Category: Korea-Business

This predictably did not go over well:

A team led by Andrew, comprising James, Chris and Lisa, engages in lively conversations about work while addressing each other by their first names.

This atmosphere is something that some Korean companies are trying to emulate by mandating all employees to use their preferred English name while at work.

The rationale is that they need to move away from the Korean language’s emphasis on honorifics, position titles and other formalities, to facilitate horizontal communication. The thinking is that, by ditching Korean names and the complex honorifics system attached to them in the Korean language, employees should be able to engage in more open and effective communication, encouraging innovation.

But does it actually work?

Predictable resistance

As one can imagine, not all employees welcome mandatory name-change policies with open arms.

At Kyobo Life Insurance, skepticism hangs over the company’s four-month-old English-name policy.

“It’s ridiculous,” said one employee who requested anonymity.

“Communication hasn’t improved, and some colleagues can’t even pronounce the English names, so we’ve had to post Korean pronunciations next to them on our company’s intranet.”

Korea Herald

You can read about all the examples of how this policy worked out at the link. It appears the younger the workforce is the more likely this policy will have better results.

This is an interesting to see how both CEOs perform leading two of Korea’s biggest IT brands:

Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon, left, and Kakao CEO nominee Chung Shin-a / Courtesy of each company

Naver and Kakao, Korea’s two major internet companies, are in a female leadership contest after the latter recently nominated Chung Shin-a, chief of the group’s venture capital unit, as CEO, according to industry officials and experts.

Naver, operator of Korea’s most used internet portal service, and Kakao, which owns the most popular mobile chat app KakaoTalk, are both to be run by female CEOs.

Of note, is how these two CEOs will lead the internet giants in the AI era, they said.

The appointment of women as CEOs in a rapidly changing IT industry is explained by their expertise in the sector, they said. Also, by appointing women as new leaders, the companies can expect to refresh their image.

“What is expected from female CEOs is not only their expertise but that they can scrutinize the business more thoroughly as women,” Kim Dae-jong, a professor of business administration at Sejong University, said.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

I did not realize that the Netherlands had their own chipmaking capabilities:

 President Yoon Suk Yeol began his state visit to the Netherlands by meeting with a group of Korean residents and vowing to upgrade the two countries’ relations to a “semiconductor alliance.”

As the first official schedule, Yoon and first lady Kim Keon Hee attended a welcoming ceremony hosted by Willem-Alexander, king of the Netherlands, held at Dam Square in Amsterdam on Tuesday (local time).

oon arrived in Amsterdam on Monday on a four-day visit aimed at strengthening cooperation between South Korea, a leading chip manufacturer, and the Netherlands, home to chipmaking equipment companies such as ASML.

“Semiconductors are an important area not only for our industries but also for our security,” he said during the dinner meeting with some 100 Korean residents at an Amsterdam hotel. “Through this visit, the semiconductor cooperation between South Korea and the Netherlands will be upgraded to a semiconductor alliance.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

I wonder if President Biden realizes this is a South Korean owned company or not manufacturing these wind turbines in Colorado?:

U.S. President Joe Biden mentioned a Colorado-based factory of a South Korean wind tower maker again on Monday, as he highlighted the outcomes of his economic policy to promote clean energy and create jobs. 

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Biden said that thanks to workers at a factory of CS Wind Corp. in Pueblo, the United States is “changing.” Biden toured the factory, the world’s largest wind tower manufacturer, on Wednesday as he is gearing up for reelection.

“Tony, because of workers like you and the hundreds of employees at CS Wind, America is changing,” Biden wrote, referring to Tony Salerno, production manager of CS Wind America.

“Instead of exporting jobs, companies from around the world are creating jobs here in America and exporting American-made products. We are moving,” he added.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The 52 hour work week is really just 40 hours like in the U.S. but has an additional 12 hours of overtime. I can understand how limiting workers to only 12 hours of overtime can constrain employers and workers in some industries:

The country currently adopts a 52-hour work week — 40 regular hours with 12 hours of possible overtime. It was introduced in 2018 by the liberal Moon Jae-in government to reduce the maximum week from 68 hours at the time to 52. 

