1516T2g1 South Korea/Reflection/day4
| Day 2 |
Contents
Day 4: Reflections
KBS
Impressive broadcasting equipments, but changing of stage is too labor-intensive and inefficient.
Hello Mission
Connecting strangers through providing a helping hand.
Visual dart
Strict rules in change management allows company to stay efficient.
KBS
- Not a startup, but the longest standing (and government operated) media company
- Space constrain can be overcomed as long as planning and design are done well before execution. - KBS studios are limited in number and old, but by spending manhours, they can be repeatedly reused for multiple shows a day.
Hello Mission
- Job enjoyment can replace the need for ambition & profit - Founder didn't seem too concerned about capturing every user or profit.
VisualDart
- In good times, people are willing to pay premim for quality service and products, however the reverse happens in bad times, it is therefore important to have diverse customers segments - VisualDart's business from China descreased in recent times before of the Chinese recession, but U.S. projects increased as their economy recovered.
KBS
Korea main broadcasting studio. This company is not a startup and there is little we can learn from them. They are an established company with the government backing. Initially, there used to be only one broadcasting studio in Korea, but as of recent years, more private broadcasting firms has established, placing KBS in a competitive environment.
However, KBS is still relevant and doing extremely well today. The fact that they are hosting us showed me that they have not forgotten their roots and reminded humble.
Hello Mission
Hello Mission is currently housing in a mini office space that cost 500 usd a month. They are 3 yrs old and are still extremely young. Their goal is to match Travelers and locals with missions or task and to earn a percentage through this matching.
Although there are many startups with similar business model around, I admire Hello Mission courage in stepping foot in the business world.
Visual Dart
Visual Dart is a game design company that has been awhile for only a short while but are extremely successful in what they do.
Very fun company and very relaxed culture. They seem very capable in what they do because of all the contracts they achieved.
KBS
KBS is an established firm as compared to the other companies visited. Unlike Singapore, there are more than 1 media and entertainment organizations in Korea. Their latest drama hit was Descendant of the Sun. As the drama had an unconventional plot, the script was initially rejected by SBS as it the profit margin was not deemed as ideal due to the limited product placement opportunity. Therefore, the script was taken up by KBS instead, showing that they are open to taking risk as well as new and innovative ideas differentiating themselves from the rest.
Hello mission
Hello mission is a global human resource platform. It allows travelers to submit a mission to request for a particular product or service from people around the world. To differentiate from its competitors, it enables both parties to trade product or services instead of gaining monetary benefit. As mentioned by the founder, platform that based their business model on monetary gains would eventually face challenges from delivery companies as the cost of obtaining a product overseas could possibly be cheaper and faster as compared to obtaining it through a person.
Visual Dart
Visual Dart is a game design company primarily focusing on the aesthetics. They have very experienced people whose portfolio include winning prestigious competition. They are very passionate and well versed in game design which contributed to the rapid growth of the company to target large and well known gaming companies.
KBS
- Established company allowed me to compare and contrast KBS against the small startups we have visited over the last 4 days
- Tour of their premises was eye opening - we managed to get to see the set and prop room, plus the visitor area
Hello Mission
- A tiny startup with a tiny crew that wishes to achieve big dreams - start small, but dream big
- Desperation can cause internal conflicts within the Company - staff have to be fired and hired, which results in retraining
Visual Dart
- Exotic animals can bring life to the company (like having piranha!)
- Being persistent and hardheaded at the beginning is one of the ways to yield results when there is little reputation and credibility
- After establishing a name and having staff with skill, the Company has buying power to increase prices to a premium amount
1. KBS
The opportunity to visit Korea's broadcasting system was definitely a privilege as I was able to witness the staging and props used during talk shows. I was also better able to understand how KBS function and the number of employees in charge of managing the firm.
2. Hello Mission
Hello Mission's business model is a unique one which leverages on the country of stay of two individuals as well as mutual trust between the two parties. I feel that this is an innovative way of generating revenue and the CEO was really friendly and hospitable.
3. VisualDart
This visual graphics design company for the gaming industry was slightly different from the fresh startups that we have been visiting throughout the trip. Through this company visit, I was able to better understand the process of designing characters and the time taken for a single project.
