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Gollywog
Joined: 14 Jun 2008
Location: Debussy's brain
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 Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2008 2:13 am Post subject: ZING! Foreign columnist lambasts Korean bureaucrats |
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Many of the opinion pieces in the Korea Times are rather mushy. But this guy Tom Coyner, who has some solid credentials, lets Korean officials have it with both barrels. Here's some excerpts:
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Korean Slogans Comical to Foreigners
Tom Coyner
By Tom Coyner
As someone who makes a living helping foreign companies come into the Korean market and being successful in their sales activities, I often find myself almost negotiating with foreign executives over the phone as to their timing of entering the Korean market, as opposed to their going into Japan and China first.....
Given that, one may think Korea would be a more popular place for foreign companies to invest. The reality is that Korea remains, even today, a secondary market. Korea is too often regarded as an introspective society with flash points that Western observers are often too quick to describe as being xenophobic....
Nonetheless, there are some real, concrete issues ― many of which are not entirely in the public view. But their collective results are discernable, such as the drop in foreign direct investment (FDI). According to the Korean Ministry of Knowledge Economy (an English translation that belies part of the problem), FDI has dropped from $12.79 billion in 2004 to $7.42 billion so far this year.
During the past few years, this FDI drop has coincided with the Lone Star saga of troubles in trying to sell Korea Exchange Bank.
The problem of Korean government agencies standing in the way of Lone Star's repeated sales attempts, often trying to come up with retroactive rules for taxation of Lone Star profits, has surely given pause in many overseas board rooms.
Furthermore, as zany an impression the irrational anti-mad cow disease demonstrations may have made on foreign executives earlier this year, what probably was more significant was President Lee having to order his subordinates to return to Washington to renegotiate the terms and conditions of the U.S. beef imports resumption agreement.
More than many Koreans may realize, Korea suffers an image problem when it comes to contractual compliance. To be fair, this is one aspect of how Koreans conduct business amongst themselves.
Yet in a global economy, while one needs to act locally, one also needs to think globally when it comes to the basics of business. And that includes the validity and reliability of consummated contracts.
When President Lee sent his representatives back to Washington to renegotiate the beef import agreement, many foreign business managers recalled unpleasant memories and stories about misadventures in doing business in Korea.
After all, if the word of the Korean head of state cannot be trusted, what may one expect in working out a deal with a Korean company's CEO?....
So why is this? Korean bureaucrats are not stupid. They are highly educated and often spend money on international marketing companies.
The problem seems to be that the tried and generally true approaches by these PR and marketing companies are mangled in the bureaucracies, often at inception.
The necessary investments that other, less affluent countries are willing to pay for proper research and launch of national branding are arbitrarily dismissed as being too expensive by Korea's all wise and powerful bureaucrats.
Instead, and too often, cheap short-cuts are implemented that rarely, if at all, adequately survey what foreigners perceive Korea to be and what messages may positively impact on foreigners.
Instead, any sort of market research is generally done within Korea, often involving Koreans who have little or no overseas experience.
And as potentially lame as that approach may be, I know of at least one major campaign where even that kind of domestic research was apparently discarded in favor of a bureaucrat's ``bright idea'' so that bureaucrat could boast to others in private that he came up with the slogan by himself.
So it seems to come down to much of Korea's image problem may be traced to competing egos among senior officials who often unwittingly, and possibly callously, place the nation at a disadvantage ― be it in terms of interpreting financial and taxation regulations or determining national and city branding....