Citing its latest survey, the ministry said the 52-hour workweek has substantially taken root, but some industries have still experienced management problems due to a lack of flexibility in working hours and difficulties meeting deadlines.

In the survey, 48.2 percent of the respondents said the 52-hour workweek has helped relieve matters stemming from work overload, but 54.9 percent said the existing system has failed to reflect the characteristics of some industries. 

In particular, both workers and employers in the manufacturing and construction industries as well as the medical, research and engineering sectors said overtime management of the current workweek needs to undergo changes.

Accepting these survey results, the ministry will maintain the 52-hour workweek, while at the same time beginning discussions with industries that have experienced difficulties abiding by the current rule, seeking to come up with complementary measures that could improve flexibility.

The ministry will also prepare measures aimed at resolving workers’ health concerns that could be affected by the long work hours at those industries.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It looks like South Korea has found another customer for their ever growing defense industry exports:

South Korea and Saudi Arabia are in the final stage of talks over large-scale defense industry cooperation in areas including antiaircraft defense systems and firearms, a South Korean presidential official said Sunday.

Principal Deputy National Security Adviser Kim Tae-hyo made the revelation to reporters while accompanying South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on a four-day state visit to Saudi Arabia.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It makes me wonder if any Chinese intelligence operatives were involved in influencing this former Samsung executive to leak this sensitive chipmaking technology to China:

A file photo of the Suwon District Prosecutors Office (Yonhap)

A former senior executive of Samsung Electronics Co. has been arrested and indicted for stealing the chip giant’s trade secrets to build a copycat chip plant in China, prosecutors said Monday.

The 65-year-old former executive, whose name is withheld, was charged with violating the industrial technology protection and unfair competition prevention laws, according to the Suwon District Prosecutors Office.

He is accused of attempting to build a complete copy of Samsung’s semiconductor factory in China after illegally acquiring the company’s confidential data, including chip plant basic engineering data (BED) and process layout and design drawings, from August 2018 to 2019.

The prosecution also indicted six other people — one employee of a Samsung Electronics subcontractor and five employees of a Chinese chipmaker established by the former executive — without detention on charges of colluding in the alleged technology leak.

BED is a technology needed to ensure impurities do not exist in semiconductor manufacturing facilities. Process layout contains information on the floor plan and dimension of a chip plant’s eight core processes for semiconductor production. Such trade secrets essential for the manufacturing of sub-30-nano DRAM and NAND flash chips are considered national core technologies.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Now in addition to using personal email, Chat GPT is now the latest threat companies have to be aware of where their corporate secrets could be inadvertently leaked by employees:

Samsung Electronics has experienced continued data leaks, amid the intensifying global competition for supremacy in the semiconductor sector, according to industry officials, Wednesday.

Samsung Electronics said its Device Solutions (DS) division in charge of chip production dismissed an engineer recently who was found last month to have sent dozens of emails containing proprietary data to private email accounts.

The company also asked for police to investigate the case.

“Through disciplinary measures and legal actions, we will be tough on coping with this issue,” a Samsung Electronics spokesman said.

In March, another Samsung Electronics engineer mishandled confidential company data by uploading source code to ChatGPT. This case led the company to restrict its employees from using the artificial intelligence-based chatbot during work.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

South Korea is a much better location than China to be building a Gigafactory. The Chinese government is already meddling in Tesla operations in Shanghai. Tesla would likely be free of such meddling with a South Korea based plant:

President Yoon Suk Yeol met with Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Wednesday and asked for his investment in a gigafactory in South Korea, a presidential official said.

The meeting took place at Musk’s request during Yoon’s state visit to the United States, according to senior presidential secretary for economic affairs Choi Sang-mok.

Yoon said South Korea boasts world-class manufactured robots and an advanced labor force, making it an ideal location to run a gigafactory.

“Should Tesla decide to invest, we will provide active support in terms of location, workforce and taxes,” he was quoted as saying.

Musk responded that he expects to pay a visit to South Korea, saying the country remains an interesting and leading candidate to host a gigafactory, according to Choi.

Yoon also voiced hope for greater cooperation between South Korean businesses and SpaceX, a U.S. spacecraft company headed by Musk, to help foster South Korea’s space industry.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.