What's wrong with making money from startup exits?
In South Korea, those who struck it rich from property investments are the subject of envy, but startup founders who make big money from their exits ...
Don’t dwell on Korea discount; light up visibility on global stage
To the world, South Korea is well known as home to the world’s top two memory chipmakers, Samsung Electronics Co. and SK Hynix Inc., but it isn...
Korea: Underrated as seat of commercial arbitration
South Korean companies prefer seats of arbitration in other countries over domestic ones to resolve disputes even for the cases that could be settled...
Japan’s heavy hand with Naver: Uneasy sign for market economy
Recent actions by the Japanese government and chief executives of LY Corp. and SoftBank Corp. are raising eyebrows, leading many to question whether ...
Shinsegae’s day of reckoning looms for online ambitions
Back in 2021, South Korea’s retail titan Shinsegae Inc. beat its archrival Lotte Shopping Co. to purchase Gmarket and Auction, the country's tw...
K-pop: Pros and cons of HYBE's multi-label system
Disputes between HYBE Co. and its label behind popular girl group NewJeans has made headlines as an almost unheard-of conflict in the K-pop industry....
Labor reform urged in Korea with higher wages than Japan
Wages at South Korean companies, both large and small, have surpassed those of their Japanese counterparts.According to a report on wage comparisons ...
Defy convention with long-run plans to upvalue Korean stocks
The South Korean stock market has been on an upward swing in recent weeks, with many partly attributing it to President Yoon Suk Yeol’s pledge ...
Shareholder activism at the cost of facility investments
South Korea’s large business groups are in emergency mode to brace for proxy fights with activist funds at annual general meetings (AGMs) next ...
Yes to cannabis but no to bitcoin?
Aftershocks continue in the South Korean financial market following the country’s financial regulator’s ban on the trading of spot bitcoi...
Beware political risk, No.1 factor in Korea Discount
Corporate governance and management transparency have long been the big issues influencing the so-called Korea Discount, alongside labor strife and t...
Windfall tax on Korean banks to create quintuple burden
Koreans are piqued by banks raking in extraordinarily handsome profits and handing out generous bonuses amid the high-interest rate environment that ...
WeWork vs Starbucks as workspace in South Korea
In 2019, WeWork’s business model underwent a reality check.Its application for an initial public offering the same year was met with investor s...
Five most common frustrations of Korean entrepreneurs
A South Korean company recently gave up on its plan to venture into the burgeoning robot market.Fair-trade regulations that prohibit the creation of ...
Fewer losers, or more winners?
My memos got their start in October 1990, inspired by an interesting juxtaposition between two events. One was a dinner in Minneapolis with David Van...
K-pop without ‘K’ nurtured to evolve into global mainstream
Bang Si-hyuk, founder and chairman of South Korea’s entertainment powerhouse HYBE Co., has been leading a global girl group audition program in...
Falling on deaf ears: Costco Korea cart pusher's death
Costco Wholesale’s co-founder Jim Sinegal had said South Korea was a “fantastic market,” where it ran its largest store in terms of...
Why do so many S.Korean innovators bow out following success?
Bernard Arnault, chairman and CEO of the global luxury goods leader LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, is well known for sporting a full head of ...
China’s hasty rate cut signals trouble ahead for Asia’s 2023
Add officials at the People’s Bank of China to the list of those disappointed by China’s post-COVID-19 reopening boom. On June 13, PBOC Go...
Optimism and hope for South Koreans
I sometimes receive emails from Koreans asking why I don’t consider some of the more troubling social issues their country faces when I am plan...
Korean won needs economic fundamentals recovery for rebound
The South Korean won is underperforming most other currencies as Asia’s fourth-largest economy is gradually losing steam for long-term growth.T...
US default drama is last thing South Korea needs
At a White House dinner last month, Yoon Suk Yeol turned heads singing Don McLean’s “American Pie.” It was a uniquely lighthearted m...
Align Partners' shareholder activism? Think twice
The three-month saga over the control of the K-pop pioneer SM Entertainment Co. early this year was a painful lesson about activist funds: Don’...
In South Korea, innovation is subject to regulatory approval
In a country like South Korea with few natural resources to run its economy, innovations or brilliant business ideas are crucial to its survival.It i...
Lessons from Silicon Valley Bank
This isn’t going to be another history of the meltdown of Silicon Valley Bank. Dozens of those have appeared in my inbox over the past month,...
South Korea’s MSCI campaign has time problem
It’s that time of year again, when South Korea turns on the charm offensive to impress the gang at MSCI to win developed market status.And Presi...
What’s the next K-sensation after rise of 60-year-old K-ramen?
It was not easy for latecomer Samyang Foods Co. to come up with a recipe for its own instant ramen noodle 60 years ago when Japanese rival Nissin Fo...
Time for South Korea's answer to the US battery subsidy act
The latest guidelines on US subsidies for electric vehicles under the Inflation Reduction Act come as a relief in every sense to South Korean battery...
Jury still out on Korean chipmakers’ tech upgrades in China
When the US Commerce Department announced the guardrail clauses on the CHIPS and Science Act earlier this week, South Korea’s government offici...
US bank failure triggers Asia’s 2008 PTSD
If anyone at South Korea's National Pension Service has been planning a 2023 vacation, it might be time to cancel. The recent collapse of Silicon Vall...
