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Korean Business and Talking Points

Don Southerton
3 min readJul 6, 2019

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Don Southerton

Korean business and talking points. American holidays allow me to step back, see what I may be missing, take a deep breath and uncover the best solutions to current challenges. My goal is to provide frank insights and pro-active recommendations. Below are a couple of helpful talking points.

Talking Point #1
As with all individuals, no two of us are alike — and the same goes for westerners and Koreans …. Each has his or her unique cultural workplace strengths, skills, and experiences.

That said, one topic I constantly revisit is the assumption that executives and teams engaged in Korea facing business will simply “get it” and “learn as they go.” Without ongoing coaching, this common default seldom works. More damaging is that some team members without support and mentoring may “never get it.”

Arguments that such support can wait often come with a price tag — missteps along the way, poor productivity, and miscommunications.

Push back attributed to the costs for support is often cited, too, as well as what appears to be dismissing or delaying any action until there is a real unavoidable need. The later, can range from denial with hopes that things will work out — to concealing these issues because they might reflect poorly on some in local management. Again, regardless such hopes to…

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Don Southerton
Don Southerton

Written by Don Southerton

Trusted Korea business consultant / mentor / author / strategist

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