A totally sophisticated environment

Korea is not generally thought of as an ideal tourist destination. When I told my friends I was off on a trip to Seoul they looked puzzled and had no idea what I might be letting myself in for. I knew from a previous visit that I would be in for a treat.
Korea is dynamic, with an explosive economic growth rate and almost limitless ambitions. It's exciting, and years in advance of so much in Europe. I looked down from my friend's 35-storey apartment to see the school-children off in crocodiles in their immaculate uniforms. Parents here spend up to a quarter of household income on their children's education. I strolled along tree-lined boulevards serving coffee and croissants to board the metro - for the 80p flat fare. Sitting on the spotless suburban train into town I saw fellow commuters watching TV programmes on their mobile phones. Down-town it might have been Manhattan, but without potholes, without litter, without pushing and rudeness and without vagrants. The people on the sidewalks were elegant, meticulously groomed and immaculately dressed. If there is a "dress-down Friday" policy in Korea then you wouldn't know.
I went to the International Art Fair, and decided that this offered some interesting insights into the people and the culture. This picture by local artist Dool You shows a stereo-typical teenage schoolgirl surrounded by scowling corporate business men who are portrayed as rabbits. Her comment is "Why so seious?" The visitor to Seoul will soon appreciate that in Korea as anywhere else around the world, the youth have their own perspective on life.
The attitude to corporate existence is captured in this photo-montage by Tomoko Sawada, which is more a wry comment on corporate institutions than any suggestion of sarcasm or harsh criticism. There's a gentle wit that cloaks the underlying awareness of the gradual need for change.
I was in Seoul for meetings with my agent and publisher. Korea was the first country to take up the Tork & Grunt series, and, like their enthusiasm for educating their children, their appetite for business education is voracious. Samsung even has its own English-language business seminar site, www.seriworld.org where issues of national, regional and global interest are discussed by leading thinkers from around the world. What has been fascinating is to find that the one business issue that I heard about time and again during my visit is the need for improved "communication." With the changing nature of society and the rigid hieararchy of the traditional management structure, communication is a challenge, which is, perhaps, why the concept of Tork & Grunt was welcomed positively. What's more, it's an opportunity that is quite simply - huge.
The scale of life in Korea has to be seen to be believed. To give you a glimpse into the size of their ambitions, take the example of the housing programme. Korea is building 10 million new homes, to be completed by 2015. New cities are being created in open country. It's mind-boggling and inspirational. I love the energy, the focus, the ethical values and the cool determination of the young people. It's a great place to be right now, a great place to be published and to plan new workshops and seminars.

Lipstick on a Pig

It isn't a very attractive vision that springs to mind when the phrase "lipstick on a pig" is used. While it is generally applied to policies rather than people, there is uproar if the policy has come from a female, rather than a male protagonist, so that the "lipstick" remark appears to be directed at her, rather than at the policies. And when a male politician slips the lipstick phrase into a major speech, he shouldn't be surprised if the media scent blood. You'd hope (in vain) that reporting political speeches would be about policies not personalities, but sadly it's more about the opportunity for sensationalism and controversy.
It all started with John McCain using the phrase to describe Hillary Clinton's health-care plan, and then when Barack Obama used the same phrase to describe the Republicans' attempts to repackage themselves the Democratic presidential candidate was immediately accused of sexism.
In the greater scheme of things, it's pathetic; as if there weren't more important things to discuss. It's made all the more pathetic when you reflect that neither candidate was talking about the opposing vice-presidential candidate but, in both cases, about their policies. One suspects that if they'd used the English expression and accused the other side of trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, then the National Association of Handbag Manufacturers would have been up in arms.
So, if you've got to make a speech, what do you do? Do you avoid anything that might so much as brush against the sensitive toes of the other party's feet, or do you let them have both barrels in the belief that all publicity is good publicity?
Well, first, get your story straight - because you can be sure that someone will be looking for a totally different angle from the one that's in your mind. Secondly, practice your sound-bites, make sure you can encapsulate what you want to say in one sentence. Thirdly, have a colleague rehearse all the difficult questions with you in advance, so that you've worked out your responses. Finally, to keep the Cockney porcine metaphor - keep off the pork pies. If you really have screwed up, come clean, because if you don't you'll get found out eventually, and that's something the press, the other side and the public at large will never forgive you for.

Identity Crisis

People in an organisation see themselves in different ways. Some identify totally with the organisation, feel part of it and believe that they are totally involved with its values and beliefs. Others think differently; to them it's just a job, a way to pay the bills and have the money coming in so they can support their home, family and lifestyle.
Traditionally there are some types of work where we expect people to be totally involved: teachers, doctors, religious leaders. In fact we'd be mortified if we faced a doctor who didn't take an interest in our health or a teacher who didn't really care about our children's level of achievement, and as for the idea of a priest who didn't believe in his calling... well, it doesn't bear thinking about, does it?
My first job was with a company that prided itself in its family atmosphere. The factory had its own village and social club making a complete self-contained community. Every morning we walked across the estate as first the factory hooter sounded and then the company advertising jingle blared out from dozens of loudspeakers across the campus. It was Orwellian or Huxleyan - shades of "1984" or "Brave New World," and it was a huge culture shock for a newly graduated young man coming to rural France from Swinging London.
These days very few companies in the Western world would attempt to engender this sort of corporate identity though the style is still very much in vogue in much of Asia-Pacific. The opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics was breath-taking and awe-inspiring, but were we really watching REAL people? Are these people still individuals or is this a society where individuality is sacrificed to the greater good of the larger number. I'm not going to deny that I was impressed, but when my mind wandered to the idea of what we might do in London in 2012, I have to confess that the very idea of a crowd of 2,000+ people all perfectly synchronised filled me with images of Hitler's mass rallies in Nuremberg rather than happy crowds in East London. At its heart, identity means a common culture, which means common values and common behaviours. But just as believers don't have to be evangelical to be true to themselves, so employees don't have to whistle the company song as they walk to work.
So - what's the secret of corporate identity? It's the same as most aspects of an efficient and effective organisation: it starts with the people at grass roots, not with the hierarchy who are removed from the everyday operation. Companies are their people, and unless identity grows from the bottom up, there will always be a barrier to anything that's coming from the top down.