Do the Chaebol Choke Off Innovation?

摘要

Song Kyu Heon harbors no illusions about the strengthrnof the chaebol, the family-controlled conglomerates that dominate South Korea's economy. Nonetheless, as chief executive of tech services company Openbase, Song was confident he could beat chaebol-backed rivals to win a multimillion-dollar deal to upgrade the computer systems at a Korean bank. His client roster, after all, includes Citibank, LG, heavy equipment maker Doosan, and dozens ofrnother high-profile companies and government ministries. As a longtime contractor with the bank in question, Openbase knew its systems well, and a team of 20 engineers had been preparing a bid for a year. But in October, Song lost the deal to an affiliate of a top chaebol. "There's no such thing as a level playing field here," Song says in his fifth-floor corner office overlooking Tehran-ro, a street that's sometimes called Korea's Silicon Valley.