Introduction
In the afternoon of one warm Sunday, while I was looking at my Korean-style lunch “Bulgogi” served by the owner of a Korean restaurant at Porter Square, the food reminded me about my wonderful trip in South Korea 3 weeks ago. During a week spent in South Korea, I enjoyed having various kinds of delicious Korean traditional food such as Bimbimbab (Veggies mixed rice with hot pepper sauce), Tang-soo-euk (Sweet-and-sour chicken), Sam-get-tang (a whole chicken soup with rice inside), and so on. Furthermore, I also had a chance to learn how to cook some Korean traditional cuisine (such as Kimchi, Bibimbab, and Bulgogi) taught by famous chefs at Sook-Myung University, the nation’s first private women’s university under the royal patronage.
“So what?” some of you might ask me this question or “how the delicious food can be linked with the successful business?” Be patient with me for a moment. Since I myself have never cooked before (except instant noodle, or putting some stuff in to a microwave, if those can be considered cooking), I had no idea how difficult it was to prepare, cook and serve a palatable dish. After having the cooking lesson, I realized how hard it is. (I was grateful to my wife who always prepares delicious dishes for me). In order to cook a delicious dish, not only correct recipe is needed, but also fresh-and-clean ingredients and a skillful chef are required. This finding motivated me to rethink again about the success of South Korea. Of course, I was impressed by the fast growth of economy of this country over the last 30 years. However, I did not pay attention much what factors made the gigantic success happen.
Therefore, the objective of this paper is to describe about (what I believe to be) the factors (ingredients) of success of South Korea
Six ingredients
First of all, let me introduce 6 ingredients I believe that played as important roles of changing the nation once used to be one of the Asia’s poorest to become one of the world’s wealthiest nations.
1. Korean War and Difficulties
2. Gen. Park Chung-Hee (Who had ruled over South Korea more than 10 years)
3. Confucianism
4. The competition between South Korea and Japan
5. The close relationship between Korea and the U.S.
6. An effective education system
Let’s begin cooking
I still remember a fun story my friend told me about a man who has been trying to find out the best recipe to make the most delicious instant noodle (sound crazy, doesn’t it?). He used to eat instant noodle prepared by his senior while they both served in the Army together. He felt that the taste of that bowl of noodle was so fantastic that he wanted to eat it again and again. Unfortunately, for some reasons, he had no chance to ask for the secret recipe from the senior. And the senior had quit from the Army and they did not meet again. After his service in the Army, he had been trying to make and taste instant noodle for many years but still could not find the recipe that can be compared with the noodle prepared by his senior. Hopeless, he one day ran into his senior. He felt so excited and asked his senior to prepare the noodle for him again because he wanted to learn how to cook from the senior. Even surprised, the senior cooked a bowl of instant noodle for him. The man surprisingly found that the senior’s recipe was very typical and exact the same as his. Furthermore, the taste of the noodle was not as delicious as the one he used to have many years ago. The man told the senior about his story and asked the senior to try to figure out what recipe the senior used to prepare the instant noodle for him. Two men were apart. One week later the man got a letter with a pack of instant noodle from his senior writing “ Now I remember the day I prepared the instant noodle that you believe it is the most delicious one. There was no such a secret recipe. But I remember that on that day you and your friends had very hard practice for the whole morning without any rest. I guess that the secret is you have to eat it when you are very hungry!!”
Ingredient I: War and difficulties
Even though the story above seems a bit of unrealistic, it still gives us a lesson that in order to be successful, the deep desire or the hunger for success is the most important. Ruled under Japanese empire for a long time (about 35 years) and getting through a lot of difficulties after the World War II and the Korea War, South Korea’s people were really hungry for better lives and better future. They all had the same clear picture how terrible it was to live in such a poor country. Consequently, people realized that they all needed to work hard. Korean realized that the difficulties from work could not be compared with their difficulties from the wars. Moreover, they knew that the development of the nation was not a one-man show. They needed cooperation among people in the nation. It was the only way and only hope to change the terrible situation. They all realized the fact that they would survive all or otherwise die all. And this was the first important ingredient.
Ingredient II: General Park Chung-He
Although Korean people had realized how important it was to help one another to rebuild the nation, without an effective leader, this task could have not been accomplished. In my opinion, the second ingredient of Korea’s success was Park Chung-Hee, who had been ruling over South Korea as the president from 1961-1979. Under his dictatorship, South Korea had a very high growth rate of economy. What President Park had achieved included export-oriented industrialization and import substitution policy under which various heavy industries were developed and supported by the government. He also fought against corruption (though a lot of people blamed him for his brutality) and tried every means to boost up the growth of Korea’s economy. For instance, despite disapproval from a lot of Korean people who considered Japanese as enemies, he accepted capital inflow from Japan in order to inject it to the economy. In my perspective, I do not agree with the dictatorship. However, I must accept that during the crisis like what South Korea faced with at that time, having a decisive leader who would make the whole nation move forward was apparently an important ingredient of success. This ingredient, President Park, also came into the picture at the right moment. At that time, Korea needed to start walking and running from scratch, therefore needed such a leader. However, he would have not benefited to South Korea, if at that time South Korea already had had strong economy, which would be better supported under democracy
Ingredient III: Confucianism
Confucianism has been embedded in Korean’s people, generation to generation. It is a part of their lives. Confucianism helps every Korean know which role they are supposed to play and how to treat other people in society. One concept that I believe played an important factor resulting in South Korea’s success is the concept of seniority. Each Korean pays high attention to seniority. If you, a foreigner, have a group of Korean friends, you might not know who is older than others. If you ask your Korean friends, however, each can tell you who is older than whom. Many years ago, when I lived in South Korea in 2001-2003, the first question (besides my name and my birthplace) my Korean friend asked about myself was which year I was born. They asked me because they wanted to know how we should treat each other.
