Office politics is extremely toxic in the Asia region. The Korean lead in RD is not capable of managing talented individuals effectively—he only hires people who can later demonstrated blindly follow him, even if some of them appear to be not completely unqualified (especially in China). He has recruited individuals with no sales background, no understanding of the market, and extremely poor industry knowledge—one example apparently to lead a market who has been widely recognized as a joke within the industry. Despite this, he continues to surround himself with such people, further deteriorating the business.
While he may appear to understand the market, in reality, he does not. Instead of running the business strategically, he turns it into a political game, focusing solely on upward management and painting grand visions rather than delivering real value. His leadership prioritizes loyalty over competence, making it a terrible environment for talented professionals. If you are skilled, ambitious, and value personal growth, this is not the right place for you. You won’t gain meaningful industry knowledge here—you’ll only learn how people play office politics.
Furthermore, he has structured the entire APAC leadership to be dominated by Koreans. The few non-Korean leaders that exist are completely submissive to him, following his every directive without question. As a result, the entire APAC region has become nothing more than a political game, where success is determined not by business acumen or market strategy, but by how well you align yourself with his personal agenda.
