Updates from IBD: Welcome to Seoul!
Greetings from one of the most vibrant cities in Asia. For the next three weeks myself, Raj, Kevin and Jens will be busy exploring all that Korea has to offer as we embrace culture, cuisine and corporate life while woking for SK telecom, Korea’s largest telecom company. As technology enthusiasts, we’re pumped to be working on SK Telecom’s new venture called ADF (Application Development Factory) where we are developing a marketing strategy for their portfolio of mobile services. After a semester of research, focus groups and presentations we were finally ready for Korea!
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Drive into Seoul
Following a 12 hour ride across the pacific, we landed at incheon airport outside the city, hopped in a cab and made our way toward seoul all the while admiring the size and hustle of Asia’s second largest city. For most of us it was our first experience in Korea and we were truly looking forward to spending the time getting to know our host country.
Myeongdong
That evening we met up with another Haas IBD team in town for the week. One of the team members Luke, a Seoul native was our gracious host for the evening and gave us the walking tour in Seoul’s downtown Myeong-dong area where we indulged in some exceptional Korean BBQ as well as local traditions such as Soju and makkoli. Seoul at night is a vibrant metropolis of people young and old with a passion for the foods, arts and entertainment.
Reunion
The cool spring breeze and low humidity made it all the more enticing to hang out late into the night and get to know our new friends. Our night ended at the rooftop bar a top the Samsung Tower where we watched the city stay alive late into the night and discussed our plans for the upcoming week.
View from Samsung Tower
Our first day at work in over a year! we were excited and at the same time a little nervous. What would the team ask us? How do we introduce ourselves. Would language be a barrier? None of these mattered. The ADF team welcomed us with open arms as our project partner Ray took us on an office tour introducing us to folks in the office. We were soon ushered into the conference room where the four of us introduced ourselves to the larger team and engaged them in an introduction to our project. Getting to know the team member’s interesting backgrounds was an amazing opportunity to bond with the folks who would be our coworkers for the next 20 days.
Monday morning conference
As our first day at ADF came to an end, we headed out for drinks with the team excited at what we would be working on. Defining a product marketing roadmap for ADF was a huge responsibility and we were looking forward to the challenge.
Until next time 또봐요!
