Dear Readers,
Last month, I had the opportunity to visit
South Korea, as a part of the CII Business Delegation. We were a team of 10
members, representing different companies in India. We visited the Capital City,
Seoul and one of the important port cities of the world, Busan. A trade meeting
was organised by the Busan Foundation of International Activities, to enhance
the scope of trade relation between the 2 countries. This visit served as an
opportunity for me to learn more about Korea. We had a series of meetings with
many Govt bodies and trade bodies and this gave me some insights into the
growth story of Korea, which I would like to share.
The economy
of South Korea is the fourth largest economy
in Asia and the 11th largest in the world. South Korea is
famous for its spectacular rise from one of the poorest countries in the world
to an advanced, high-income country in just one generation. This country has witnessed its biggest growth
between 1960 and 1980, and still remains one of the fastest growing developed
countries. It has
been a head turner for many countries, as to how Korea has been able to achive
this. These are the few pointers, I found that could be the possible reason for
their quick growth.
One of the notable point is to know that Korea
gained from its adversity. Korea was ruled by the Japanese till 1945. It is
only after the 2nd world war, when Japan lost to America, South
Korea became a separate country with the support of America. As Korea was located
in close proximity to Japan, it gained the American foot hold strength, which
was the starting point of their growth story.
It is a well known fact that, Koreans are
skilled in Ship Building & Ship Repairs. And this is a very big business,
by itself. This has to a great extent helped them to be globally recognised, as
a technologically advanced country. Some of their other strong areas include
automobile manufacturing (Hyundai), Electronics (Samsung & LG), Armaments
and Cosmetics. Today all the brands have become global and found in every
household.
Another strength
of South Korea, is that they are
constantly innovating. They are always looking for better way of doing things.
They are not happy with status quo. The
principle of Kaizen (consistent performace, continuous improvement), seems to
be in action everywhere in Korea. It is not
surprising to note that South Korea
ranks No.1 in the world in 2015 Bloomberg Innovation Index.
South
Korea is also considered a safe place,
to do business, as there has not been many incidents of frauds and cheating.
This gives Korea a good image and makes it a safe country to do business with.
Every
country has a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) to make itself marketable to the
other countries in the world. The Korean USP, is quiet interesting. The USP of
Korea is “Quality of Japan @ Prices of
China”. We all know that Japanese quality is highly commendable, but bit
expensive, whereas the Chinese products are very cheap, whereas not highly
reliable on quality. The Koreans seem to have understood this and the result
have come out with an unique promise which appeals to all the other countries,
who are looking at a better alternative.
On
the whole, the Korean growth story is characterised by their resilience,
reliability, innovation, competitive
focus on their core areas and strategical positioning of their product in the
global market.
Korea’s
growth story is undoubtedly an inspirational one, especially for the fast
developing countries of this millennium.
Happy
Reading
D. Senthil Kannan
Article date July 2016
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