The Korea Times

UAE to buy into Woori or KDB

Energy-for-investment deal likely at presidential level By Kim Jae-kyoung Sovereign wealth funds (SWF) from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and possibly Qatar are expected to buy a sizable stake — not excluding a controlling stake through a consortium — in either Woori Financial Group or KDB Financial Group. Seoul has agreed to sign a “give-and-take” deal with Abu Dhabi to help the Arab funds purchase a local lender in return for securing rights to develop oil fields there. The behind-the-scenes deal is expected to speed up the reshaping of the banking industry by paving the way for the government to push for the privatization of the nation’s second-largest financial group and KDB, both of which have been stalled. “Cheong Wa Dae has agreed to give something in return to the UAE government for gaining the right to secure energy sources there,” a source close to Cheong Wa Dae told The Korea Times, asking not to be named. “I was told that the Lee Myung-bak administration agreed to help the Arab funds invest in the state-owned lenders.” At least, one highl

Mar 24, 2011By Kim Jae-kyoung

Economy

Ambidextrous leadership

CEOs should manage both the tangible and the intangible By Kim Jae-kyoung Everyone wants to be a leader but only a few climb to the top. Many people believe that true leaders are born, not made, and they don’t even give a try to become a leader. However, a life-time HR consultant hints that it is the other way around and that everyone can be a leader if he or she has strategies. Mark V. Mactas, president and chief operating officer of Towers Watson, gave us a very simple but clear answer. “If you have a good idea and people to execute it, then you can be a leader.” CEO Mactas recently visited Seoul and the BusinessFocus team met with the leadership expert at the global consulting firm’s Seoul office on March 7 to listen to his view on how to become a good leader. Q: Businesses are facing a myriad of challenges following the global financial crisis. In these turbulent times, leadership has become more important than ever. How do you define leadership? How do you think leadership is different now than it was in the past? A: It’s multi-dimensional. Historically, leaders

Mar 20, 2011By Kim Jae-kyoung

Economy

The Steve Jobs Way: Can it work everywhere?

By Kim Jae-kyoung Apple Chairman and CEO Steve Jobs has become the iconic figure of innovation as his iPhone and iPad products have entirely changed lifestyles in the 21st century. His leadership has also been in the limelight after he brought the struggling tech giant back to the throne. Many people both at home and abroad have become enthusiastic about the ailing but innovative leader. The 56-year-old CEO has inspired many of us with his classic charisma and fiery personality, and business leaders around the world are busy trying to learn his leadership and innovative management skills. Here is a simple question. “Does every company need a Steve Jobs?” Many would answer “yes” without hesitation, but a world-renowned HR consultant replied “no,” saying there was no single ideal model and leadership styles change over time. “You can certainly look retrospectively at that kind of success that companies with leaders like Steve Jobs enjoyed during their tenure. I think that those kind of leaders are most effective in those kind of circumstances, as well as what that leaders a

Mar 18, 2011By Kim Jae-kyoung

Ambidextrous leadership

Economy

First impression crucial in international arbitration

By Yoon Byung-chol Recently, an international arbitration case that my team had been working on for two years finally went to the hearing stage against a highly reputable U.S. firm. Every hearing day consisted of eight hours of oral advocacy in English, including opening and closing statements and cross examination of seven witnesses. The arbitration took place in Seoul, was conducted in English between a Korean and foreign party. What may surprise the reader is that this type of proceeding is commonplace for my team. Although the legal market in Korea has not fully opened its doors yet, in reality, the international dispute resolution market opened a long time ago. According to statistics of the International Chamber of Commerce, the largest arbitral institution in the world, the number of international arbitration cases involving Korean companies in 2009 ranked second in Asia. This incredibly high usage can be attributed, to some extent, to the increase in Korean companies venturing into overseas markets. Accordingly, the number of related disputes has in

Mar 13, 2011By Kim Jae-kyoung

Economy

BOK in danger of falling behind curve

― Late rate increase may post threat to risk assets ― By Kim Jae-kyoung When it comes to monetary policy, there is conventional wisdom. “Take action in a preemptive manner.” Every central banker is well aware of this well-known principle ― the problem is that it is easy to talk but hard to act for many reasons. Monetary policy can be comparable to a card game. In a game of cards, if you are able to read others’ hands, you win. The same goes for monetary policy. If the central bank is lacking in the art of rhetoric, it fails to have the intended impact on the economy. In this regard, the Bank of Korea (BOK) has been always a target of criticism since Governor Kim Choong-soo took the helm. On the surface, the dovish governor has been trying to stay firm on inflation control, but his actions have hardly preempted the market. The BOK hiked its policy rate by 25 basis points Thursday to 3 percent. The increase came as no surprise as recent comments from Korean policymakers suggested a hike was inevitable due to surging inflation. Kim told the National Assembly, Wednes