KBS
It was such an eye opening experience, to be able to visit KBS. How the different places and scenes of the news broadcasting that occurs in KBS.Everybody went crazy about the guy in DOTS but nah, i am not! hahash
Hello Mission
Hello Mission is similar to the platform of carousel but it was an interesting start up because it focuses on bridging c2c experience further with a dinner/lunch/trip. There is a 2 way communication which brings 2 strangers together through an exchange of items which is a good way of interacting with people.
Visual Darts
This focuses heavily on the graphic designing of games. The advice provided from the company gave us as student’s insightful information about how the visual games experience would be and how important is graphic designing and animation is in future. I've learnt a lot through his sharing session with all the prototypes and artefacts that he had given.
KBS
The visit to KBS was an enriching one because I could get into the studio and see those filming situation. I would not have known all the background work that the workers will be doing until I stepped inside during the company tour. What seems to be easy to us(when we thought its just filming) actually involve a lot of hard work by the workers.
Hello Mission
The CEO aims to help to connect travellers. Everyone told him that it was Mission Impossible for him to startup the company but he make it Mission I’m possible. I was very impressed by his determination and did not get pulled down when people were giving such remarks.
Visual Darts
From this company, I have learn that first project that the company take is very important because this will determine if people will have a bad impression with it if they screwed it up. Once it is screwed up on the first time, no one will approach the company for help to design.
KBS
NA. A relatively conservative broadcasting company that showed us a brief tour in the building.
Hello Mission
I can feel the CEO's strong passion which has been keeping the company going and doing beyond expected. This inspired me as the CEO of HelloMission was previously shot down by people thinking that the idea was Mission Impossible.
Visual Darts
The success of this company is attributed to their promise of quality of work to client which is something mature startups can learn from to expand into the global market.
KBS
Though KBS is not really a start up to begin with, I believe there are still things we can learn from them. The part where they mentioned it takes almost 8 hours to change the setting of the stage for the next program made a strong impression on me. Dedication and hardwork are 2 things that I learnt and doesn’t differ much from startups.
Hello Mission
Hello Mission focuses more on a platform that allows the exchange of services between 2 complete strangers in the world. Even though this idea is sort of a modification from other similar startups like Airfrov (allows customers to request for an item from a country). I liked how he took the risk to do something that he was passionate in and that is something that no high amount of profits can buy.
VisualDart
VisualDart is a startup that helps design the artwork of many games around the world. After seeing the stunning artwork created by them, I realized how important it is to manage their clients expectations easily, especially when dealing with something so subjective as artwork. I also learn how ambition can help the company strive for even greater success in the long run.
KBS - Korea Broadcasting Studio
It was a rare opportunity to be able to tour the studios and visitor centre. Slightly disappointedthat we can see the broadcast room but it was still fun! - I guess everyone was mostly busy taking photos with Song Jong Ki!
Hello mission
The founder started the company 3 years ago and currently has 5 members. It is a global HR networking platform and it was sparked off by his interest in food and travel. Over 1000 missions have been completed and they have around 400 agents in over 30 countries
Initially, he received a lot of comments that his start-up idea is mission impossible but he thinks it is possible and therefore continue until now.
Business model :
C2C -earn 10% from deposit
B2C - earn 20-40% from total fee
Visual Darts - Development design and digital plus art
Current projects:
Games visual development
Mobile game development
Virtual reality
3D printer content development
Process:
Consulting (cater to customer needs)
Prototype
Mass production
Aim - Not only the globalization of our service and products but also to continue our contribution of the best of what Korea has to offer for the world quote price accordingly after they know the design
Mode in reaching out to clients: Join game conferences to reach out to potential customers and take the initiative to reach out for partnership. Roles and resources are assigned accordingly to the person’s strength and they have completed 30 projects in a year.
Differences between China and Korea was also shared in terms of their working style. Korea workplace cultures focuses more on work life balance. For instance, employees usually end work at 7pm in Korea but 10-11pm for china.
The first deal to the customer is very important because it will influence the future partnerships. Advice to become a successful designer - must have the basic foundation/abilities and go for competitors to make a name for yourself!
KBS
- Large amount of effort involved in running different shows, stage has to be changed daily
Visited various production studios and warehouse, understood the scale of logistics and effort needed prior to filming. Had fun with the various studio setup, wished I knew how to dance or sing =D.
