experience with the many nuances in the localized foreign business, as well as the new role and responsibilities. Not to mention, working outside Korea is in itself a learning curve that can take months and even years.
And I strongly recommend leadership—Western and Korean– have countermeasures in place to mitigate any transitional gaps. They do occur. In fact, over the years I have worked extensively to facilitate smooth transitions.
So, what to look for… The top Chaebol will and have begun to announce key promotions, which can provide some insight into future trends. The Chaebol usually also comment on whether this year’s promotion number is more or less than in the past and the reasons “why.”
On restructuring, top Chaebol have already announced plans. These can range from granting more independence to business units to consolidating control.
In their restructuring, SK Group elevated a number of executives to vice-chairman level and granting independent decision-making authority to their key affiliates that span from semi-conductor chips, batteries to wireless network, energy, and biotech.
In contrast, Samsung Electronics noted as a shake-up they will merge 3 of their business units.
Samsung also announced several changes in its corporate policies. With the new year, they will employ a new personnel management system. Under the new system, Samsung will abolish a set of requirements before an employee gets promoted to a certain level, such as a minimum term of service that lasts roughly eight to 10 years. Instead, top-performing employees will be eligible for their work performance and expertise be taken into account as key factors for promotion over time in grade.
The Hyundai Motor Group, too, has announced its executive reshuffle. To align with the new Chairman E.S. Chung’s future vision, we see a plan to bring younger faces on the C-suite with a focus on future mobility and on technology sectors such as infotainment, ICT, and autonomous driving. This then means many of the current leadership are stepping aside to the advisory posts.
New Years’ Message This said, as in the past, with the new year, we can expect leadership will share their 2022 plans in an annual New Years’ company announcement, too. I monitor closely and as they are in Korean will share when appropriate and upon request.
As a final note, for western global teams, I suggest congratulating those who are promoted but also be sensitive to Korean team members who were passed over… or possibly moved to what may be seen as a less strategic assignment.
BTW Time in grade is just a criteria for promotion, or in some cases if a junior is promoted over a senior it is deemed as their time to retire.
The 2021 ‘K-Startup Center Demo Day’ was organized and hosted by South Korea’s Ministry of SMEs and Startups, and the Startup Promotion Agency.
‘KSC’ is a startup support program for promising Korean domestic ventures and startups looking to expand overseas.
This event held on Friday December 10th at Banyan Tree Club & Spa Seoul Crystal Ballroom showcased 7 innovative companies. Participating in the KSC program were Aon, Sentbe, Testworks , Grinergy, GEMotion, HiLocal and Dot. Each company presented an IR pitch through the online platform and were then screening by VCs.
The 1st place winner was ‘Grinergy’, which shared their lithium secondary battery solutions that are capable of low-temperature and rapid charging.
Sentbee, which introduced their “Digital C2C/B2B overseas remittance payment service’, was selected as the 2nd place. ‘TestWorks’, which introduced ‘Artificial Intelligence Algorithm and Data Solution Service for Learning’, was selected in 3rd place.
“Startups participating in today’s event are promising companies that have been recognized by accelerators from 7 countries around the world,” said Kim Yong-moon, president of the Korea Startup Promotion Agency. “In the future, the Korea Startup Promotion Agency will spare no effort to support K-start-ups to take a leap forward and advance into the global market.”
Congratulations Grinergy on being selected 1st Place in the 2021 K-Startup Center Demo Day.
What a great honor.
축하합니다
Grinergy is a lithium-ion battery technology company with multiple solutions to revolutionize the shortcomings of the conventional lithium battery industry.
Saturday October 9 is a National Holiday in South Korea — Hangul Day. (As this year the holiday falls on weekend, Monday is celebrated a National Holiday, too).
The Digitization of Hangul, the Native Korean Language Script The Hidden Driver of Korea’s Economic Success
We often see terms like “Miracle on the Han,” that highlight South Korea’s economic rise after decades of harsh Japanese colonial rule and then the devastation of the Korean War.
