Networking and finding key business associates are crucial ingredients for success anywhere, but it is especially true in East Asia, where your strength is the strength of your relationship with whom you work with. Kevin Kane, Business Development Director at Lux Research in Korea, has found much professional success by starting from the deeper end of the pool in that country: attending graduate school, immersing himself in the Korean culture and language, and learning to read between the lines of an often hierarchical and socially conservative country. In his interview with AsianTalks, Kane opened up about ambition, and his passion for getting things done and making things happen.
AsianTalks: Where are you from, and what brought you to Korea?
I’m originally from the United States. I was born in a small country town in Atco, New Jersey, but later moved to, and grew up in Marietta, Georgia. In 1998, I entered the US military JAG Corps as a legal specialist. During my service, I came to Korea in 2001 during a climax of rocky relations between Korea and the U.S. Korea was a very different Korea than now. In 2005 I left the military and ran for office as a candidate in the Georgia State House of Representatives, traveling, speaking publicly, and running my campaign for office; however, this is not what my family wanted, and so in 2007 we returned to Korea, where I completed a Masters’ degree at Seoul National University.
Continuing on this path of acclimation, after graduation I worked for the Korean government, at the Korean Energy Economics Institute as an oil and energy market analyst followed by then being hired by a Boston-based emerging technology research and consulting firm. In this new capacity, I now engage all of the corporate strategy at the CTO office and R&D teams at large Korean companies.
AsianTalks: What do you do, and how does joining an expat association help you grow your career?
I recommend to anyone in Korea to first immerse yourself in the local culture your first two to three years overseas. If you are Korean, you are not learning anything hanging out with other Koreans overseas, and the same goes for Westerners hanging out with other Westerners in Asia.
AsianTalks: What’s an expat club you really enjoy going to and why?
Linked Seoul‘s Devin Rupert does a very good job of running the organization. Quite a few interesting Korean and foreign people go there on occasion. If you are a careerist looking for professional networking, I recommend going. Sometimes an unsuspecting person will add value to your goals or career.
Because Korea is a hierarchical country, networking can be a very sensitive matter, across teams, ages, and so on. But I’ve found Koreans are very comfortable networking online: across age, title, industry, everything. It’s like an escape from that conservative environment they’re in at work.
I am also observing a major changing trend. Korean people are super-active networking across ages and hierarchy on LinkedIn. In contrast, my colleagues in Japan and China tell me that people there are not as active on LinkedIn and other intentional social networking sites. So, it can be said that Koreans are very, very progressive and internationalized: far more than they give themselves credit for.
AsianTalks: What is a career association that you began in Korea in an online setting that eventually culminated into an offline meeting?
Wanting to build something I enjoyed rather than to fit into someone else’s hierarchy or organizational culture, I co-founded Young Professionals in Energy (YPE) Korea and decided for myself what the culture of our organization will be like.
With YPE formed during my university years, I grew out of the word “Young” in organizations by 2012. And so by early Spring 2012, I went solo and created a group called Emerging Technology Entrepreneurs and Professionals (ETEP) which we manage out of Linkedin. ETEP now possess more than 750 members. We’ve held events featuring speakers.
When it comes to networking groups, if you don’t like what you see, just go make your own. It’s really not that difficult. When you have an idea, jump in and go for it until you can go no further. You have to hustle if you want something done in this life. If you think too much, you will never succeed.
AsianTalks: Do you use translators in your line of work? How important is a good translation?
I do speak Korean reasonably well, but not great; however, it is absolutely not necessary to speak Korean to do business here. Unlike many other Northeast Asian countries, Koreans are very internationalized. For example, most international market research is sold to Koreans only in the English language. Many consultants, foreign multinational executives leading offices here, are not Korean. This adds value to Korean business because in 2012, you cannot claim you have a corporate strategy if it is not international and diverse with different cultural value systems. Ultimately the culture of every company or organization is the responsibility of the leadership for creating. Korean leadership is doing it right so far!
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