Bridging Culture Worldwide

Relationships… amid disruptive market conditions perhaps the greatest ripple effect challenge to Korean global business is how best to maintain positive and collaborative working relations between Western and Korean teams.

This March weekend read provides some recommendations.

Relationships matter

From a cross-cultural perspective, Korean commerce is dependent upon relationships and interpersonal interactions.

Western business, in contrast, leans toward process and procedure.

Therefore when Korea-facing working relationships are strained, culturally, there is a heightened impact throughout the entire organization.

Without discounting market conditions and intense pressure to meet aggressive sales goals, I see the impact of adapting to a rapidly changing and disruptive business landscape at the core of many strained relationships.

As author Thomas L. Friedman points out in Thank You for Being Late: “As we transition from an industrial-age economy to a computer-Internet-mobile-broadband-driven economy—that is, a supernova-driven economy—we are experiencing the growing pains of adjusting.”

Drilling deeper, I have found this acceleration has markets and industry sectors ever shifting.

For example, the automotive industry is witnessing and adjusting to new consumer preferences, such as collaborative consumption shared ride services, self-driving autonomous technology and eco-friendly vehicles.

That said, we as a society are also experiencing the need to adapt more frequently and at a more rapid pace than ever in the past.

The good news is we are perhaps adapting faster than anytime in history. Still there is a substantial gap in the high rate of change and speed we adapt. This gap is disorienting and business models that worked in the past have become outdated further adding to stress and frustration.

In my work, this leads to a Korea driven climate of reactive and hopeful second-guess decision-making, or, in some cases, the opposite in stalled action.

In both situations, I feel we need to embrace a middle course— a well thought out and responsive plan.

Again Thomas Freidman, too, recognizes this need to ponder. He notes, and I paraphrase:

Patience… space for reflection and thought. We are generating more information and knowledge than ever today, but knowledge is only good if you can reflect on it.

In closing I return to my original point of the vital importance of maintaining relationships amid the current market condition. No matter how challenging the situation we need to take time and work to forge strong collaborative bonds within teams Friedman again remarks:

And it is not just knowledge that is improved by pausing. So, too, is the ability to build trust, …to form deeper and better connections, not just fast ones, with other human beings.

http://www.bridgingculture.com

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Don Southerton and Hit the Target

Hit the target, a comment tied to Korean business.  A week does not go by without a colleague or client expressing deep concern for what seems an overarching and singular need for their company to reach their sales numbers. To most, despite a number of vital business initiatives, they feel the monthly demand to meet “Plan” is all that matters.

I can recall more than a decade ago while mentoring a new American divisional vice president being pulled aside by his Korean expatriate counterpart, an Executive Coordinator. The Korean obviously under duress and knew I understood the company as well as HQ expectations.

The Korean asked passionately for me to stress to the new American VP they needed to Hit the Target. He repeating the phrase, 3 times so to ensure I got it… then patting me on the back before sending me over to the adjacent office with the VP.

Frankly, as long as I have been working with Korea facing global business it has been the driven force.

In another case, I was a speaker at LG’s Mobile national sales meeting. Capping the upbeat and motivating event, the Korean CEO with a huge graph projected behind him shared their amazing unit sales growth over the years. He then added the next year’s “stretch goal” as a hush came over the room. The new goal a huge bump over past years, which had pushed teams and the organization to their limits.

To be fair, this model is not unique to Korean business. It is also the subject of frequent discussion in Korea.

However, South Korea’s modern economy was once rooted in a state-run export-driven model—the government fixing private industries and well as the nation’s overall production and sales quotas in many sectors.

Today despite leading international as well as Korean economic experts arguing the old model is dated and need to move more to the service sector… the export production model still remains a driving force…

In part with so much of the Korean identity, economy and jobs tied to export production the Groups are under pressure to continue to seek growth each year—push the teams even harder.

So what’s the solution?

First, we need to accept this has long been the foundation of Korean business and it has been their proven success model.

It’s part of their Culture and a norm accepted by many.

In turn, others do hope and argue for Korea to re-invent and redefine itself, less focused on growth numbers and more on a being a leader in new technology and innovation synonymous with Silicon Valley.

Care to discuss some additional solutions specific to your needs?

Dsoutherton@bridgingculture.com

Http://www.bridgingculture.com

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