With only determination and its people as resources, Korea became one of the world’s top industrial, export-driven economies. In particular, the main contributions to this success story include the nation’s emphasis on higher education, as well as the role of government and private investment in innovation, technology, and R&D.
Looking deeper, what may be missed is the impact of digitizing the native written language Hangul. Crafted in the mid 15th century during the reign of King Sejeong. Hangul linguistically is seen as a very logical and structured written language script.
Inspired by a vision to make Korea information independent
Jumping forward, it was in the early 1990s that a local Korean company, today’s Hancom, successfully developed a native word processing program for the Korean language.
As Hangul was created so that the common people could accurately and easily read and write the Korean language, so too, the word processing software allowed Koreans to communicate digitally.
Although the Hangul word processing software grew in popularity, by 1998, the company nearly went bust, even though it was considered a national treasure: the Asian Financial Crisis and software piracy had brought the company to its knees.
Rival Microsoft which had only about 15% market penetration in office software at the time in Korea, offered $20 million to Hancom to stop producing its software and instead resell Microsoft’s localized Word program.
For a small investment, Microsoft would have wiped out their main competitor in Korea, one of the few countries in the world that had still resisted wide adoption of Microsoft’s office suite.
When the news of the proposed deal offering surfaced, Koreans united in a national fervor and raised over $10 million through a campaign to save the company.
In addition, the company’s near-bankruptcy brought the issue of software piracy under the spotlight. As a result, Koreans began to pay for their software and more began to adopt and use the Hangul software in Korea.
An Economic Driver
With the rise of globalization, and Korea as a nation leapfrogging economically, experts attribute much of the growth to the streamlining of both government policy and regulations. This was possible with a universally accepted digitalized Hangul well suited to the E-Government transfer of information. E-Government refers to a government that uses technological communications devices, such as computers and the Internet, to provide public services in a country or region.
This has also given Korea a strong competitive advantage — data management critical in the digital age.
Looking forward, South Korea today is at the forefront of AI and Cloud-based technology. That said, one may argue that many under-developed nations, most with their own indigenous languages, too, could follow Korea’s digitalization model.
Globally, South Korea and Korean business are well-positioned to support this and similar endeavors — as the Korean proverb noted — A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats.
Global business requires colleagues of different cultures to work together on a daily basis.
How we see each other culturally is often in the differences, like language and in similarities such as shared values like family. I like to focus on the later; as differences can pull us apart and similarities brings us together.
Particularly for western teams engaged in all ways with Korean operations, I believe in the importance of deep learning about the workplace in Korea — the 2021 norms, practices, and day-to-day life. They do change and most often we can get fixed on what could have been tainted by here say — or an altogether lack of understanding.
The same learning goes for Korean global teams assigned to support overseas’ operations. They need to become learners — savvy in the wide range of local overseas practices. Expecting global teams to bend to Korean business norms rarely works, too. It just leads to delays and stalled projects.
As I note above, recognizing similarities is one of the most powerful cross-cultural bridges. In other words, how can you relate to the nuances in communications and day-to-day life. This requires identifying the local beliefs, values, expectations, traditions, and culture.
These insights allow us to better understand our mutual teams’ thoughts and expectations.
Outcomes
Although there is bound to be friction between home and host country cultural values, a successful model accomplishes:
1. Awareness and appreciation of both the home and host country with the ability to gain an insight into one’s own personal traits, strengths, weaknesses, attitudes, and interests.
2. Realization of shared values, along with an awareness of and respect for cultural differences.
Call to Action
So, how do you see this applying to you and your own experiences working with another culture’s teams? I’d like to know, so please share.
Dealing with better understanding Korea-facing issues, challenges, or impasses? I provide workarounds and solutions.
I look forward to your thoughts and comments, and with no COVID travel planned have set aside time to discuss one on one.
Always Private and Confidential. Please feel free to FB or Linkedin Message, Text or email to set up a Zoom time.
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 Yearby 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.
