LONDON — It’s been hard not to think about Korea this week.  But I have different things on my mind.  Not the loss of a dictator.  Not the worry that still has South Korean’s practicing evacuations like WWII Britain and Cold War America.

I am thinking about Korea’s fertile business culture and the country’s uncanny ability to reinvent itself, rebuild and refocus just in time for tremendous success.

See if you can read this bit without stopping in your tracks:

• in 1961 South Korea ranked 117th in the world for arable land per capita (behind Saudi Arabia and Somalia)
• in the last 50 years Korea’s per-capita GDP has grown at 23,000 percent
• today the tiny country (smaller than Iceland) has the world’s 12th largest economy by purchasing power
• unemployment is 3.2 percent
• one of the world’s lowest rates of public debt
• 80% of the 49 million people live in urban areas
• Koreans are four times as likely to have high-speed internet access as Americans and they pay very little for it

A series of seemingly prescient government decisions have constantly shoved the economy in the right direction.  Even through the tough economic times in the late 90s and mid 2000s the countries has seemed to make the right choices.

Today they are pushing — against their own traditions — for more entrepreneurship.  And I wouldn’t bet against them.

In fact, I’d like to be there now. If the chaebols’ would give us a call? Samsung, LG, SK… we’d like a word.

/df

LONDON — We’re crashing into Christmas. Like everyone else.  Lurking in shop doorways on Dec 24th and thinking “I said I’d never do this again.”

It’s been an odd and uncomfortable week amongst men in the UK though.  The dominant pagan religion of football has seen people talking about “goodwill toward men”, but in reverse.

What qualifies as “lacking goodwill” and what is “just part of a highly emotional, competitive game”?

The answers aren’t making anyone happy.  Teams and players who have been found to have been racially abusing people have been met with police investigations and eight game suspensions.  If you haven’t read about it, I wouldn’t recommend it.

The coverage and fan comments does no one proud.

And ill-prepared TV pundits have weighed in about how much they like ‘coloured people’.  It’s just hard to watch.

None of the people involved have a history of covering themselves in glory.

So it comes back to a question of what we will tolerate in our society and what we won’t.  And although I have heard lots of people say “it’s much better than it was 20 years ago” and “it’s just a bit of fun… you get used to it”, you don’t and you shouldn’t.

In the next few days football fans and football players, reporters, columnists, politicians and you and I have a chance to show some goodwill toward men.  Let’s do it.

Peace on earth in 2012.

I’m in.

/df

MY HOUSE — I am off for Christmas.  Great place to be.  Catching up on sleep.  Meeting my kids again.  Fighting a cold.

And still word comes this weekend that a great character from my childhood has passed away.

The Rev James Leo was the Dean of the American Cathedral in Paris when I was a teenager.  His son Jason was a great mate.  Jason and I went to French high school together, went skiing, and got in trouble.

People talk blithely in business about great leaders and use examples that people want to identify with.  And most often they’ve nothing to do with business.  He was one of those guys.  Business’ loss, but the world’s gain.

Although I remember the 70s and 80s well, they do seem like a distant country now.  And people like Dean Leo lived lives that seem braver and more worthy than ours.  He was a lovely, fun and funny man.  His book of memoires can show you that.  But he was also a tough guy who looked out for others more than most of us would ever dream of.

He was one of a great cast of characters that my own lovely dad managed to associate with.  And just as my dad interviewed kings and tyrants, Jim Leo hosted Presidents, famously gave the last rites to Wallis Simpson and sat patiently while Olivia de Havilland read the lesson.  He spoke in a way that was funny, intelligent and engaging.  A way I have always wanted to speak.

A strength of character and humility shone through.

His Cathedral was an open and inviting place. “That one’s a spy…” my dad would say, as another ‘commercial attaché’ wandered around the coffee room.  And the Dean presided firmly over it all.  Pedro the caretaker never let us get into the communion wine, but when Paris offered us its own poisons the Dean would come out and get us, wedging my head in the electric window so I didn’t spoil his upholstery.

Thank you Jim Leo.  I will miss you.  And the world will be a lesser place without you.

/df

HYDE PARK CORNER — I had a run of texts from a politically obsessed British friend last week. “Have you heard the latest joke about Chris Christie?”

