Why do so many S.Korean innovators bow out following success?

Bernard Arnault, chairman and CEO of the global luxury goods leader LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, is well known for sporting a full head of gray hair and dark blue suits. The world’s No. 2 richest person in the world, the Frenchman puts great care into the background when he poses for photographs.

Such characteristic style and moves reflect the 74-year-old tycoon’s branding strategy to highlight the group’s 75 opulent brands such as Louis Vuitton and Tiffany & Co. while getting consumers to associate him with those luxury items. That was a similar strategy of Apple Inc., which was known to have wanted consumers to recognize and connect the late Steve Jobs, its co-founder, with the company behind iPhones.

The intensifying feud recently in the headlines between Elon Musk, CEO of the world’s top electric vehicle maker Tesla Inc., and Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta Platforms Inc., formerly Facebook, may have been intended for similar effect.

Public interest soared as Musk recently tweeted that he would be “up for a cage fight” with Zuckerberg.

The escalation came as Threads, a social media platform unveiled by Meta to compete with Twitter Inc. owned by Musk, secured 1 million users within five days of its launch.

PRESIDENTIAL IDENTITY

Musk is an expert in marketing with the presidential identity, which improves the public opinion of a company by managing images of top decision-makers such as CEOs.

Musk establishes his own image, ignoring the media, which has conventionally been a gatekeeper of information. He removed he public relations department at Twitter after taking over the social media platform, while Tesla does not have a designated PR team at all. 

Founders or CEOs are among the most powerful tools for branding -- the process of giving meaning to specific companies, products or services by creating and shaping a brand in consumers’ minds.

Arnault, Jobs, Musk and Zuckerberg are so powerful in their industries that they are regarded as icons of their respective sectors.

JEALOUSY, REGULATIONS

It is essential for a company with an aim to expand its markets across the world to set up meticulous branding strategies for the long term. Japan’s Sony Corp. dropped its original name Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corp. in 1956 in view of the global business.

South Korea heavily depends on exports and companies in the country must target overseas markets.

They enjoyed strong positions in the global market by offering products and services with value for money. But the heyday has gone amid the intensifying competition against Chinese rivals. It is getting tougher for Korea Inc. to maintain its prime position without global awareness, which can be promoted by innovators.

Kim Bong-jin, founder of Woowa Brothers that created the country’s dominant food delivery app Baedal Minjok, or Baemin, acquired by Germany’s Delivery Hero SE, has recently left the company.

Lee Hae-jin, founder of Naver Corp., South Korea’s top online platform, Kim Beom-Soo, founder of Kakao Corp., the country’s mobile platform giant, and Bom Kim of Coupang Inc., an e-commerce behemoth, all stepped down from their CEO posts after their companies were on track.

That came as public jealousy of successful entrepreneurs grew and the government imposed regulations on them, such as the country’s competition watchdog’s list of owner-cum-heads of conglomerates it monitors for any violation of antitrust laws.

South Korean innovators may have imagined their future through Jack Ma, Chinese business magnate and co-founder of Alibaba Group, who fled to Japan following Beijing’s crackdown of the internet giant on the mainland.

Write to Dong-Hui Park at donghuip@hankyung.com
 
Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.