The book differs from most on Korean business. Frankly, its audience is not those working or looking to be employed in South Korea, although they will benefit from its content. The focus is instead for the ever-growing number of people employed by Korean-based companies outside South Korea. This book will provide you with a strategy and skills to succeed. Likewise, if your firm provides services or products to a South Korean overseas subsidiary or operations this book will be beneficial and offer tactics to strengthen and maintain the relationship. Finally, if your company has significant business in Korea, but leadership and headquarters is located in the West, we offer key management with suggestion on how best to deal with pressing issues and challenges that surface. About the author When Fortune 500 companies, top Korean Groups, leading international law firms, the media, and elite consultancies like Bain and Monitor look for Korean-facing branding, business strategy, coaching, market-entry, and advice-they turn to Don Southerton. With over 35 years' experience, Don Southerton is the definitive authority on Korean-facing global business and branding--from automotive, golf, and QSR/ food sectors to New Urbanism and Green technology. When questions surface in development, launch, or fulfillment, we provide sound research, solutions, Building on a life-long interest in Korea and the rich culture of the country, Southerton has authored numerous publications with topics centering on culture, new urbanism, entrepreneurialism, and early U.S.-Korean business ventures. Southerton also extensively writes and comments on modern Korean business culture and its impact on global organizations.

In 1961 South Korea was mired in poverty. By 1979 it had a powerful industrial economy and a vibrant civil society in the making, which would lead to a democratic breakthrough eight years later. The transformation took place during the years of Park Chung Hee's presidency. Park seized power in a coup in 1961 and ruled as a virtual dictator until his assassination in October 1979. He is credited with modernizing South Korea, but at a huge political and social cost. South Korea's political landscape under Park defies easy categorization. The state was predatory yet technocratic, reform-minded yet quick to crack down on dissidents in the name of political order. The nation was balanced uneasily between opposition forces calling for democratic reforms and the Park government's obsession with economic growth. The chaebol (a powerful conglomerate of multinationals based in South Korea) received massive government support to pioneer new growth industries, even as a nationwide campaign of economic shock therapy-interest hikes, devaluation, and wage cuts-met strong public resistance and caused considerable hardship. This landmark volume examines South Korea's era of development as a study in the complex politics of modernization. Drawing on an extraordinary range of sources in both English and Korean, these essays recover and contextualize many of the ambiguities in South Korea's trajectory from poverty to a sustainable high rate of economic growth.

Learn the ins and outs of conducting business in South Korea. South Korean companies and technology have suddenly conquered the world. Samsung, Hyundai and LG are industry leaders and the global brands. Korean culture in the form of K-Pop music videos and "Korean Wave" films and TV dramas are watched everywhere from Tel Aviv to Singapore to Rio. Korean gourmet food trucks ply the streets of New York and LA, and kimchi has found a place on the shelves of well-stocked supermarkets around the world. With just a fraction of Japan's land area, less than half its population, and no natural resources--how have Korean companies managed to conquer the world in such a short period of time? What is the "secret sauce" of Korean business practices and companies that make them so successful? To find out, readers need more than statistics and company profiles. Learning the basics of Korean culture, about Korean social etiquette and Korean business culture, will enable you to understand for the first time how Koreans think and why they work so effectively to achieve their goals. This understanding will enhance your own effectiveness in doing business with Koreans, or in competing with them--whether in Korea or elsewhere. The Korean Way in Business is a must-read for business professionals who wish to know the secrets underlying the commercial practices and business success of modern-day Koreans.

Korea 101: The Book Shares an In-depth Look at Korean Business Don Southerton reflects on 20 years of insights and experiences from a Cultural Perspective. Korean global business advisor and strategist Don Southerton has released his latest publication, Korea 101: The Book—20 Years of Insights and Anecdotes. Southerton notes, “For over 20 years, I have presented Korea 101 programs to more than 10,000 participants across the globe. For the first time, Korea 101: The Book shares insights and experiences with my ‘boots on the ground’ in the classroom, boardroom, and, more recently, remotely.” Southerton adds, “Topics include an in depth look at Korea with milestones, interviews, case studies, articles, and writing—all based on my research, consultancy experiences, and observations. This practice continues today.”