I hadn’t. In fact I hadn’t even heard of Chris Christie.  I was still catching up on the impossible rise and fall of Rick Perry (who I also hadn’t heard of a few months ago.)

So, yes, we’re talking about the US Presidential race.  And Mr Christie, as I have just started to find out, is the current Governor of New Jersey.  Furthermore, it seems that for a few hours last week he was also going to be “the next President of the United States.”

It’s not hard to see why he backed away, even after backing away before.

In many respects you could argue that business is much more forgiving than politics.  Corporate leaders don’t have to submit themselves and their families to the kind of attention and ridicule that politicians do.

However, on the other hand, leaders in business have to appeal to more demographics than politicians.  They have to be leaders of divisions, countries, hierarchies and Boards. 

Being religious might be a requirement for the US Presidency.  But it’s a detriment to a business career.  Leaders of industry need to be able to appeal to people of every background, so long as they can hold a job.

Similarly Presidential candidates have to submit to comments and sniping about everything from their weight to their daughters.  While business leaders may be able to keep their peccadilloes hidden, they also don’t have staff at their disposal to burnish their image.

As Chris Christie found out, leadership comes with it’s challenges that have little to do with the job.

Some days you have to wonder, who’d want to do it?

/df

SURREY (I think) — I know I still speak with a nasal, uncouth sounding accent.  I know I will never pass too easily for Bob Hoskins or Anthony Hopkins.  But I am increasingly growing into my second citizenship.  I have a fondness for pastel coloured trousers.  And curry.

An article on Britain in a recent Sunday Times brought me to tears.  Am I allowed to say that?  I think I am.  I wish you could read it, but it’s behind Mr Murdoch’s paywall and I don’t want you giving him any more cash. (Wo-ho maybe you can see it.  On my machine it is here.)

However, what it says is that:
- we have a political system that works
- an open, fair and increasingly multi-cultural society
- an interest in knowledge over ideology
- a dynamic and interesting set of traditions
- and so on

All good.

Does it sound smug to say all that?  Do you worry that I’ll go all soft and start singing?

Well that’s the bit that increasingly feels more and more comfortable.  It’s a lack of cod-nationalism.  No jingoism.  It’s almost guile-less

Two weeks ago when a Briton won the Formula 1 race in Germany — beating a reigning German champion – he did the strangest things…

Guess what he did?

…600 years of historic antipathy between the countries…

And he complained that the British anthem wasn’t long enough to really enjoy the moment.  And so a quiet debate ensued.

I like that.

Good communications doesn’t draw attention to itself.  It isn’t brash or boastful.  It just does what it needs to do.

And sometimes has a good time doing it.

/df

SW LONDON — “Is that what the kids are calling it these days?”

That used to be my stock answer to things I didn’t understand. I thought of it as a knowing wink to the way that old people talk. But as my own age has been rising faster recently than East Coast temperatures, it has become less funny and more fact.

And there’s an issue with people in business staying relevant.  I take that bit seriously.  And there’s almost nothing that isn’t relevant.

So this week I set out to work my way entirely through my children’s Harry Potter film collection.  There are 7… plus one in the theatre.  If I can get through them all then I’ll go see number 7.5 in the cinema.

Why?

I’ve never been good at science fiction.  I couldn’t read JRR Tolkien or even CS Lewis.  I wish I could have, but no.

However, in Britain, H. Potter is not only a major export, it has employed all our great actors, boosted boarding school enrolments and driven tourists to run into walls at train stations.

That’s something that cannot be ignored.

Problem is I am three nights in and not yet finished Harry Potter 1.

It could be a long week.

/df

FITZROVIA – Batman Syndrome* is when you have achieved all sorts of fame and fortune, and regular life holds no challenges, so you start to do anti-social, dangerous things.

In the case of Bruce Wayne it’s putting you knickers outside you tights and fighting crime.

In the cases of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Dominique Strauss-Kahn it’s something else.

I don’t know if this is a real syndrome. I haven’t done the socio-psycho research to prove it. But it certainly helps explain a lot.

Both the head of the IMF and the former Governor of California had form.  They were known to have gotten into trouble before.  But they escaped censure. So it escalated.

And the point of interest for us mortals is to look out for when it might start to exhibit itself in the work place.

I can see, for example, shades of it what I call “first time as a Prefect” management style. This is when people get drunk on their new found responsibilities and start using their power in weird and unhelpful ways.

