This is the fifth of a series highlighting successful ethnic Korean entrepreneurs overseas. The series was supported by such private and public entities as e-Bay Korea, JTI Korea, Korea Post and World OKTA. ― ED.
By Kim Tae-gyu
People reach a few crossroads throughout their lives where their decisions will define their future paths and Yu Her International Chairman Hwang Hee-jai encountered such cases twice.
The first was when he just started a professional career in the mid 1980s after finishing years of military services and the second was in the early 1990s when he had a good occupation in Korea.
In both cases, he opted to quit his jobs to head toward Taiwan that played a pivotal role in his success, which he says has been buttressed by perfect preparedness.
``In 1986, I worked for a local pharmaceutical company but I wanted to study Chinese in Taiwan because China was not an option back then when the country had yet to set up diplomatic relationship with Korea,’’ said Hwang at Yu Her, a trading agent in Taiwan.
``But I had little amount of funds, which could support me for only three months. I could not afford to fail. Hence, I had to be perfectly prepared in order to study and making a living at the same time.”
What he had done was to ask for one of his former superiors in the Korean troop to write a recommendation to a military attache to the Korean embassy in Taipei.
The recommendation helped him get a night guard job at the embassy, which solved two problems at the same time ― a stable monthly income and a place to reside at minimum cost.
On the strength of the new profession with decent revenue, he could enter prestigious Soochow University where he studied Chinese literature for a year.
``If I couldn’t get the night guard’s position, the chances were that I was forced to return to Korea in just months and without the recommendation, I could not gain the job,’’ the 50-year-old recollected.
``In other words, I could learn Chinese since I organized things in advance in Korea. And the command of Chinese offered a series of opportunities over my career.’’
In time with the 1988 Seoul Olympics and in the lead up to the country’s establishment of diplomatic relationship with China in 1992, there were great unmet demands for those who could speak both Korean and Chinese.
Hwang did not hesitate to take advantage of the situation and joined Kohap in the late 1980s, a now defunct conglomerate that concentrated on the textile segments. But once again, he did not remain content with the status quo.
``Through 1990, I worked as a secretary of Kohap Chairman Jang Chi-hyuk, the post envied by many of my colleagues. I had two ways in hands _ to stick to the position or to start my own business,’’ he said.
``I took the latter option and left to Teipei where my Taiwanese wife stayed and started as an agent of importing Korean textiles to sell them to Taiwanese purchasers.”
Lee managed to make ends meet as a trader but he could not chalk up a big hit and it took almost a decade for him to have a grand slam in the textile industry.
``Reebok asked a Korean firm to make sportswear in its Indonesian factories and I was a supplier of textiles. As the sportswear hit the jackpot, I also racked up a great success,’’ he said.
``It offered great boons in the early 2000s and I could take a firm root in the business. I was one of most prominent middlemen in trades of textiles between Korea and Taiwan.’’
His trademark preparedness also lurked underneath the achievement.
``When lots of textiles were shipped into the Indonesian factories, I took a flight to inspect them so that I could check the products’ quality on my own without any requests from the customers,’’ he said.
``Engineers, who first did not understand why I did so, respected my visits as a sincere effort for customer satisfaction. As a result, they hardly made claims on my products.’’
Another main business of Yu Her has been to import isophthalic acid (IPA) from Korea to Taiwan ― Yu Her once became the foremost supplier of IPA and still accounts for around of a third of IPA demand in Taiwan.
IPA refers to an organic compound mostly used as precursors to commercially significant polymers. One of its notable end users is Coca Cola as IPA is an ingredient of PET bottles.
Only a handful of companies developed technologies of manufacturing the colorless solid and one of them was Kohap. Even though the chaebol was disbanded, its IPA division is still active acquired by Honam Petrochemical.
As Hwang maintained good relationships with his former employer, he could remain as an official importer of Kohap’s IPA to Taiwan over the past one and a half decades, which boosted both the top and bottom lines of Yu Her.
Lee scarcely drinks and seldom plays golf with clients, which means that he does not employ the so-called two strongest weapons of East Asian salespeople in promoting their sales.
Instead, he tried to remain wholehearted toward whomever he meets whether or not they are of instant help to his business.
``I accidentally set up relationships with the Korean firm, which produced the Reebok products, as I escorted its head in Taiwan without the knowledge on the business opportunities,’’ he said.
``Years later, the head helped me procure textiles for the Reebok products. I’ve confirmed that my life-long principle is correct that one needs to think from the long-term perspective rather than blindly seeking for short-term gains.’’
His recent focus has been the World Federation of Overseas Korean Traders Association (OKTA), the global organization of successful Korean merchants.
Hwang is the leader of the entity’s Taiwanese branch and has spearheaded the efforts of galvanizing brisker trades and interactions between Seoul and Taipei in the future.
``In its relationship with Taiwan, Korea cares too much about China. In fact, China goes well with Taiwan. Hence, we also have to think about improving our tie-up with Taiwan,’’ he said.
``As far as the economic factors are concerned, Taiwan is not a small country and we are required to think strategically.’’