Mar 13, 2011By Kim Jae-kyoung

Economy

Co-sourcing becomes trend

By Nick Taylor Basic outsourcing is being extended into other innovative applications, such as product lifecycle management. For example, aerospace and defense firms now outsource the detailed drawings and specifications needed to build their aircrafts. Industry-specific outsourcing is also an important part of the future because it leverages the power of the one-to-many platforms mentioned earlier. Navitaire, for example, provides a comprehensive package of integrated, outsourced services to the airline industry, from reservations capabilities to resource planning and distribution to back-office functions and revenue accounting. Some of the knowledge needed to achieve competitive advantage in the future will remain internal to a company _ distinctive intellectual property that drives new products and services. Other forms of knowledge will be sourced externally, opening up the walls of collaborative innovation to drive better ways of doing business. Companies will likely increase their reliance on universities and private research labs, and on their suppliers. Outsour

Mar 13, 2011By Kim Jae-kyoung

Economy

Outsourcing changes business landscape

Dupont, LSE, BP instill innovation by tapping outside By Accenture Over the past two decades, outsourcing has dramatically changed the way companies create and distribute value. From a hardware operations play, the practice has moved first to applications and software, and then to higher-level business processes and service. In business history, the day in early October 1989, when Eastman Kodak Chief Information Officer (CIO) Katherine Hudson decided to outsource the bulk of the company’s IT functions marks a seminal event ― one followed by major and innovative outsourcing deals made by such industry leaders as DuPont, and the Dow Chemical. These companies legitimized a previously experimental sourcing strategy. Since then, the growth of outsourcing has been extraordinary. Today, it is a global market estimated to be worth more than $350 billion ― a number that could top the $450 billion mark sometime in 2013, according to IDC. Now, the pressing questions are: what outsourcing will look like, and what will it mean to the competitive nature of organizations around the wor

Mar 13, 2011By Kim Jae-kyoung

Economy

Revival of mega bank dream

By Kim Jae-kyoung BusinessFocus editor With former finance minister Kang Man-soo taking the helm of state-run KDB Financial Group, the obsolete idea of a ”mega bank” has been revived, spawning speculation that he was appointed to spearhead the creation of such a super-sized entity. Together with the Four-River Project and 747 Plan, creating a giant bank capable of competing globally has been one of the key agenda items for the Lee Myung-bak administration, and Kang, a special advisor to the President on economic affairs, was the architect of the mega bank theory. Kang once aggressively pushed for this vision with support from President Lee but stepped back after meeting mounting criticism both from inside and outside that privatization should precede expansion. He may first seek to merge KDB with Woori Financial Group, another state-run entity up for sale. If the two are merged, the resulting total assets are expected to reach over 500 trillion won ($444.04 billion), the biggest among local banking groups. Or Kang will probably try to create an investment bank by mergin

Mar 13, 2011By Kim Jae-kyoung

Economy

Adaptive strategy key to business sustainability

By Boston Consulting Group In their approach to strategy, companies have sometimes emphasized scale and position and at other times capabilities and competencies. Despite theses shifts in focus, some basic beliefs about the nature of competition have remained unchanged. Strategists have generally assumed that there is durable advantage in well-defined and largely stable industries comprising a few relatively homogeneous competitors. The practice of strategy has also retained some constant features: for the most part, it has remained deductive, predictive, episodic, and top down. Yet sweeping forces in the business environment over the past decade?many of them complex and interrelated _ argue not just for a shift in focus among the primarily static elements of traditional strategy but also for a new way of acknowledging the dynamic qualities of competition. We can distinguish three important dimensions of turbulence and change: volatility in market positions, unpredictability of outcomes, and the widening gap in performance between winners and losers. Most industries ha

Mar 7, 2011By Kim Jae-kyoung

Economy

Chinese economy to cool down

Hong Kong/China markets were subject to volatility last week. Given that the China manufacturing PMI (purchasing managers index) moderated to a six-month low of 52.2 in February from 52.9 in January, according to government data, the economy is expected to be cooling down and that the inflation overhang will fade out. Globally, crude oil prices remain elevated although off their peaks due to supply concerns amid political unrest in the Middle East. Our portfolio was largely unchanged this week. Hong Kong and China stocks edged higher as oil prices receded from recent highs but political tensions in Libya kept geopolitical risks relatively high. On the positive side, Hong Kong and China companies turned in some resilient annual results, despite the current uncertainties, indicating domestic growth remains robust. Apart from property and commodity names, the consumer-related sector also saw some positive profit forecasts. Chinese retailer Suning Appliance expects 2010 sales revenue to increase almost 30percent from a year earlier while net profits will rise over 35percent.

Mar 6, 2011By Kim Jae-kyoung

Kim Jae-kyoung

Read more

UAE to buy into Woori or KDB

Ambidextrous leadership

The Steve Jobs Way: Can it work everywhere?

First impression crucial in international arbitration

BOK in danger of falling behind curve

Co-sourcing becomes trend

Outsourcing changes business landscape

Revival of mega bank dream

Adaptive strategy key to business sustainability

Chinese economy to cool down

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