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Sound Advice to New Expatriates
By Tom Coyner
Korea Times
May 15, 2006
In researching our upcoming book on doing business in Korea, I have had the
pleasure of interviewing some 20 expatriate and Korean executives in Seoul
during the past six months. I chose the interviewed executives according to
the chapters of the book I was writing at the time. In addition to the
chapter-specific questions, I always asked general questions, starting with
the following one:
Suppose you were flying into Seoul
and you discovered the person next to you is arriving in Korea
for the first time to take on a new management position. What advice would
you offer?
The answers I got were often similar, but each executive had something
additionally original to say. I have distilled these comments and
suggestions into the following:
Top 15 Suggestions by Experienced Expatriate Executives
1) When coming to a new country, it is imperative to be open-minded
about the entire country and not just the new job.
2) Don't compare Korea with any other country. Accept Korea for being what
it is.
3) Understand the Koreans as a unique people: they are neither Japanese nor
Chinese in that the Koreans are more social, harder working, more
homogeneous and more suspicious of outsiders; foreigners will be well
received but until trust is developed, Koreans will tend to be skeptical.
4) Be prepared to compromise.
5) Don't be brash and try to steamroll over one’s colleagues. You may
get many “yeses” but in the end you will get very little
support. Be patient. Things take more time in Korea than to what you are
probably accustomed.
6) An expat executive is an agent for change and it is important for him or
her to show how this change will benefit the Korean employees. At the same
time, it is critical to have the ability to compromise.
7) Don't come with an attitude of educating the Koreans with clever Western
ways since you are not going to be successful that way.
8) If possible, before arriving in Korea, read up on Confucianism to
understand its impact on society and how people interact. Not knowing
Confucianism in Korea is like working in Europe without knowledge of
Christianity.
9) Look for ways to socialize with Koreans to show that you are human.
10) Always ask for explanations before signing off on anything; don't allow
yourself to be relegated to simply affixing the chop while others run the
business.
11) Spend pre-arrival time learning about Korean history and culture, and
identify its strengths and weaknesses.
12) It is easy for the expat executive to be set aside from what is really
happening in the organization so one needs to gently confront this. You
will slowly and eventually be able to identify which employees are the
potential agents for change who can be depended upon to make things happen
and to report bad news early.
13) Show that you are not a softy but you have your own standards by which
you will stand while being sensitive to cultural difference. But be careful
not to be snowballed by “in Korea we do things different.”
14) Once you have earned your employees’ loyalty, you really have a
dependable organization with which to get things done.
15) If you can come out and offer your Korean employees an inspiring vision
of the future where all may prosper, you have a special opportunity. On the
other hand, if you come here simply because you think you can make products
more cheaply, then it would be best for you not to come.
But perhaps the most common comment I heard during the interviews of
foreigners was “I wished I had take more time in the beginning to
know my Korean employees and business partners better on personal as well
as professional basis.”
This is so essential that a separate essay can easily be written on that
topic. But for now, one is better off to keep that thought in mind while
reviewing the above 15 points.
Tom Coyner is president of Soft Landing Korea, an international sales
consulting firm and coauthor of an upcoming book on a practical guide to
doing business in Korea.
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