CEO Slawinski describes swift customer service as distinguishing characteristic of Korean management system


If Austrian IT firm executive Wolfgang Slawinski were to make an educated guess about the future state of the markets in Asia, he would put his money on South Korea.

“In many ways, Korea is already a global leader. But (right now) it’s not so visible outside of (the country),” Slawinski, a vice president for the European Union Chamber of Commerce in Korea, said in a recent interview with The Korea Herald in Seoul.

While conglomerates such as Samsung, Hyundai Motor and LG are gaining traction as their products spread across the globe, the 55-year-old CEO of Frequentis ATM Communication Inc. says Japan is still more visible internationally, in part because they started marketing their products earlier than Korea.

So the current target for Korean companies should be to become more conspicuous, in line with their Japanese counterparts, he said.

But Slawinski expects the tide to turn in Korea’s favor in the not-so-distant future, due to what he sees as an unfortunate, fatal flaw in the Japanese approach.

“Japanese companies’ handicap is focusing on tradition. It’s fine to keep tradition from the cultural point of view, but company-wise, it’s good when you’re moving. And Korea is moving,” he said.

And it’s moving on several fronts, according to Slawinski, who first came to Korea in the late 1990s for a business trip and eventually settled more or less permanently in Seoul. One is an increase and a willingness to recruit foreigners to work at Korean companies.

“So Korean companies are recruiting foreigners to change and get the benefits from the European side and (are also) combining these benefits with the Korean management system,” he said.

According to Slawinski, one of the distinguishing characteristics of the Korean management system is its focus on immediate customer service.

“If your washing machine is broken, in Korea, you can call the service center at 10 a.m., and by 3 p.m., the service guy has fixed it. If you have the same situation in Austria, they’ll say the earliest time [to fix it] is Tuesday of next week,” he said. 

The approach is also different, Slawinski said.

In Korea, for example, companies focus on short-term or daily schedules when dealing with customers, he said.

In the washing machine scenario, a Korean office coordinator usually calls or sends an SMS message to all the technicians in the area after receiving a work order from a disgruntled customer. The service work is usually completed on the same day, Slawinski said.

But in his native Europe, the office coordinator makes plans on a weekly, not day-to-day, basis. After finalizing the weekly schedule, the European office coordinator then distributes the master plan to all the technicians, according to Slawinski.

This slightly longer-term focus results in a response lag that would frustrate Koreans, but both sides have a lot to gain by learning from each other, he said.

“Europe can teach Korea about planning and structuring, and Korea can teach Europe about dynamism,” Slawinski said.

Korea’s dynamism and willingness to embrace change is part of its attraction for Europeans. In Europe, change is still viewed in less favorable terms, he said.

“Europe is still conservative and (unfortunately) limits itself,” Slawinski said, citing examples such as strong governmental regulations regarding business.

So combining the best qualities from these two different systems will help Korean companies as well as their European counterparts survive in the long run, according to the Austrian business executive.

Integration is a guiding principle of Slawinski’s company, and also the simplest explanation for what it does.

As the Korean branch of the multinational Austrian firm Frequentis, his division has been specializing in what he calls “special communication” since 1997.

These services basically take lots of different devices, such as walkie talkies and cell phones, and make them “talk” to each other. The goal is to get one centralized, secure line of communication between separate networks such as aircraft and control towers.

Korea is great because it can supply the most modern hardware and components, such as memory chips, processors and displays to send back to Austria, Slawinski said.

It also has a demonstrated need for these special communication services, according to Slawinski.

He said other Asian markets such as China and Japan can’t satisfy both these needs.

“China is still looking for the cheapest product, so it’s cheap but not reliable. You can’t put the most modern technology into cheap components,” Slawinski said.

The Japanese market, on the other hand, has a completely different problem.

“Japan has a very small market for special communication. Japanese self-defense forces, (for example,) still use their own technology, which was originally developed in the 1960s and 1970s,” he said.

In the near future, Slawinski said he is looking most forward to 2014, when he can finally start voting in Korean municipal elections. He is one of the seven European businessmen who received a permanent residency visa from the Korean government last May.

“Foreigners coming to Korea either love Korea or they don’t like it at all. Plus, minus, yes, no,” he said.

But for now, Korea remains the apple of his eye.

By Renee Park (renee@heraldcorp.com)