In my view, this characteristic helped South Korea to achieve economic reform easier. Since during the reform you would need the whole nation see the same thing, do the same way (i.e., it was not under a brainstorming process which required innovative ideas, but it was under the executing process), having each one respected to his/her seniors or her bosses and obey the policies given from the top would be very helpful (i.e., more effective top-down management was required during the crisis). Thus, Confucianism was the third important ingredient.
Ingredient IV: The competition between South Korea and Japan
Over 30 years ruled by Japanese, South Korean people, especially the generation born during that period, treated Japanese as their nemeses. After the World War II, Japan had redeveloped itself from scratch and became far wealthier than South Korea during 60s and 70s. As a result, Korean people who could lose to anyone but Japanese, had tried hard to catch up Japan in every industry. For instance, in electronics industry, Korean’s Samsung and LG were catching up Japanese’s Sony and Panasonic. In shipbuilding industry once dominated by Japanese firms, currently Korean’s Hyundai Heavy Industry have surpassed those firms to be the number one in the world, contributing more than 50% of annual ships built. In automobile industry, Hyundai Motor has been trying their best to reduce its gap between Hyundai and the Japanese cars such as Toyota, Honda or Nissan.
I was once told that if I want to dramatically improve my Scrabble skill or chess skill, I should have a friend (or an opponent) with whom I could compete. And if both my friend and I take the competition seriously, both of us will improve much beyond we expect. By setting Japan as a goal to defeat, South Korea has tremendously improved their competency and knowledge in a fast track. And this competition was considered the fourth ingredient of Korea’s success.
Ingredient V: The close relationship between South Korea and the U.S.
The U.S. not only helped South Korea out from North Korea in the Korean War, but it also helped South Korea to rebuild the nation. Financially, the U.S. provided South Korea with capital inflows to get through economic reform. The U.S. market was also the big export market for South Korea. Furthermore, American missionaries had come to help Korean to have better sanitation and education system, founding many schools and hospitals, teaching various kinds of knowledge to South Korea. (e.g. Ford Motors also once helped Hyundai Motor to develop a prototype). Eventually, by the help of the U.S., South Korea has surpassed North Korea in term of wealth and became one of the wealthiest nations. (Compared with North Korea who was a partner with the U.S.S.R. and failed to prosper despite the fact that North Korea used to be wealthier than the South after the Korean War). Thus, the relationship between South Korea and the U.S. were the fifth necessary ingredient. (Author: Perhaps, that is why Kimchi burger is sold like a hot cake in South Korea, implying Korean+ American =>success; Kimchi+ Burger => delicious)
Ingredient VI: An effective education system
I have discussed about 5 ingredients so far: Desire to be successful (War and difficulties), an effective leader, the concept helping everyone know his/her role (Confucianism), competition, and the help of the U.S.. All of the above ingredients were essential. However, the success would have not happened if Korea had not had the last ingredient, an effective education system. The education system was crucial. It was used as a mediator to pass on to the new generation (1) the passion of old generation, (2) the concepts of life and (3) the valuable knowledge and experience gaining in expense of the sweat and blood of the old generation. And South Korea did a great job in building a very high standard education system.
Believe it or not: South Korea’s literacy rate is 100%. Thanks to King Se-Jong who has invented Korean alphabets, which are easy to learn and remember (There are only 14 consonants and 10 vowels in Korean language or called ‘Hangeul’).
Korean people pay very high attention on education. High School students have to intensely compete to one another to get into the top universities. During 4 years in universities, they have to get a good grades, get high score of TOEIC test (English Test), and good recommendations from their professors in order to have a good odds to get into famous companies like Samsung, Hyundai, LG, SK Telecom and so on. They believe good education can guarantee good life. Furthermore, Korean people also prefer to send their sons/daughters to have some experience in abroad, especially in the U.S. (Do you know how many Korean at MIT Sloan?), giving them opportunities to learn different cultures, useful knowledge and bring them back to develop the nation further. Therefore, in my point of view, the sixth ingredient was Korea’s high standard education system.
Epilogue
I have just finished my last piece of delicious Bulgogi and still felt that I missed something to be included in my report. While pondering, I began to eat the rest of sticky rice and Kimchi in my plate. “…Kimchi…Kimchi…yes, Kimchi!!, Eureka!!,” I shouted loudly in my mind. The last ingredient that I missed was ‘the nationalism.” Korean people are proud to be called Korean and they have collective sense of ownership of the nation. Just as Korean cuisine cannot miss Kimchi, Korean success could not have occurred without Korean’s pride of their nation.
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