Why Has My South Korean Customer Suddenly Made Everything Urgent?

You have been discussing a project with a South Korean customer for several weeks.

Progress has seemed steady, perhaps even a little slow. Questions have gone backwards and forwards. You are waiting for decisions or confirmation on a few important points.

Then suddenly everything changes.

Can you revise the quotation today? Can you confirm delivery by tomorrow? Can you provide the additional technical information immediately? Something that appeared to have no particular urgency has suddenly become extremely urgent.

For overseas suppliers and colleagues, this can be frustrating. The obvious reaction is often: If this was so urgent, why didn't we know about it earlier?

It can look like poor planning. Sometimes, of course, it may be. But there can also be other things happening inside the Korean organisation that you simply haven't seen.

What happened behind the scenes?

South Korean companies can be strongly hierarchical. Decisions may need approval from senior people, and employees may be reluctant to move ahead before that approval has been given.

From outside the organisation, very little may appear to be happening. Internally, however, discussions may be taking place, different departments may be involved and the issue may be moving through several levels of management.

Then a senior person makes a decision. At that point, the pace can change dramatically.

South Korea is also frequently associated with the idea of ppalli-ppalli, literally “quickly, quickly”. It reflects a wider preference for speed and getting things done that can be very noticeable in Korean business.

The result can seem contradictory to someone accustomed to a different way of working.

You may wait days for a decision and then be expected to respond within hours once that decision has been made.

Why this causes problems internationally

The Korean customer may see the request as a perfectly normal response to a decision that has now been taken. The overseas supplier sees something different.

They may need to reorganise production, obtain information from colleagues, change logistics arrangements or get internal approval of their own. What is urgent for the Korean customer isn't automatically possible for everyone else.

This is where frustration can quickly develop on both sides.

The Korean customer may feel that their overseas partner is being slow or unresponsive. The overseas partner may feel that the Korean customer is disorganised or has unrealistic expectations.

Neither interpretation necessarily reflects what is actually happening.

What can you do?

If you regularly work with South Korean customers or colleagues, recognising this possibility allows you to manage it rather than simply react to it.

Try to understand where a discussion is in the internal decision-making process. A lack of a final answer does not necessarily mean that nothing is happening

Look ahead as well. If you can see that a decision may create an urgent requirement, start considering what you would need to do before the formal request arrives.

It can also be important to explain your own constraints clearly. If something genuinely requires five working days, don't simply say that tomorrow is impossible. Explain what needs to happen and what you can realistically provide tomorrow.

And when an urgent request does arrive, consider what might have changed before assuming that somebody has simply failed to plan.

Different ways of working

None of this means that every South Korean company works in the same way, or that every last-minute request can be explained by culture. Companies, industries and individuals differ considerably.

But when the same frustrations occur repeatedly in an international business relationship, it is worth looking beyond the immediate problem.

Sometimes the difficulty isn't the request itself. It is that the two organisations have very different expectations about how decisions are made, when information is shared and how quickly people should respond once a decision has been taken.

Understanding those differences can make the relationship considerably easier to manage.

For more on South Korea business culture, visit our South Korea Page

Mark Mortimer is the founder of Timezone Business, with over 30 years of experience working in international business across China, Japan, Germany, India, the UK, and the US.