Running Head: BUSI 620 Interview Paper
BUSI 620
Interview Paper
What Ways Can A Govt. Funded Firm In Korea Increase Profits?
Liberty University
08/12/2016
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Running Head: BUSI 620 Interview Paper
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What Is The Purpose Of Your Firm?
In order to understand how a firm can increase profits we first have to understand what
services the firm provides. Therefore the first question I asked Jessica was, what the purpose of
her firm is. There was a slight language barrier during our conversation, however after some
probing she explained that her Firm has a two-fold mission. The first part of their mission which
is mostly govt. funded is to improve the community through the betterment of Incheon’s
Mountains and Forests. This in itself is multifaceted. However the main focus of her revelations,
were her firm’s focus on Forest Resource Creation and Development (FRCP). FRCP includes
managing forest resources, seedling production, forest care, and forest protection just to name a
Introduction
The purpose of this paper is to determine how a Govt. funded firm in South Korea can
increase its profits. The Firm I will investigate is The Incheon Forestry Service (IFS). This firm
is an arm of a greater organization known as the National Forestry Cooperative Federation based
in Seoul, South Korea. My subject will be Choi Ji Hwi, also known by her American name as
Jessica Choi. She is a Regional Manager at the Incheon Forestry Service and has been employed
with the firm for over 4 years. Through my interview with Jessica, I strive to learn the purpose of
her firm, how managerial decisions are made, whether they spend money toward research and
development, what competition they have in their market. How success or failure is determined,
what are the repercussions of failure and what kind of limitations they deal with while trying to
accomplish their goals. Through the exploration of these questions I also hope to unveil cultural
intricacies of a firm operating in South Korea.
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Running Head: BUSI 620 Interview Paper
few. Managing forest resources is fairly self-explanatory. The goal here is to increase forest
productivity through rational management and to promote sustainable forest resources. Seedling
production involves selecting and managing quality seeds to supply seedlings to municipal
bodies, private forest owners and others for the purpose of afforestation, forest care and
landscape architecture. Finally forest care and forest protection involves maintenance activities
such as mowing, trimming mountain trails, removing vines, planting trees, as well as stimulating
growth to produce high quality lumber by preventing disease and pests and maintaining a
balanced ecosystem.
Jessica went on to describe the second purpose of her firm, which is to provide education
to the local schools and community as a whole. This portion of their business is largely for profit
and not Govt. funded. This includes creating curriculum programs for schools and organizations
that will in turn pay a fee to have the firm either provide the curriculum to the school and/or
provide instructors to teach it as well. An example of one such curriculum they developed was a
rice planting and mudfish event that lasted approximately a week. They created the curriculum,
agenda and they also provided instructors who taught the children the history of mudfish as well
as how to plant rice.
What Is The Process Of Making Decisions In Your Firm?
The mudfish and rice-planting event interested me so I grew curious as to how decisions
in her firm were made. They were paid to create and teach the event so from the lens of trying to
determine how the firm can increase profits I was curious how the decisions on what curriculums
they develop were decided upon. Her answer was quite simple actually. Her firm has weekly
meetings amongst the firm leadership. Basically someone presents ideas for new business
opportunities they have been working on. They then discuss the pros and cons of moving
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Running Head: BUSI 620 Interview Paper
forward with the idea. If they deem the new business venture to be beneficial they will approve
the idea and ideally establish a new business relationship with said company for many years to
come. The leadership team consists of about 7 people including Choi Ji Hwi. When deciding on
whether to approve the business deal the team looks at the costs associated with implementing
the curriculum, the feasibility of performing well since their reputation is highly valued, and of
course the profit deemed to be made. When increasing profits the reputation of a firm is very
important. In fact a firm with a good reputation is more able to increase profits without being
viewed negatively by its customers. The more favorable the perceived reputation, the less likely
customers are to attribute negative motives for the price increase (Helm, 2013).
How Is Success Determined In Your Firm?
From an outside perspective I assumed that the success of any firm would be an increase
in profits. However I wanted to make sure that this South Korean firm thought the same way. So
I asked her how her firm determines success and she explained to me that last year her firm’s
business increased profits 300%. From this answer I knew that increased profits was the primary
way that her firm perceived success. I expanded on this question and asked her how she
accomplished this increase in profits. Due to the language barrier her answers during the entire
interview were always very short and distinct, however she basically said they took on more
customers and projects. This puzzled me because I was under the impression that her firm had
the monopoly on the Incheon area. I learned through our interview that there is minor
competition from companies that offer free educational services. The quality of the product that
these competitors offer is far inferior to what the Incheon Forestry Service provides. She also
explained that her firm invests money on a regular basis towards research and development to
Helm, S. V. (2013). How corporate reputation affects customers' reactions to price
increases. Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management, 12(5), 402-415.
doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/rpm.2013.12
Lisker, Peter. "LAN maker Corvus resorts to layoffs in wake of poor financial
performance." PC Week 22 Apr. 1986: 163+. General Reference Center GOLD. Web. 22 Aug.
2016
Do you spend money on research and development If so how much
What are the constraints on your firm to grow and/or perform their mission
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Running Head: BUSI 620 Interview Paper
constantly come up with fresh new ideas. This keeps them competitive and also helps to increase
profits.
What Are The Repercussions Of Poor Performance?
While we were discussing increasing profits as the way to determine success I wondered
what the repercussions were when they were not successful. Historically, many companies will
lay off employees for poor performance. For example Corvus Systems Inc. laid off 74 workers,
or 16 percent of its workforce after several quarterly financial losses. They said the layoffs would
return the company back to profitably (Lisker, 1986). I assumed that the employees at the IFS
experienced the same possibilities of being laid off for underperformance. So I posed the
question to Mrs. Choi and she immediately laughed and said being laid off was not a concern if
the Firm was not successful for a year. Her firm does offer bonuses
Running Head: BUSI 620 Interview Paper
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