Tag: business

Via the Sawon website they are collecting a list of the most inappropriate business emails in Korea.  Some of them are quite funny like ilovemyself@company.com and penismight@company.com.  Can anyone think of other funny emails they have seen?:

It’s an epidemic!

Ok maybe that language is a bit strong but it is certainly a trend that needs addressing. Korean workers are guilty of choosing very odd and sometimes inappropriate work email handles. Clearly Korean companies first mistake is that they give their workers a choice of email handle, but I am very appreciative that they have given workers the freedom to make their own mistakes.

Those who have been involved with Korea before at a business or even academic level would have come across this

What’s more surprising is that Korean corporate culture is itself very structured and governed by a very formal set of perceived rules and etiquette, whether it be introductions, exchanging business cards or even having a drink together there is a raft of small but very important etiquette to be observed for Korean business people.

Picture the scenario of exchanging a business card in a Korean business context- you bow and shake hands with your left hand under your right to show respect, you then receive a business card with both hands again to show respect and scan the card politely, in this instance you look down to the email and see something like “ilovemyself@company.com” (by the way that is a REAL example).  [The Sawon via Reddit]

You can read more at the link.

Pyongyang's trade fair was very well-attended, but dwindling number of foreign companies: http://t.co/Ph3d5keUnd

— NK NEWS (@nknewsorg) June 20, 2015

I just don’t see many of the South Korean chain stores ever making it big outside of Korean-American communities.  Can anyone picture Paris Baguette in major cities when it would be competing against someone like Panera Bread?. Can anyone think of a Korean chain that could make it big in the US?:

Korean firms are scrambling to set up shop in New York City as a litmus test for how ready they are for the global market. With the growing interest in Korean culture in the U.S., they feel this may be the right time to make inroads into the market.

Cosmetics firms are leading the trend. Amore Pacific opened its store at Bloomingdale’s department store in Manhattan last week, a first for a Korean cosmetic firm.

“To succeed in the global market, you first need to advance into New York, the trend-setting city,” said a company spokesman. Amore Pacific opened its first New York store in 2003 and now operates 26 in the city.

Laneige also opened an outlet in a big supermarket in the U.S. last year. Tonymoly started in New York in August last year and already operates six stores there.  [Chosun Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but I think a major luxury hotel brand like Lotte has a chance of gaining some market share in major cities but that is about it.  Cosmetics may have a chance of gaining some market share as well, but I think even that will be challenging.

I have not even heard of this company before, but its Korean-American owner was featured in Forbes as one of the most successful self made women:

Thai Lee, a 56-year-old Korean-American businesswoman, has one of the largest female-owned businesses in the U.S., Forbes reported Wednesday.

Lee was featured in the first ever list of America’s “top 50 most successful, self-made women.”

Lee is CEO of Software House International, an unlisted company specializing in software sales and services.

Headquartered in Somerset, New Jersey, SHI operates about 30 branches in Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, and the U.K., as well as in the U.S. With 3,000 staff and 17,500 clients, it had sales of US$6 billion last year, making it one of the top three minority-owned businesses in the U.S.  [Chosun Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but good on her for making her company into the billion dollar business it is today.

I did not realize how little of Samsung Electronics that the Lee family actually owned:

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Two key Samsung companies are merging in a step toward ensuring the son of the group’s ailing chairman inherits control of the theme parks to smartphones conglomerate.

Samsung said Tuesday that its defacto holding company Cheil Industries Inc. will acquire Samsung C&T Corp. by offering 0.35 new Cheil shares for every Samsung C&T share.

The move, to be completed by Sept. 1, requires shareholder approval, which is expected. The combined entity will be named Samsung C&T.

Analysts say the transaction will give Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong a big say in the conglomerate including its crown jewel Samsung Electronics Co.

“Samsung Electronics is at the core of this event,” said Park Ju-gun, president at CEOScore, a private corporate watchdog. “If Lee Jae-yong controls C&T, he can secure control over Samsung Electronics.”

The corporate maneuvering reflects that the Lee family’s influence over Samsung Electronics through a life insurance company was at risk as the South Korean parliament is set to pass a law that restricts finance companies from controlling non-finance companies.

