gmtPLUS09 | live from Seoul

From the Lost Nomad.

With all the negative stink clouding the hagwon industry. A good way to filter out the worthless ones when in search of a job. Link.

WTF. I’ve yet to work at a hagwon and I’d like to keep it that way. I had a similar situation about a missing¹ paycheck; I was fortunate to receive my compensation sans the severance pay upon resignation. I wish Joe McPherson the best out of this unfortunate and asinine situation.

“Somehow, if an employer doesn’t pay you your wages or severance, or takes money from your paycheck without explaining or having you agree to it, they can pretty much get away with it,” McPherson wrote, “even if you win your case (at the Labor Department and civil court) there is little legal framework to force the employer to pay you.”

In July 2006 McPherson filed a complaint against his hagwon for failure to pay his end-of-contract severance money.

“In August the Labor Board determined that the hagwon had to pay me everything I was due,” McPherson said, “It came to about 6 million won, so we are not talking about a small amount of money here.”

But having an official and legal piece of paper saying you are due this money, and then actually getting the money, are two quite different things.

In February 2007 McPherson finally went to civil court, where the judge not only upheld the Labor Board decision, but awarded McPherson a further 2 million won, bringing the total to 8 million won. The hagwon is still refusing to pay, and has lodged an appeal. An end to the process is nowhere in sight.

“Yet if you want to complain about it on the internet, which is often the only venue for us, it’s a crime,” McPherson told The Korea Herald, “I received notice that the hagwon filed a complaint and I am being investigated by the police for criminal libel.”

What a bunch of bull…

More details can be found here.

1. Or as the company called it, “delayed”. Interesting to note Korean companies expect employees to understand they should work without pay so that the CEO can keep the chauffeured car↩

Today was not the all you can drink margarita day namely Cinco de Mayo. Instead I faced the wrath of hordes of children and their parents celebrating Children’s Day. I left my studio which overlooks Seoul’s Children’s Grand Park and headed for higher ground (the gf’s place). We returned later in the evening to walk Jelly the dog and 15 minutes into it, he starts heaving and chucks out massive amounts of who knows what. Among the asphalt-colored, half-digested items were bits and pieces of cigarettes, tin foil, and rawhide. The cig and tin foil were apparently scarfed down during the early moments of the stroll. When I thought he was just sniffing the ground just as beagles do, but apparently he was picking things up like a Hoover. The dog is pretty much out of it, he had a couple more rounds of ‘making pizza’ as the locals call it.

I’m sorry but this KBS article is an oxymoron considering the quality of the English-language taught here. Another contradiction is hiring English-language teachers who speak with a Korean accent.

Geez.

Continuing Chang’s questions: where are the leading Korean VCs and why there aren’t more successful Korean start-ups?

1. There should be more clever Korean VCs around
I read about Tea Hea Nahm of Storm Ventures a couple of years ago. Since then, nothing. He would, indeed, be a valuable asset who could join ranks as a blogger.

2. There should be a venture role-model
The start-ups that I’ve come across, all seem to share a common goal which is aiming for the quickest route to short-term success while eyeing the IPO as the exit plan. There simply is no other objective goals for long-term sustainable growth.

I agree NHN is the closest thing to a venture role model Korea has at the moment.

3. More Korean companies should brag about their product. In English.
Not only in English. Also in a context that is relevant or understandable to the rest of the world. Case in point, UCC vs UGC.

Ah, this reminds me of Bacchus-F, which had a sputtered expansion start and never realized its potential. Bacchus as you may already know is the God of Wine, but in Korea Bacchus-F has been a leading energy drink for decades. Bacchus, made by Dong-A Pharmaceutical, has held near-monopolistic market share as a vitamin supplement. That was until Vita 500 (비타 500) toppled it. Vita was superior because it could be purchased anywhere, whereas the caffeine-loaded Bacchus could only be found in pharmacies.

Back to my point, Dong-A had a great opportunity to capture the U.S. market, at least in marketing terms. They had a great, equitable name that was recognizeable (and pronounceable unlike many Korean products) to the North American market.

Dong-A shot themselves in the foot, not once but twice.
1) Focused only on the domestic market and not giving serious effort to stake out its territory early on during its N. American expansion.

2) They failed to strategically understand the N. American market. Namely, failure to forecast the lifestyle (ie, clubbing) trends that was taking hold at the time (1990s-early 2000s). A great window of opportunity was snatched away by the marketing machine Red Bull, which incidentally has the same ingredients. Dong-A finally rebranded its product with vivid, splashy graphics and descriptor “Energy Drink.” This comes too little, too late because they are falsely perceived as a copy-cat brand.

There is more. Daum could have been more recognizable if it had pursued in bragging about itself after the Lycos purchase. Kumho Tires is another. Not until the early-2000s, did it begin to do some relevant ads in car enthusiast magazines or PPLs.

One of these days, hopefully soon Korean start-ups will look abroad for sustained growth and initiate a serious effort to get the ball rolling.