Lee Soo-tae
 Panasia Chairman

President of the Busan Ulsan Technology Innovation Association

[CEO Column] A shortcut to overcoming the limits of nationalism /      Lee Soo-tae

Spring is definitely in the air. If it were like any other year the entire country would be alive with festivals and picnickers, but the Republic of Korea has forgotten how to smile, and a gloomy cloud of sorrow was cast across the people.  Korea and the world is aghast at a large scale disaster taking place that was beyond their wildest imagination.  For a person in working in technology management in a nation recognized throughout the world as a shipbuilding powerhouse, I could not have been more shocked, and did not know where to begin to look for fundamental solutions to this disaster.

After the liberation of Korea, both compressed growth and rapid industrialization were achieved. When looking at the 2012 WTO world trade statistics Korea ranked 8th in world trade by trade volume at 1.675 trillion dollars. Jeffrey D. Jones, President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea stated that despite a rather depressed domestic market, using Korean technology, the country is producing and exporting on its own ships, automobiles, semiconductors, and steel, and in shipbuilding and several other categories ranks 1st or 2nd place resulting in the assessment that Korea has already joined the ranks of advanced countries.

The driving force for the country to join the OECD in a short time and become a top 15 economic power in the world was due to the diligence, passion and 'hurry, hurry' culture that accounted for the fast progress. The 'Made in Korea' label was sufficient in guaranteeing technical skills, and created a sense of pride in the sense that this was quite an accomplishment for such a small country. But, while it is good to work with passion in a state of hurry scurry if we obsess about the gains and results that stand before us we become unable to overcome the limitations, and becoming a true advanced nation becomes a lofty goal.

Such inaction, thoughtlessness, and rampant optimism has become a huge obstacle on the path towards becoming an advanced nation. A good example would be the losses of up to $5 billion that Toyota faced in 2009 when it implemented a mass recall due to accelerator pedal failure that resulted in some fatalities. Seen as a typical example of how something that did not work from the beginning caused a large-scale negative effect, which caused a huge blow to be dealt to the brand image of Toyota. In order to block the cost of failure for such business the complacent attitude of 'nothing's perfect' should be replaced with efforts in diligently striving for perfection.  In order to obtain great results one should not cut corners in the small things, but do their very best in order to obtain the chance to take on new challenges.   

Rapid industrialization set the stage for the Sewol disaster

Just as there is 'growth after injury' an advanced consciousness must be created by determining the causes on site

Generally, for a satellite or rocked to be launched into space, requires a minimum space orbit velocity of about 40,000 km (11.2km/s), and the overcoming of such limits is related with advanced technology.   Space orbit cannot be achieved unless such speeds are obtained. Also, the speed of sound is 340m/s, but hypersonic speed that is faster than the speed of sound is described in units of Mach which is about 1200km/h. Recently the Samsung Electronics refrigerator development team came out with a 1000ℓ product that has been garnering a lot attention. If the limits for a human running 100m dash is 9.5 seconds, the limits for a refrigerator is 1000ℓ, but the Samsung Electronics Chef Collection Refrigerator is a good example of succeeding in overcoming limits.

Global Hidden Champion corporations or companies with advanced technology, or that can overcome limits with the best quality have a level of austerity and perfection of '100-1=0' meaning 1% error equals 100% failure. Regardless if the ratio of error stands at only 1% of the total, it results in 100% failure so the little things and the details should not be overlooked. One must be desperate to overcome limits and achieve the best quality.

And with this accident, even though it may seem like a verifiable fact, a tidal wave of faulty practices, formalism, and bureaucracy are things that must disappear from our society.  The moment that instructions are given with the understanding that they will be implemented without any oversight is the moment that the cracks of carelessness begin to form. Just like in the saying 'there is a problem onsite, the answer can be found onsite' the administrator, CEO, and leader should come up close and see with his or her own eyes and take action.  Through the Sewol disaster the faulty practices and bribery that goes on in Korea was exposed and this dealt a big blow to the brand image of Korea.  After becoming aware that an individual's consciousness is formed from the family and society can a new start be made from square one.

Psychology speaks of 'growth after injury' which is a hopeful phenomenon where after a person overcomes a difficult period, one creates a driving forced based on the energy of tolerance amassed during the difficult period.  Let us all take the opportunity of this disaster to have professional ethics, a law-abiding spirit, and when we thoroughly and completely see work through to completion I am convinced that we will have overcome the boundary of advanced consciousness.  It should be clear that clear that when we all have a clear sense of mission and a sense of calling, we can prevent another Sewol disaster from happening, and our companies can develop into advanced companies and our country into an advanced country.