King Pin Business Cards

Doing business with South Korea brings with it some cultural challenges that may daunt the first time visitor. Like many Asian countries there are formalities and niceties that have to be satisfied before any business can be done. Going prepared and being aware of these formalities will stand any visitor in good stead and hopefully prevent any international incidents or embarrassments.

When attending a business meeting in South Korea, attendees greet each other with a slight bow, often then accompanied by a handshake. The Korean version of the handshake involves propping the right arm with the left hand while maintaining good, polite eye contact. Korean women also shake hands in the Western style but Western women will have to instigate the handshake if greeting Korean men. The verbal greeting is the title and surname. First names in South Korea are only used once a relationship has been established and instigated by the Korean host.

Business cards are used prolifically throughout South Korea so this must be planned for. Specifically color business cards, with lettering in gold. This is seen as auspicious in most Asian countries. As seems to be the international standard, have one side of the business card printed in Korean. Ensure any title or honorific such as Dr or Professor are mentioned. Korean society is hierarchical and this will help convey rank within the delegation. Business cards are presented and received with both hands. Here though, when receiving a business card, read it and then make a positive comment on it, the place it in a card wallet or case. Ensure that you are seen to treat the card with respect otherwise offense may be taken.

Something different in doing business in South Korea is the giving of gifts. This is an established part of Korean culture meant to secure favors and build relationships. Gifts are expected to be reciprocated, preferably with something from the home country of the visitor. The best gift a business visitor could give on a first visit is something with corporate branding on it. Not a stapler or a crate of A4, but something tasteful like a good pen, or writing set. When offered a gift it is good form to resist slightly. This is to portray a lack of greed. This is important in Korean culture as greed is frowned upon. It is also necessary to refrain from opening a gift in front of the giver.

Punctuality is important in South Korea so try not to be late. Polite excuses may be accepted, but will be frowned upon. When entering a meeting, it should be in order of hierarchy. The visitor with the highest rank should sit at the centre of the table unless shown otherwise, then guests will end up sitting opposite counterparts of similar rank and authority.

Any first meetings in South Korea will be familiarization sessions, no business will be done there. Koreans prefer to feel people out before committing anything to them, especially where money is involved.

Doing business in South Korea isn’t that difficult if time is taken to learn and observe the niceties. As business is generally conducted through a personal liking for the characters involved it is wise to create the best impression possible when first meeting.

Printing is one of the oldest industrial processes there are. It revolutionized the world as we know it. It allowed the bible to be printed by the billion, and gave the monks who used to copy them by hand a well earned rest! It brought knowledge and information to the people and made it available to all.

The next time you see something in print, be it a magazine, newspaper, leaflet or full color business cards, spare a thought to the industry behind it and how it changed our world.

Until the advent of digital printing the most popular printing method was offset printing. It works on a very simple level. Most people know that water and ink don’t mix very well, and printers found a way to use this to create a print process that works very well. The print image is applied to plates which are wetted using plain old water. Then ink is added to the plate and the plate is applied to a rubberized “blanket”. This blanket is then applied directly to the paper and then pressed onto it. The phrase offset printing came about because the paper isn’t put directly onto the plates as in traditional printing, but to the rubber blanket, then onto paper.

Before your nice full color business card, or magazine can be printed it has to be put on the plates. This is done via a digital file like a Photoshop for example and an imagesetter. The image is applied onto the place much like a photograph is developed. A specific amount of light is allowed to pass through the file onto the plate to produce the image. The image is projected onto the plate using an ink receptive coating and now it’s ready to use.

The plate is then added to the printing press and starts rolling. A modern printing press can produce up to 20,000 prints per hour and is a very noisy process. In the case of business cards, several copies of the card are added to a plate to fill it up. There are printed first one way, and then the card is reversed and the plate containing the back is added to the press and the process begins again.

Once printing is complete and the ink is fully dry the stack of card is placed into a cutting machine. The blades are programmed to cut the required size, lined up and then left to do their thing. Once cut, any loose card or fibres are cleaned off, they are sorted and then boxed.

A book or magazine has to be bound before being released which is a slightly different process. The different pages, called “the press signature” are sorted and added in order to the stitcher, which glues or staples them together. A blade them trims the pages to size and folds them into the traditional magazine or book shape. Then they are ready to be packed and shipped.

There you have it, the lifecycle of the printed page. The mechanics almost belittle the effect.