Posts
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Korean vs French Work Culture: Why “Yes” Means No in Both — Just Not at the Same Time
The launch that everybody approved Let me give you a real one. I’ve changed the names and the house; I’ve changed nothing else, because nothing else needs changing. I have watched this meeting on three continents and in four companies. The setup. A French beauty group — call it Lauvière. Paris headquarters. A new anti-ageing…
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From FOMO to FOL: Why South Korea Embraces AI While France Builds a Wall
I’m a Korean alien living in France. I’ve spent decades living and working in France, bridging two entirely different corporate realities. Right now, there is a fracture in how the world is handling artificial intelligence. It isn’t about regulation. It isn’t about the technology itself. It is about fear. Just two very different kinds of…
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Louis Vuitton vs Molly Tea: The $1.5 Million Flower and What It Says About Who Owns a Shape
I put the two pictures side by side on my screen and zoomed in. One is a four-petal flower on a €1,550 handbag. The other is a four-petal flower on a 15-yuan cup of Jasmine tea. About two dollars. Then I opened a third image. A rosewood pipa from the Tang dynasty, 1,300 years old,…
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Google in South Korea: The 20-Year Strategy That Cracked the World’s Hardest Market
Let’s speak about Google in South Korea. I spent thirty years operating inside the international boardrooms of luxury beauty giants. I know exactly what it looks like when Western executives point at a map of South Korea and assume their global dominance will simply translate. It never does. Walmart tried to export its American big-box…
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From National Gift to a $165 Million Loss: The Full Autopsy of Starbucks Korea’s “Tank Day” Crisis
I spent over thirty years inside the corporate machineries of luxury giants like L’Oréal and Coty Inc. I have watched executive committees bypass compliance to chase vanity metrics. I have seen international campaigns crash into local walls. But what happened to Starbucks Korea in the summer of 2026 is in a class of its own.…