BATTLE WEARY

When enough is not enough…

Working in a Korean company is both easy and difficult, much like the fact that I am both lucky and cursed.

Five years ago, upon my promotion as Executive General Manager, things all of a sudden changed for me as an executive of this company. My first out-of-town trip as EGM allowed me a glimpse of the difference between being a manager and an executive when our branch manager who incidentally three months prior treated me without much respect, personally fetched me at the airport to congratulate me on my promotion.

A year later, I would once again be promoted, this time to Vice President upon the announcement of the outgoing President’s resignation. The year that would follow would be the glory years both for me and this company. I had the almost total leeway of developing and implementing programs that probably helped in stabilizing what we used to have… and what we are now steadily losing.

A year of self-sufficiency and stability for us as a company, and a year of impending chaos for the corporation, made my life too sophisticated as the corporation expanded into businesses that is not within the core competencies of the people involved. Ultimately, the series of “bad” investments will compromise the financial and structural integrity of this organization.

As things went from good to bad, the position I hold eventually turns more significant as the primary damage control officer. This significance is of course interpreted as power, and most likely a threat… and every “bungled up” executives’ nightmare.

Yes, I must admit, that intelligence and significance is relative. Perhaps my significance is attributed by the fact that… well, you know where I am getting at. I’m a short guy, but I’m a giant among midgets and I rather feel uncomfortable by this fact.

My one year of independence as an executive did not last very long as I was pitted since then with counterparts… Korean counterparts to be exact whose tactic was primarily to strip me of my people’s loyalties by buying them off and creating conflicts left and right. Those were the hard times.

Eventually as eventualities would go, I am still here and they are not. Like most other things, sustainability and consistency are the keys to a successful career. Feigning intelligence, concern and value is very hard for one who is not genuinely equipped with such.

And in all these battles the last four years of my career, it is not I alone that suffered and is in possession of battle scars. It is the organization, it is the company and it is the business. I thought that last year’s hoax would have been the final episode of such useless and unnecessary battles… I thought that I have finally earned my rank with finality. Apparently, I am wrong.

I really do not want to waste my time in something as petty as position wars… I have proven myself more than enough and I am where I am because of what I’ve accomplished, not because I am Korean. But I am nevertheless challenged and will take this on wherever it takes me, if only to be able to work efficiently for the sustenance of this organization… without hindrance, without opposition and without the irrelevant concerns.

Note: A year ago, or to be exact 364 days ago, I wrote a blog rant detailing a gripe that made my head spin. http://casieplanet.blogspot.com/2008/01/we-are-at-it-again.html I can't believe ... as the title suggests, i'm at it again.