In the case of these two major political figures that’s quite an understatement.

Calling people on their bad behaviour has been a feature of politics forever.

It is starting to happen with journalists and CEOs too.

But it’s not yet common in most offices and workplaces.

Don’t think it’s not coming though.

The cape and tights didn’t help DSK and Arnie.  They shouldn’t help people in business either.

/df

* Not to be confused with this Batman Syndrome which is described as the inability to move one’s head without moving your whole torso.  Although…

CROMWELL ROAD — There was a little girl with her dad on the bus today.  She cried the whole trip.

“I don’t like the teachers…!  I don’t want to go…!  I want my MOMMY…!!” 

That kind of crying that is so deep and, after a while, so filled with mucus that breathing is affected.

The adults shifted uncomfortably.  Because half of you wanted to shout out:

“For the love of everything, pick her up and take her home! Let her play at home all day!”

And the other half of you thought: Man there are days when I want to cry like that too.

“I don’t want to go to work.  And you can’t make me…”

This morning the Gallup Management Journal published this gem as a way of trying to get you to read more:

“As Egypt and Tunisia have shown, persistent joblessness can contribute to momentous social upheaval. What’s more, Gallup’s global surveys confirm that people who have jobs rate their lives more highly than those who are unemployed.”

For which, I am sure, someone is due a Pulitzer or at least have a spot on Biography.

However, there is an interesting ying and yang in there. (Listen to me go all eastern.)

Even the lucky amongst us who genuinely love our jobs have days where we really don’t want to do it.  And we dream of the day when we can do nothing (which is harder to do than one imagines.)

And those who hate their jobs.  What do they do?  Sobbing on the bus isn’t really socially acceptable.

At the same time, a job is really what we are here for.

(You might argue that you don’t want to work: you want to be a philanthropist, or a famous intellectual, or an underwear model… But all of those are work.)

We do get pleasure and self-expression out of work.  And that’s what part of work has to be about.

So what can we do to make it better?  How can we improve it?

That’s probably what the rest of this blog is about.

/df

LONDON — It’s fair to say that people who are deeply suspicious of… everything… have had a banner week.

• The President of the United States of America released his birth certificate.  Why?
• Friday’s Royal Wedding was staged to get a FIFA vote for a UK World Cup. Obviously.
• OBL wasn’t really killed. Not this week, anyway.

And you can have fun with other stats too:

• Only 40% of Americans believe in evolution.
• 88% accept alternative medicine.
• Over 40 million people bought Rick Astley records.

Who ARE these people?! you might ask. 

The world’s gone mad.  And I wouldn’t argue with you.

But at work it seems that all bets are off.

• The top executives lie awake at night thinking about how to make your life hell.
• Someone is making a killing in this business (and it’s not me.)
• My boss is an egoist, got promoted for being flexible, likes to hurt people, steals all my good ideas.
• If the world were just, I would be the CEO.
• They’re reading my email.
• They’re counting the biscuits.
• They won’t offer us fruit because they want us to get scurvy.
• ‘They’ are people I don’t know… but boy are they powerful.

Time and experience tends to suggest that there is no ‘they’. 

Sometimes you find that out by being invited to the secret management meetings.  Sometimes it’s when the boss confesses about what really keeps her up at night… and it’s a fear of seagulls.

Occasionally it’s that crushing realisation that maybe the other guy actually got there by working harder than you.

That’s the worst.

But look at it this way: At least you never bought a Rick Astley single.

/df

P.S. You what?

TOTTENHAM COURT ROAD — Or so says Andy Gill in today’s Independent review of new records.

And what a week it is.  A new Elbow album.  A new REM one too.  And a third from Noah and The Whale.

All well reviewed.

Any one of those would be good enough to make a week for me… But three!

Change and retrospection are good themes this week as well.  Not only professionally, but at this time of year and at this point in our economic history.

They sound like they should be melancholy. But neither change nor retrospection need to be sad affairs.  I find the ideas (and the music) to be life affirming.

Change brings renewal.  And without change we all end up getting a bit stale, and life goes stale with it. 

And retrospection (which I don’t think is a word) is a sign of wisdom.  To my eyes anyway.  We often find that self-awareness is a difficult thing.  Looking back makes you more assured in moving forward.

Maybe that’s a sign of age.

/df