Culture is the whole way of life shared by the members of a society and handed down to the present day by socialization. It is acquired, shared, and passed on to the next generation. According to Taekwon Cho, a company can have competitive power in the world market when it establishes a product identity by making better use of a nation's culture. He has been interested in pottery because he was influenced by his father, who was a potter. He also started to study Korean traditional foods and liquor to fill the pottery that his company produced. However, studying Korean foods was difficult for several reasons. First, during the Japanese Colonial Period, Korean nobles began to share Japanese culture and at the same time, Korean culture was discriminated against as a lower culture in the cultural hierarchy. Second, Korea had been deprived of freedom of expression by the colonial Japanese government, so there was no time to raise mature civic consciousness to develop its own culture. Lastly, after the independence from the Japanese government, the Korean War threw the country into chaos and Korea has gone through several major social changes such as dictatorial regimes and ideological battles. Thus, the Korean culture had a hard time suriving during the Japanese Colonial Period and it was hard to maintain even though it survived after that period.

Taekwon Cho explains that these historical circumstances have made it hard for a Korean company to have competitive power in the global market. He asserts that we need to prepare three participants to actively lead the global market. Those are innovative companies, mature public, and the supportive government. First, the role of companies is to be innovators who supply products which are based on the traditional culture. Second, the role of the public is to be an agent who maintains and develops the cultural identity. Lastly, the government participates as a controller to prohibit a company from being monopolistic and to get rid of exclusive privileges. These efforts from three objects will increase the value of culture and make strong cultural power. Therefore, Korean culture will have intense power in the global market by gathering and fostering Korean cultural factors such as food, clothing, and housing.

Translation by Kang, Soo Jung

President of Salt&Light