Seoul Man: A Memoir of Cars, Culture, Crisis, and Unexpected Hilarity Inside a Korean Corporate Titan
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.28 (732 Votes) |
| Asin | : | B01JT66DBU |
| Format Type | : | |
| Number of Pages | : | 256 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2014-07-26 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Following his new bride to her first appointment in Seoul, South Korea, Frank traded the newsroom for a corporate suite, becoming director of global communications at Hyundai Motors. Eventually he became a vice president - the highest-ranking non-Korean in the history of Hyundai - but at an untenable price. When Frank Ahrens, a middle-aged bachelor and 18-year veteran at the Washington Post, fell in love with a diplomat, his life changed dramatically. Filled with unique insights and told in his engaging, humorous voice, Seoul Man sheds light on a culture few Westerners know and is a delightfully funny and heartwarming adventure for anyone who has ever felt like a fish out of water - all of us.. For the next three years, Frank traveled to auto shows and press conferences around the world, pitching Hyundai to former colleagues while trying to navigate cultural differences at home and at work. While his appreciation for absurdity enabled him to laugh his way through many awkward encounters, his job began to take a toll on his marriage and family. In a land whose population is 97 percent Korean, he was one of fewer than 10 non-Koreans in a company of 5,000 employees. Recounting his three years in Korea, the highest-ranking non-Korean executive at Hyundai sheds light on a business culture very few We
Entertaining insights into Korean business culture and car marketing This is a readable, informative and entertaining volume that heads down several paths: the culture and history of Korea; fascinating material about the auto industry; making the leap from journalism to marketing; the mechanics of making a new marriage work; making sometimes hard decisions within the author's Christian faith. It all works. I bought the book. "Indespensible Guide to Working in S Korea" according to B. Crosby. What would happen if you had a Washington Post reporter embed in a huge S Korean Chaebol? (Chaebol being a government sanctioned and subsidized industrial oligopoly). While Ahrens was actually hired, this could well be a series of Washington Post articles, each chapter being an article. The only drawback is Ahrens' digressions into Christianity and the bir. Great book, did an amazing job for only having been there three years S. S. I think Frank Ahrens is a great writer and I would happily buy another book he wrote if he does so in the future. His book is entertaining, satisfying, and a wonderful personal memoir. His insights do not go so very deep. You can tell that by how little he writes about any relationships he had with any Koreans there. I don't fault him for this too much tho