Culture change at large Korean firms fails unless leaders change first

This guide is for foreign managers, HR staff and employees who work in or with large Korean companies (대기업, daegieop). When these firms struggle, the press often blames rigid decision-making, a steep hierarchy and a conservative culture that resists change. The author argues that this diagnosis stays on the surface: the culture now under attack is the same culture that once made these companies world-class.

Why yesterday's strengths become today's problem

Fast execution, strong drive from the top and disciplined, uniform operations helped Korean companies grow into global players in a short time. The trouble is that success hardened these habits. A company that keeps repeating the formula that worked before adapts slowly when its market changes, much as a muscle stiffens when it stops moving.

This is not one company's problem. Any organization that has succeeded faces the same risk. Companies now praised for innovative cultures were not always that way; they kept choosing to renew themselves. Many traditional large companies settled into their past formula and either did not feel the need to change or did not act on it.

Same strictness, different results

Jensen Huang, who founded Nvidia in 1993 and still leads it, is an electrical engineer by training, with degrees from Oregon State University and Stanford University. He is known as a demanding boss. In 2024 he told Stripe's chief executive that he works seven days a week, and Fortune reported that he had about 60 direct reports and a habit of reaching into different layers of the organization.

The author's point is that strictness is not the problem; its direction is. Huang aims his intensity at technology and the company's future. He does not hold one-on-one meetings with his direct reports. Instead he gives feedback in front of his leadership group so that everyone learns from it at the same time (Fortune, November 2024). Many traditional companies aim their strictness at management and control.

Communication is the second difference. Where communication runs both ways, junior staff can take ideas to senior leaders and disagree openly, and high standards push people to grow. Where it runs one way, the same standards feel like pressure.

Who sits at the top, and who is missing

Leadership teams made up of people with similar backgrounds find it harder to take in new views and to notice when the market shifts. Korean data show how uniform the top still is. In 2025, women held 476 executive posts at the 100 largest listed companies by revenue. That is 6.5% of all executives, a share that has stayed in the 6% range for three years (Unicosearch, a headhunting firm, November 2025).

The age profile is shifting too:

The analysts behind these studies point mainly to hiring changes, such as fewer large recruitment rounds for new graduates and more rolling and experienced hires, along with population ageing. Whatever the cause, fewer young employees means fewer digital-native ideas inside the company and wider generation gaps in communication and teamwork.

Three common ways culture programs fail

1. Short campaigns. The company treats culture like a marketing campaign: a slogan, posters and a training course. After a few months the energy fades and the organization slips back. A culture built over decades does not change in a quarter.
2. Copying without context. Firms try to copy Google or Netflix directly. Practices from Silicon Valley software companies do not transplant into a Korean manufacturing group without changes.
3. Leaders who do not change. Executives call for a new culture while their own behavior stays the same. Employees follow what leaders do, not what they say.

What to change in practice

• Rebalance power. In many organizations, control and support departments have more say than the frontline teams that create value, and new ideas stall in approval steps. Give frontline and working-level teams more authority and autonomy.
• Grow internal talent. Many companies spend heavily on outside stars, and some of these hires leave because they cannot settle in. Systematic development of internal people, with real chances to grow, can work better.
• Listen for real. Listening means accepting uncomfortable opinions, not only welcome ones. Use anonymous feedback tools and regular skip-level meetings, where a manager's manager meets team members directly.
• Fix meetings. Cut unnecessary meetings, keep attendance small, share materials in advance and use the time for discussion and decisions rather than presentations. Amazon's "two-pizza team" rule keeps teams small enough to be fed by two pizzas; the same thinking works for meeting size.

Lessons from Microsoft, X and Netflix

• Microsoft: Satya Nadella became chief executive on February 4, 2014. Microsoft's own account says the company had been known for an extremely competitive "know-it-all" culture. Nadella promoted a "growth mindset", asked employees to be "learn-it-alls", and made contribution to other people's success part of individual performance reviews. He treated the change as his personal mission.
• X: Astro Teller, head of X, Alphabet's research lab (formerly Google X), said in a 2016 TED talk that teams are rewarded for ending their own projects as soon as the evidence shows they will not work. They receive praise and promotions, and every person on such teams has received a bonus. Where failure is punished, people stop trying new things.
• Netflix: its culture memo says people do better work when they have the information and freedom to decide for themselves, and that the company hires unusually responsible people who thrive on that freedom. It keeps rules to a minimum; its vacation policy is two words: "Take vacation."

Principles for change that lasts

1. Long-term consistency. Make a plan for at least 3~5 years and keep one direction instead of launching a new program every year.
2. Top leaders in front. Culture change fails when it is left to HR or a project team. The CEO and senior executives must lead it and model it.
3. Psychological safety. People must be able to try new things without fear. Treat failure as a chance to learn, and make sure minority opinions are heard.

Do not wait for a perfect plan. Start with small changes, expand them step by step, and build a culture that fits your own organization rather than copying another company's.