It is no wonder. Private companies properly understand how hard it is to earn money and generally invest more wisely than many government officials. That is why brand names like Samsung and Hyundai are now globally respected. In contrast, consider the frequent giggles generated by ads touting "Korea Sparkling" and "Hi Seoul.". |
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/special/2008/10/260_32661.html
Last edited by Gollywog on Thu Oct 16, 2008 12:37 am; edited 1 time in total |
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bobranger
Joined: 10 Jun 2008
Location: masan
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| Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2008 2:17 am Post subject: |
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| Good job Tom |
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Beej
Joined: 05 Mar 2005
Location: Eungam Loop
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| Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2008 4:31 am Post subject: |
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| Im surprised the newspaper printed that editorial. |
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Captain Marlow
Joined: 23 Apr 2008
Location: darkness
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| Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2008 6:46 am Post subject: |
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| Beej wrote: |
| Im surprised the newspaper printed that editorial. |
they couldn't have understood that... it points out so many flaws with korea, korean businesses, and korean govt... it's a sugar coated bitter pill that maybe slipped through the crevices... |
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Return Jones
Joined: 06 Feb 2004
Location: I will see you in far-off places
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| Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2008 7:01 am Post subject: |
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| "Hi Seoul" is half-decent. |
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Whirlwind
Joined: 03 Jun 2005
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| Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2008 7:15 am Post subject: |
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| This article is so true...must've slipped through the cracks. |
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ajgeddes
Joined: 28 Apr 2004
Location: Yongsan
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| Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2008 7:17 am Post subject: |
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| Actually, the Korea Times has been printing articles all week on how to improve Korea's image to the outside world. |
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Arthur Dent
Joined: 28 Mar 2007
Location: Kochu whirld
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| Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2008 7:31 am Post subject: |
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| Great article. Thanks for the heads-up Gollywog. |
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justin moffatt
Joined: 29 Aug 2006
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| Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2008 5:27 am Post subject: |
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| Finally an article worth reading in the Korea Times that reflects the true nature of conducting business in Korea. |
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Louie
Joined: 12 Oct 2008
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| Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2008 5:43 am Post subject: |
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One of the biggest realities in business is that Korean products are becoming just as expensive as American-made products and with the way things are with the economy, who wants to shell out that kind of money.....at the same time, Chinese-made goods and even some Japanese-made electronics are still affordable to many low-end consumers (minus XBox and other gaming systems)......
Plus Korea IS xenophobic, which is hard to believe since a quarter of their university-age adults are studying abroad. The cultural climate in Korea, coupled with the bureaucrtic redtape involved with foreign businesses opeing up shop in Korea, makes Korea a less-than desirable place to start a business......I mean, what company in their right mind would hire a Korean just because it is required that a Korean must head the company for it to be a legitimate entity? I can see hiring a Korean if they are qualified and is knowledgable about the company's inner workings, but many companies simply can't get their business license without having a Korean as its chairman......Also, Korean workers are notorious for their labor activities in that they would demonstrate (sometimes, violently) to get what they demanded, this takes away from the company's profitability and lost worktime.
These are some of the things many companies had to face who tried to set themselves in Korea.....This makes places like China, Japan (still), Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia and even Thailand good places to set up shop and even start manufacturing activity. |
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tommy77
Joined: 26 Mar 2008
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| Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2008 5:55 am Post subject: |
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| facinating article. Lots of detail and variety. Some of which i agree with. But!! Look at the headline. IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE ARTICLE. IT misses the piont. |
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ruffie
Joined: 11 Oct 2006
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| Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2008 8:39 am Post subject: |
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| A World Best Air Hub. |
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i4NI
Joined: 17 May 2008
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2008 9:03 am Post subject: |
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| Louie wrote: |
One of the biggest realities in business is that Korean products are becoming just as expensive as American-made products and with the way things are with the economy, who wants to shell out that kind of money.....at the same time, Chinese-made goods and even some Japanese-made electronics are still affordable to many low-end consumers (minus XBox and other gaming systems)......
Plus Korea IS xenophobic, |
So is Japan and China. |
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Adventurer
Joined: 28 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2008 10:38 am Post subject: |
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| i4NI wrote: |
| Louie wrote: |
One of the biggest realities in business is that Korean products are becoming just as expensive as American-made products and with the way things are with the economy, who wants to shell out that kind of money.....at the same time, Chinese-made goods and even some Japanese-made electronics are still affordable to many low-end consumers (minus XBox and other gaming systems)......
Plus Korea IS xenophobic, |
So is Japan and China. |
There is xenophobia in Japan and Korea, that is correct. However, you do not hear problems emanating from Japan regarding respecting contracts which is very important to businessmen all over the world.
If your contract is not respected, then you will not trust the veracity of the other party, and as we know businessmen don't like complications.
They are in business for the sake of making money, not because they love a certain country or its flavor of nationalism. It's that simple.
Korea has too much red-tape, inadequate transparency, excessive government corruption, and an unfriendly environment vis-a-vis non Koreans in general. I am not saying this to be mean or to say I do not like Korea. I do like Korea in many ways. I am just stating the facts, and I am glad some people are trying to change things, and I think some Koreans deserve a break. It is good that that the government is trying to improve things in some regards. |
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Cheonmunka
Joined: 04 Jun 2004
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| Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2008 2:23 pm Post subject: |
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| Plus Korea IS xenophobic, which is hard to believe since a quarter of their university-age adults are studying abroad. |
You might as well say, 'Studying abroad in Koreatown." There is no real assimilation going on ...
We also have the same problem. When we study Korean we do it in a class full of internationals. The only way we can really get within is to join the ranks of the Koreans themselves - such as that guy Matt who did the course to become a Korean elementary school teacher. Even then I fear he wouldn't have really assimilated - certainly not if he was to be the English teacher. |
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