By Oh Young-jin
It was a setup that better suited an executives’ meeting rather than an interview. Mike Arcamone, CEO of GM Korea, was rising from his seat when we entered a conference room at Millennium Hilton Seoul’s business center. Together with him were two junior GM employees plus Arcamone’s top PR officer.
On the table was a notepad per seat plus a bottle of water and a plate of cookies.
Slight disorder on the table of the objects laid out hinted the GM Korea CEO was having his second back-to-back interview of the day. The previous one lasted about an hour.
As soon as hands were shaken and seats occupied, a thrust was made to check his level of alertness since an hour of answering questions could make one weary and tempted to repeat the same speech for the following one.
“Are we in a labor-management negotiation of numerical inequality?’ was the gist of the feeler question. GM Korea was in the midst of talks concerning wages with the union.
Arcamone didn’t take the bait, pointing out that our party also included four.
So, the interpreter excluded, both parties were numerically tied at four.
For the following one hour and 20 minutes, Arcamone proved to be a subject hard to crack, not that he shied away from sensitive questions but rather because he called a spade a spade.
For example, when asked about the numbers ― profits ― he said outright that he wouldn’t go there.
However, it didn’t mean that he was reticent. He distinguished what he had to say from what he didn’t, focusing on the former. In other words, he, most of the time, was in control and, in rare moments when he was not, he tried his best to get it back.
Asked whether the radio advertisement for Orlando, GM Chevrolet’s compact multipurpose vehicle or MOV, was not misleading, he first appeared assured that there was nothing wrong with it but then backed off, saying that he takes feedback very seriously.
That was the moment leading one to think Arcamone could be a very tough negotiator with the union.
A truly tough negotiator is not somebody that sticks to a given position but one who can adapt his stance to best promote what he or she is set out to do. This requires one to respect the other side.
On this point, he said that the union is here to stay by law and that he needs to respect and work with it because GM chose to work in Korea where multiple unions are allowed and their right to protest is protected. “They are a stakeholder,” he said, comparing the union with shareholders, employees, management and others.
The most provocative question asked during the interview was whether he was “taken advantage of” as CEO of an American company operating in Korea and staffed by Koreans.
His answer was one that is expected of the head of a multinational firm who tries harder to focus on similarities than disparities. “Nationality doesn’t carry as much weight as in the past… How you treat people is more important than nationality …”
He then talked about his Italian background, pointing out resemblances with Koreans.
Throughout the interview, Arcamone sounded like a strong believer in market as one reporter of our team later observed that he spoke like a descent of Adam Smith.
As a matter of fact, I agreed with her observation but except that it might be out of necessity as much as choice, considering GM is a global firm with a presence everywhere.
Interestingly, he repeated the “monopolistic hold” Hyundai Motor Group has on the Korean market but rejected a legal solution, opting to promote the power of an open market. He pointed out the growing market share by imported vehicles as well as his firm. His response struck a contrast to pressures the United States applied on Korea to open its markets for its vehicles and other products 10 years ago.
What a difference? Now, Korea is more eager to effectuate a bilateral free trade agreement with the United States than Washington is.
His confidence in his firm appears to be very solid. Maybe, it is because it would be the same for anybody who has worked in the same organization for 30 years. It didn’t take long to know where his confidence came from.
He said that Hyundai and Kia are not as global a firm as GM, taking issue with the recent production difficulties the Korean carmaker underwent when one the employees of one its contractors went on strike. Alas! Hyundai didn’t have any other supplier of pivotal parts lined up.
Arcamone said that GM has multiple sources of any given part so what happened to Hyundai wouldn’t happen to it.
Korean suppliers are an integral part of GM’s global supply chain, he added.