This book's intended audience and focus is the ever-growing number of Westerners employed by Korean-based companies outside South Korea. This book provides greater awareness into the Korean workplace and mindset. We also share a strategy and the skills to succeed. Likewise, if your firm provides services or products to a South Korean overseas subsidiary or operation, this book will be beneficial and offers tactics to strengthen and maintain the relationship. Finally, if your company has significant business in Korea, but leadership and headquarters are located in the West, we offer suggestions to key management on how best to deal with pressing issues and challenges that surface.

In the closing years of the nineteenth century, East Asia saw traditional institutions erode under the weight of modernization, westernization, and imperialism. Unlike Japan, which by the late 1860s boldly embraced western thought and technology, Korea's orthodox Neo-Confucian elites resisted change. Trade agreements signed in the 1880s led to some reforms and the "opening" of Korea to the West. Soon China, Japan, Russia, France, Germany, and Great Britain vied for economic opportunity. Significantly, American missionaries and traders formed a core cadre among the foreigners who ventured to what the West called the Hermit Kingdom. Meanwhile, open conflict erupted on the peninsula between rival Japanese and Chinese forces. The outcome was substantial socio-economic transformation. By 1895, the Korean monarch King Kojong looked to align with the West to thwart ever-growing Japanese imperialism. King Kojong pursued a strategy of granting trade concessions to westerners in hopes that the investors would pressure their governments to support the monarchy and contain Japanese imperialism.The most successful of these concessions were granted to several Americans. By the early 1900s, the American-run Northern Frontier mines were among the richest in Asia. It is here, in what is today North Korea, that Connecticut-born Josh Gillet ventures and Book Three of A Yankee in the Land of the Morning Calm saga continues....

Business in North Korea: a paradoxical and fascinating situation is interpreted by a true insider. In 2002, the Swiss power company ABB appointed Felix Abt its country director for North Korea. The Swiss Entrepreneur lived and worked in North Korea for seven years, one of the few foreign businessmen there. After the experience, Abt felt compelled to write A Capitalist in North Korea to describe the multifaceted society he encountered. North Korea, at the time, was heavily sanctioned by the UN which made it extremely difficult to do business. Yet he discovered that it was a place where plastic surgery and South Korean TV dramas were wildly popular and where he rarely needed to walk more than a block to grab a quick hamburger. He was closely monitored and once faced accusations of spying, yet he learned that young North Koreans are hopeful--signing up for business courses in anticipation of a brighter, more open, future. In A Capitalist in North Korea, Abt shares these and many other unusual facts and insights about one of the world's most secretive nations.

The Korean Peninsula was and is in a state of flux.More than 60 years after the war that left the country divided, the policies and unpredictability of the North Korean regime, in conjunction with the U.S. alliance with South Korea and the involvement of China in the area, leave the situation there one of the most capricious on the globe. Confronting Security Challenges on the Korean Peninsula presents the opinions from experts on the subject matter from the policy, military, and academic communities. Drawn from talks at a conference in September 2010 at Marine Corps University, the papers explore the enduring security challenges, the state of existing political and military relationships, the economic implications of unification, and the human rights concerns within North and South Korea. They also reiterate the importance for the broader East Asia region of peaceful resolution of the Korean issues.

Author Southerton notes, “We see a radical change underway within the leading companies in Korea. In fact, in the Korean workplace, once known for conformity and protocols, is undergoing substantial change.” Exploring this change is at the core of this new book. Southerton adds, “Topics include restructuring of age-old corporate norms such as more casual dress, a simplification of workplace titles leading to flatter organizations, and the pushback against workplace bullying and gender discrimination. It also drills deeper and provides readers with workarounds, work through, and insights.” This publication embraces new participatory communications practices and encourages the participation of its readers to share their thoughts and inputs.

"In this book - based on a major conference sponsored by the Overseas Koreans Foundation (OKF) in Seoul in October 2002 - experts hold up South Korea as one of the most dramatic examples of participation in the global economy, having gone from being a poor, underdeveloped country fewer than 40 years ago to becoming a postwar economic success story. This report also looks at South Korea's role as a regional trading partner and its present and future relations with north Korea" -- BACK COVER.