Lee, his father Lee Kun-hee and other family members have a small direct stake in Samsung Electronics but have been able to exert influence through cross shareholdings in affiliated companies, the most significant of which was Samsung Life Insurance. Altogether, they control about 29 percent of Samsung Electronics shares, which is the largest voting bloc.

Lee Kun-hee, 73, who remains chairman at Samsung Electronics, has been hospitalized for more than a year after suffering a heart attack in May, 2014. Lee Jae-yong earlier this month took over his father’s roles in two Samsung charitable foundations.

The Lee family will likely take additional steps to enlarge C&T’s stake Samsung Electronics as a lynchpin of the cross shareholdings, said Park. It currently owns 4.1 percent of the electronics giant.  [Associated Press]

You can read more at the link. 

The 20 biggest, most powerful and most valuable companies in the world: http://t.co/eTDPmHxAqC pic.twitter.com/r1R6uQD7dX

— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) May 6, 2015

If you go to a Duty Free shop in Seoul the chances are the employee is an ethnic Korean from China:

After graduating from college five years ago, Lee Ju-yeon came to Korea from China to live with her mother, a waitress, and father, a manual laborer.

They are Chinese citizens, but ethnically Korean, part of what is known in China as the Chaoxian ethnic minority.

They struggled here as minorities, and Lee’s parents never had the chance to earn college diplomas. She knew she wanted to do better, and capitalized on her higher education and bilingual ability.

“One day, my friend working at a duty-free shop sent me a job notice over the phone and suggested I apply to work as a salesperson,” said Lee, who requested that her real name not be used. “I applied for five positions at duty-free stores, and all of them asked for interviews.”

Her job put Lee among countless Korean-Chinese workers who, once concentrated in the labor and food service sectors, have emerged in multitudes in the retail sector.

Many work in small stores – most commonly duty-free shops – where Chinese-speaking employees are in high demand due to their ability to cater to the needs the throngs of Chinese tourists, known as Youke in Korea which means a “tourist” in Chinese.

“In our duty free stores in downtown Seoul, 70 percent of the customers are Chinese,” said a representative for Lotte Duty Free.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

It is going to be interesting to see if this law gets passed:

Resentment has mounted so much in South Korea against what has come to be known as “gabjil”, high-handedness by the rich and powerful, that parliamentarians are proposing legislation to punish some of the worst abuses.

A bill to be presented in the national assembly this month is formally called the “Conglomerates Ethical Management Special Law” but has been nick-named the Cho Hyun-ah law.

Cho, also known as Heather Cho, is the daughter of the chairman of Korean Air Lines and was sentenced last week to a year in prison for an outburst on a Korean Air plane while on the ground in New York. It was considered a severe sentence by some legal experts.

The bill proposes to ban members of the powerful business families known as chaebol from working at their companies for at least five years if convicted of a crime. In earlier cases, some high-profile offenders were pardoned, serving little or no jail time, although recently-convicted chaebol executives have found it harder to avoid prison.  [Reuters]

You can read more at the link, but I wonder if it is even Constitutional in Korea to make special laws that focus on particular individual families?

Indictments have now been released for Homeplus executives involved in the customer data selling scandal:

Homeplus Co., the South Korean unit of British retail giant Tesco PLC, has been indicted on charges of illegally selling customer data to insurance firms in exchange for money, a government investigation team said Sunday.

Homeplus is accused of gathering more than 24 million pieces of customer data, including birth dates, number of children and other personal information, and selling them to a number of insurance firms for a total of 23.17 billion won (US$21.14 million), the investigation team said. Most of the information were collected under the guise of conducting a lottery for free gifts.

Homeplus chief Do Sung-hwan, five other former and current company executives and staff, and two officials from the insurance companies have also been indicted over their involvement in the case, according to the team.

Do and the other Homeplus staff are accused of requiring customers to submit personal information in order to enter draws for the gifts.

Most customers who entered the draws were unaware that their personal information would be sold to insurance companies as such details were provided in barely visible print on the coupons. Some of the customers were not even contacted upon winning a prize, the investigation team said.  [Yonhap]

Isn’t this though pretty much what Facebook does every day?

An increasing number of second-generation Korean Americans living in New York are finding jobs in South Korea. http://t.co/jfm0RuWqNN

— The Korea Times (@koreatimes) January 9, 2015