Big work day today. Naturally, I slept for all of about 2 hours, but up for breakfast at 7am and ready for the off by 9. The hotel's breakfast lived up to the rest of the standard I'd seen so far: pretty poor. Very basic stuff including own brand cereals, some very, very insipid coffee (no milk) and nothing but scrambled eggs and processed french-fries for the hot food.
Interestingly, nobody seemed to understand what was happening for the first session of the day. It turned out to be a totally separate event run by KIET, something like a Chamber of Commerce. It was packed, literally standing room only. Interesting data about internationalization and about China in particular. Also some nice comments from the Korean Ministry saying that Carrefour is the only company that won't talk to them! Carrefour clearly has a major personality problem and deserves no sympathy whatsoever. The confirmation of these kinds of rumours no matter where I go makes it clear that Carrefour is not looking like a truly capable company for the long run. The appointment of the failed Marks & Spencer man as their new head is equally inspiring of very little confidence.
Korean French food for lunch--skipped the meat, naturally--and then on to the main event of the day. If it wasn't for a handful of students turning up, the session would have been attended by exactly 9 people, so I bit of a disaster to be blunt. The most interesting thing for me was upsetting the one Japanese member of the audience by saying Japan was "modernizing". He took exception to the term, but even greater exception when I suggested 'Westernizing' was more accurate (which of course it is!). He then made his own presentation in which he contrasted Ito-Yokado with "global retailers" as if IY & Aeon aren't global because they're Japanese. Yeah, right pal. It is an interesting comparison with Korea, which welcomes (at least on the surface) the open entry of overseas retailers into its market. Japan still thinks it can beat the world single handedly and is looking to put one over on everyone it deals with. "Japanese distribution is different!" he screams, and I totally concur, but that's missing the point. Yes, store operations and consumer expectations may be different, but the way to make money in retailing is the same in any advanced nation. Of course, once this is pointed out, Aeon and the other 'modern' Japanese retailers are immediately called "exceptions".
Anyway, the afternoon passed, and although a couple more people dropped out, the evening came with a long, slow, multi-course dinner at 'Korea House', a standard tourist destination restaurant used by international and local tourists. Again, meat thoroughly avoided along with any form of alcohol. This was followed by a pretty impressive show of dance & drums and things. Again, the amazing thing from my point of view was the contrast with similar Japanese events. The Korean show was fast and exciting, and the dancers actually smiled! In Japan, the couple of times I've been to similar things, it's been 'strictly traditional' and absolutely no smiling at all. Very boring in fact.
17/03/2005
14/03/2005
In Korea [Day 1]
Arrived in South Korea at about 11am this morning. Not a bad flight, but a bit crowded and the guy sitting next to me was fidget-y and had lots of arms. Watched three movies though, "Shall we Dance", "Bridget Jones the Edge of Reason", and "Cellular". Cellular is a truly 'B' movie, but on that scale, Edge of Reason is hardly an 'F'. Totally awful and Rene Z. just embarrasses the rest of the cast. Useless, but I'll write more on the other blog.
Easy bus into the City Air Terminal in about an hour and a short taxi ride down to the hotel. The first thing that hits you on the bus is the total lack of colour. Everything is grey and beige, with the dormant trees and grass brown from the dry winter here. But the hills are also all sculptured and rounded, and even the little hills of gravel used at building sites are covered with non-descript netting. On the way I think I saw three graveyards, but I might be wrong. They were stepped hills, with little mounds of gravel on them and with small head markers on them. Maybe they were something else, and it is certainly an unpleasant place to rest, right next to the motorway.
Koreans are great. Very friendly, lots of English and welcome to use it. Young people are often carrying large textbooks and seem happy and studious. At the motorway toll-gate, whereas Japan only uses men to collect money, Korea only uses women. The status of women here is clearly very low, although Korean women can be much more aggressive and openly intelligent than Japanese (who are taught from an early age to hide and cover their intelligence), but they're not treated very well. On the other than, you see lots of very romantic looking couples being affectionate to each other, something you still rarely see in Japan.
After checking in and sleeping for a couple of hours, I met RH and had a 'Breakfast Tea Latte'. For the order, the server asked RH his name to which he replied, "David Beckham". The server didn't even bat an eyelid and entered it on the receipt, so RH now has his own David Beckham receipt. After chatting for an hour or so, he went off to meet others and I headed back. The garlic on the train was a bit strong and the guy throwing up in the corner of the crowded carriage didn't help -- but luckily the smell only just began to reach me by the time I got off. Not nice, but there is a tradition of over drinking here.
Right to bed. My presentation is ready, we'll see how we go tomorrow.
Easy bus into the City Air Terminal in about an hour and a short taxi ride down to the hotel. The first thing that hits you on the bus is the total lack of colour. Everything is grey and beige, with the dormant trees and grass brown from the dry winter here. But the hills are also all sculptured and rounded, and even the little hills of gravel used at building sites are covered with non-descript netting. On the way I think I saw three graveyards, but I might be wrong. They were stepped hills, with little mounds of gravel on them and with small head markers on them. Maybe they were something else, and it is certainly an unpleasant place to rest, right next to the motorway.
Koreans are great. Very friendly, lots of English and welcome to use it. Young people are often carrying large textbooks and seem happy and studious. At the motorway toll-gate, whereas Japan only uses men to collect money, Korea only uses women. The status of women here is clearly very low, although Korean women can be much more aggressive and openly intelligent than Japanese (who are taught from an early age to hide and cover their intelligence), but they're not treated very well. On the other than, you see lots of very romantic looking couples being affectionate to each other, something you still rarely see in Japan.
After checking in and sleeping for a couple of hours, I met RH and had a 'Breakfast Tea Latte'. For the order, the server asked RH his name to which he replied, "David Beckham". The server didn't even bat an eyelid and entered it on the receipt, so RH now has his own David Beckham receipt. After chatting for an hour or so, he went off to meet others and I headed back. The garlic on the train was a bit strong and the guy throwing up in the corner of the crowded carriage didn't help -- but luckily the smell only just began to reach me by the time I got off. Not nice, but there is a tradition of over drinking here.
Right to bed. My presentation is ready, we'll see how we go tomorrow.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