It’s that time of the year with Chuseok, (the Korean Harvest Moon Festival) right around the corner.
This year, Chuseok will be observed Sept. 12-14, with the holiday on Friday, and the day before and after celebrated as National Holidays, too.
Koreans, like many agrarian cultures, once followed the lunar calendar, but in recent history, they have deferred to the solar calendar in line with international practice.
While public holidays are based on the solar calendar, there are a few days that are celebrated based on the lunar calendar.
These are the two most important traditional holidays, the Korean New Year’s Day (the first day of the first lunar month) and Chuseok, the Harvest Moon Festival (fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month).
En mass a substantial part of the population travel. For many, this means going back to their home villages. Over the holiday they perform ancestral rituals at the graves of relatives as well as share time with their family over traditional foods. Others may opt to travel overseas, or a popular trend has been to staycation in a luxury hotel.
For your Korean colleagues (in Korea), you can wish them a happy Chuseok while they are still in their office, so this coming Tuesday, September 11 in the West (which will be Wednesday AM in Korea).
Again, for most Koreans the holiday break will begin Wednesday Korea time at the end of day through the weekend. Some may take extra days off that week.
For expat Koreans working outside Korea, you can wish them happy Chuseok on the actual holiday, Friday September 13.
If you’d like to try, here’s a common greeting:
Chuseok jal ji nae sae yo.
Happy Chuseok works fine, too.
Even though many things have been changed by Korea’s rapid industrialization, urbanization, and globalization we find in the celebration of Chuseok that family remains one of the bedrocks of Korean society.
Please read! I hope you find value in my Korea facing updates and analysis; information that impacts you, your teams, and company. Staying on top of the issues and breaking news makes large demands on my time. With so much transition currently underway in Korea and within their global organizations we’ll actually see an acceleration in change—one all will find challenging, Koreans and Westerners.
In order to continue providing the very best content and insights, I could really use your help. Frankly this means making sure we are engaged throughout the year with either one of my onboarding, mentoring and coaching programs, the Korea 101 workshops, or as a trusted advisor.
Your voice and support matters and is much appreciated.
Each year March 1st is celebrated as a South Korean National Holiday—this year, the 100th anniversary, of greater significance– a Day in Korean History.
Some context regarding its significance.
We herewith proclaim the independence of Korea and the liberty of the Korean people.
This we proclaim to all the nations of the world in witness of human equality. This we proclaim to our descendants so that they may enjoy in perpetuity their inherent right to nationhood.
In as much as this proclamation originates from our five-thousand-year history, in as much as it springs from the loyalty of twenty million people, in as much as it affirms our yearning for the advancement of everlasting liberty, in as much as it expresses our desire to take part in the global reform rooted in human conscience, it is the solemn will of heaven, the great tide of our age, and a just act necessary for the co-existence of all humankind.
Therefore, no power in this world can obstruct or suppress it!
The above was the manifesto read by Korean independence activists on March 1, 1919.
It was one of the earliest public displays of Korean resistance to repressive Japanese Colonial Rule. Sadly, it would not be until the end of the Second World War, the defeat of Japan and the end of decades of suppression that Korea would regain its independence.
Collaboration. We hear the term promoted both as a core value and expectation in Korean global business. For me, it’s building a solid relationship with Korean teams—one by one.
In fact, whenever I take on a new Korea facing project, I seek out a team member, first as a point of contact and then someone I can strengthen the relationship building trust and mutual understanding. This can include daily chats by phone, email and Kakao.
In most cases, over time I add layers of support … understanding they are in a tough place… at times having to relay requests and demands they themselves may not clearly agree but nevertheless need to communicate.
In particular, I’ve found they may not be familiar with the project nuances—in contrast the experienced Western team. In my role, and to build the relationship I work as the go-between, mentoring and even share (confidentially) how to best frame their company’s issues and avoid if handled poorly what could result in an impasse.
Collaboration, all said, is about relationships, nurtured over time, and built on seeing a project through for both sides mutual benefits as well as the individual tied to the undertaking.
