Sound of feet tapping like drums, bodies moving at a very fast pace and bumping into each other. It feels more like a battle feed, but it is not. This is very much how it looks like at the subway station at 8:30 am in Gangnam in Seoul as everyone is rushing to work. People bump into each other but it seems that no one is bothered to apologize; No exchange of smiles or greetings. Everyone is focused and is only keen about getting to their work.
Being fast is very important here. Everything needs to happen at an astonishing speed. I always felt that we are very fast in doing things in Dubai, but I might have to change that statement. It is part of the Korean culture, everything needs to be “Palli, Palli”, or as we say back home “Jaldi, Jaldi.”
I see this every morning from my apartment’s window. Buildings rise at an amazing speed. Contractors start their work as early as 6:00 am even in weather conditions of -15 degrees Celsius. I see them work on weekends and public holidays. Its all about getting the job done at the fastest speed possible. Add the quality isn’t that bad at all. I have seen the same with interior projects. An interior project that would take 3 months back home would probably be done in less than three weeks. No wonder why South Korea is the world’s largest ship building nation.
Well speed has to definitely do it all. How fast you get to opportunities and how fast you convert them into business. But this success is far beyond speed. Its more about persistence. Wanting to achieve your goal, at any cost.
While the business environment on the surface might seem to have adopted a western approach to management, there is definitely an underlying unique (Korean) culture that drive business in this fashion. Many including Koreans themselves might see this as a very hectic lifestyle, were you have to work extra hard, very fast, and get things done no matter what the circumstances are, but this, in my opinion, is probably why Korea is where it is today.