Business in Busan Still Starts with People

Business in Busan Still Starts with People

I have just returned to Busan after spending two weeks in the Netherlands. I enjoyed being back there, seeing familiar places and people again. But I also noticed something when I returned: it genuinely felt good to be back in Busan.
That probably says something about how my perspective has changed since moving here. Korea is no longer simply a country I work with or visit. Busan has become the place from which I increasingly look at international business, relationships and communication.
Recently, during a conversation about possible international business cooperation, I was asked a very practical question:
How many leads could you generate in Korea every month?
It was a perfectly legitimate business question. If you are considering entering another market, you want to know what somebody on the ground can actually do for you. How many companies can they approach? How many decision-makers do they know? Which events can they attend? How quickly can introductions be made?
Still, the question stayed with me.
Because after living and working in Busan, I have become increasingly convinced that international business development cannot simply be measured by the number of names in a contact list.
Especially not in Korea.
And probably not anywhere else either.

Knowing somebody is not the same as having a relationship

There has never been more information available to a company considering a foreign market.
You can research sectors, competitors and regulations before ever boarding a plane. You can identify hundreds of companies through LinkedIn. Artificial intelligence can produce a first market analysis in minutes. Professional research firms can provide much deeper data, competitor analysis and market-entry studies.
All of that can be useful.
But sooner or later somebody still has to speak to somebody.
And at that point the quality of communication begins to matter more than the quantity of information.
Who should you actually approach? Why would that person be interested in talking to you? How do you explain your proposition without simply translating your existing sales presentation into Korean? When somebody responds politely, does it mean there is genuine interest, or simply that they are being polite? When should you follow up? And when should you stop pushing?
These are not questions that can easily be answered in a spreadsheet.
They require context.

Communication is more than language

When people discuss doing business in Korea, language barriers are often mentioned first.
Of course language matters. My own Korean is still very much a work in progress, and there are many situations in which professional interpretation or translation is essential.
But communication goes much further than language.
You can translate every word correctly and still misunderstand the conversation.
The challenge is often not translating English into Korean. It is understanding intentions, expectations and the context in which people are communicating.
That works both ways.
A foreign entrepreneur may believe he has been very clear and efficient. His Korean counterpart may experience the same communication as too direct or too hurried.
A Korean company may first want to understand who you are, who introduced you and whether there is a reason to invest time in a relationship. The foreign company may meanwhile wonder why nobody is discussing prices yet.
Neither side is necessarily doing anything wrong.
They may simply be starting the conversation from different places.
And Korea itself should not be reduced to a convenient set of cultural rules. Companies differ. Generations differ. Industries differ. People differ. The idea that every Korean businessperson thinks in exactly the same way is no more useful than assuming that somebody from Amsterdam, Milan and Warsaw will approach a negotiation identically because they are all European.
That is precisely why personal communication matters.

Living in Busan changed the way I look at this

Before moving to Korea, I had already spent much of my professional life working internationally, particularly in education. I had visited Korea, worked with Korean contacts and had plenty of experience dealing with organisations across borders.
Living here is different.
Daily life slowly removes some of the abstractions.
Korea stops being a “market” and becomes a place filled with actual people. You notice how organisations communicate. You meet business owners, professionals, government representatives, educators and people working for large corporations. You also begin to see how much happens outside formal meetings.
A coffee can matter.
A dinner can matter.
An introduction by somebody who is trusted can matter.
And sometimes deciding not to make an introduction matters too.
That last point has become increasingly important to me.
If somebody has given me their business card or accepted my LinkedIn invitation, that does not automatically make them a business lead that I can offer to somebody else.
A network is not a commercial database.
Every introduction uses a little of the trust you have built with both sides. Make sensible introductions and that trust grows. Start introducing everybody to everybody and eventually your network becomes less valuable, not more.

And then there is Busan

Another thing I have learned is how strongly international perceptions of Korea remain centred on Seoul.
That makes sense. Seoul is enormous, politically important and home to many corporate headquarters.
But looking only at Seoul gives an incomplete picture of Korean business.
Busan has a very different economic identity.
Its port and maritime industries remain fundamental, of course, but the city’s ambitions now extend far beyond shipping alone. Busan is developing sectors connected to digital technology, future mobility, energy technology, finance, biohealth, advanced industries, tourism and international services alongside its established strengths in ports, logistics and maritime business.
Different parts of the city and the wider region have developed their own economic roles. The New Port and Busan-Jinhae area are closely connected to logistics and industrial development. Centum has become associated with technology, media and digital industries. The Busan International Financial Center has strengthened the city’s position in finance. Other clusters connect universities, research institutes, companies and public organisations.
That creates opportunities for foreign companies from many parts of the world.
Not automatic opportunities. And certainly not a guarantee that somebody with an interesting technology or service will suddenly find customers here.
But there are good reasons to look more carefully.
A European maritime technology company may see possibilities around ports and shipping. An Asian technology company may find partners in digital services. Companies working in energy transition, mobility, financial technology, education, tourism or advanced manufacturing may discover that the Korean opportunity they were looking for is not necessarily located only in Seoul.
The first task is therefore not selling something to Busan.
It is understanding where you might fit.

What networks can — and cannot — do

My own perspective on this is inevitably influenced by the positions I hold.
Through KramerConsult, our corporate membership of the European Chamber of Commerce in Korea and my role as Busan Representative of the Dutch Business Council Korea, I regularly find myself somewhere between international organisations and Korea.
Those positions give me opportunities to meet people.
But they also create a responsibility.
They do not turn those people into sales leads.
I think that distinction is important.
A chamber event can produce a useful introduction, but sometimes its real value is simply hearing what companies are talking about. A conversation with somebody from a completely different industry can change your understanding of the local market. A meeting that produces no immediate business at all may become useful six months later.
This type of networking is difficult to express in monthly KPIs.
But international business has always contained an element that is difficult to measure.
Trust.

What does “local presence” actually mean?

The phrase boots on the ground is used so often in consulting that it has almost lost its meaning.
To me, local presence should mean more than having somebody available to arrange meetings.
It means being able to say to an overseas company:
“I understand what you are trying to achieve. Now let us see whether that makes sense here.”
Sometimes the answer will be yes.
Sometimes the proposition needs to be adapted.
Sometimes the company needs much more research before anyone should start making introductions.
And occasionally the best advice may simply be: Korea is probably not the right market for this.
That may not be an exciting answer from a sales perspective.
It is, however, useful advice.
And consulting should ultimately be useful.

Perhaps we should ask a different question

So I keep returning to that question I was asked:
How many leads can you generate?
I understand why companies ask it.
But perhaps, particularly when entering another country, there is a better question to start with:
Who do we really need to talk to — and why would they want to talk to us?
Answer that first.
Then do the research.
Understand the local environment.
Find the right people.
And only then open the door.
Because in Busan, as elsewhere, opening a door is not particularly difficult.
Being welcomed on the other side is what matters.