And now for something somewhat different: A bit about Korean culture

What to do if Koreans “fall asleep” during your presentation

I decided to write about the particular behavior of Korean businessmen’s closing eyes during the business meeting. 

I have seen this happen many times that a lot of Korean executive members close their eyes and appear to fall asleep. It can completely look like they are falling asleep or they are not paying attention to what you are saying.  The older the Korean business partners are, the more of this you can find in meetings.  However they are not sleeping or ignoring you.  This is rather an expression of deep concentration on your presentation or what is going on at that time and can be the sign of respect as well.

So, when they close their eyes do not panic or be irritated.  Just know that they are paying attention to you and trying to grasp what is going on at the moment.  Go on with your talk or presentation as you have been doing.

Save time and money by establishing good rapport with your Korean business partners

I want to talk about how important it is to establish the “right” kind of communication line with Korean business partners.

No matter what the goal of the initial contact is, there is a common thing with the majority of Korean businesses at the communication process. That is, you have to spend a fair amount of time to establish good rapport in order to make matters progress smoothly and gain their cooperation. This process may seem very personal and not so professional to many foreign businessmen.

Korean business partners want to first get to know you before they get into any kind of business dealings. It is very important for them to know you as a person and have a good impression of you. It doesn’t matter how good of a deal you are offering them, this “establishing a personal bond or relationship” with them should be the first code of conduct you have to remember when you deal with your Korean business partners. Once you establish solid and good rapport with them, the benefit you get out of this is priceless. I often am even asked questions such as what I majored in college, if I am married, how many kids I have, etc. Sure, these personal matters are none of their business and don’t have anything to do with the actual business relationship. However, exchanging such information with each other is a very crucial process of “getting to know each other” phase.

Establish a personal relationship with your Korean business partner

Korean culture now has changed. As you know, written contracts are being used widely. But you know what the scary thing of all this is? Just because they are signing the contract with their smiley face doesn’t mean that they honor the contract. To them, without that personal trust and bond, this piece of paper doesn’t mean anything.The degree of their taking the contract into their business practice is a lot less serious. And if you do not invest your time and effort to reshape and reinforce that personal relationship with them, the contract won’t mean a thing.

I have seen so many Korean businessmen taking the legal process lightly and going right against their contract when they feel like it. Emotional? Yes. Wrong? Maybe, maybe not. And you know what the worst thing is, when Korean business partners do such a thing, there actually is not much foreign company can do about it. Because you are dealing with an overseas partner and to do anything legally will cost you tons of money.

And this is exactly why it is very crucial for foreign companies send or assign a person who can be at ease with building a personal relationship and being “personally” involved in establishing an operation in Korea. However, such a businessman going to Korea often needs aid for their communication effort and understanding of all the different business aspects in Korea. Many companies may hesitate to spend money on this effort to have someone to aid the company’s Korean operations part not knowing that eventually this will be the short cut and budget saving move. A few years down the road when they repeatedly fail to even have a simple communication, then they finally realized that they should have not only hired somebody to guide them through for dealing with Korean business partner, but also they are at the point where they cannot lose any more money.

About the author

KIM Hae Jin is an expatriate Korean international MBA student inLingnan (University) College at Sun Yat-sen University.  She likes the color red, trees, traveling, and Doraemon.