Hello Mission
- Managing people is the most stressful part of starting up
Being a small startup with 5 employee, the company is bootstrapped by joining multiple startup competitions and runs on funds from gov, friends and family. Despite having many challenges such as developer conflicts Hello Mission endured and managed to achieve some success.
Visual dart
- Comparing an established company like visual dart and younger art startups
As a top tier visual art company, we learnt how professional art company manages their projects. Their management of projects felt similar to software projects in terms of using man-hours to charge their clients.
KBS
- It was an interesting experience to see what goes behind the scenes in the Korean news broadcasting industry.
Hello Mission
- The company focuses on C2C and B2C. They act as the middleman to connect willing buyers, of a service, to willing sellers. From there they take a percentage of commission from the payment.
- There is a low barrier of entry to the market thus personally I feel that the founder has to do more to differentiate their product with the rest of the market.
- Inspiring quote – “problems make experience, experience make opportunities”
Visual Dart
- They are about publishing operating art made by graphic designers in the company.
- They manage to grow through building of their customer portfolio and attending game conferences for networking with clients.
- The company takes a lot of pride in their work as having a reputable name in the gaming design industry is very important, it decides if the company makes it or breaks. This attitude is highly admirable and I strongly agree with it, that every piece of work done by a person is a reflection and representation of the person, thus we must always try to produce the best to our capabilities in all that we do.
KBS
Everyone is crazy about the Korean actor except me. HAHAHA
Hello Mission
Challenges are inevitable even when your company is more mature. Also, do not always hire more people because having more people on board may not be as helpful as you think it is.
Visual Dart
Different people have different design styles but this adds variety to the product that is to be produced. Being in the design team you need to be detail-oriented and that's what helps perfect the product.
KBS
I was able to experience what it is like to enter Korea's "Mediacorp" and it is truly an experience as I haven't been able to go to Singapore's Mediacorp before. Rare opportunity!
Hello Mission
Though a small company, his never say die attitude is what Singaporeans should have when facing hard times. A humble CEO who is open to ideas and tries his best to understand his employees so as to achieve better working relationships
Visual darts
Quality vs work efficiency. But their quality is shown practically via "quantity is the way to quality" where all their employees have gone through many challenging projects.
KBS
KBS has so many props around and so many sets too. I had no idea that they had to dismantle and set up the stage every time. It must be really tedious for the ones who has to set it up because the sets look really heavy.
Hello Mission
I think that the idea is unique and if we are able to garner a more trusting community then that will be great for everyone who travels.
Visual Dart
Many concept art studios suffer when the demand for their services drops. It is really interesting that they want to move away from solely creating concept art and game assets and move towards game development in the future. It was disappointing that we did not get to see their office due to confidentiality issues but I understand it is the nature of this industry. Really look forward to trying out their games in the future.
KBS
Learning Points
- Transparency of the company can be used as a form of marketing. It enables the company to have a closer relationship with the public.
Hello Mission
Learning Points
- Perseverance is required in a startup.
- Know what you are contented with. Then you can plan the steps to be taken in future.
Visual Dart
Learning Points
- Hiring the right people is crucial for the success of the company. Visual Dart only hire people who have the right portfolio (won competitions).
1. KBS
I learnt that they belong to the more conservative broadcasting company because they are the oldest broadcasting company and the biggest one. Until now, they don't allow people to show tattoo on screen. I think they are a very successful conglomerate. They produced Descendants of the Sun which has produced the highest viewership of 38%.
2. Hello Mission
Their building is supported by government for startups. I realized Korea really supports startups which is something I'm really happy about. The CEO also stated that programmers need not need to be at office which is something startup founders should learn.
He also said something impactful " Mistakes make experience. Experience makes opportunities. My takeaway for this visit is that even though he struggled a lot at start, he tried his best to pull his team together so that he could make things work as people were leaving for better opportunities.
3. Visual Dart
It belongs to the concept art industry. They believe in delivering the best quality to customers which was something I took away. They pay according to how well employees did and not the amount of work he or she did. Also, the perspective of beauty really depends on the country culture. So, one should take into considering when designing in a different country. He also gave an advice for someone who wants to be a designer. "Join competitions and be very good at those softwares."
KBS
The visit to KBS is a good break from all the long company visit. Although there wasn’t much interaction between KBS staff and us, it was still an eye opening experience to be able to look and interact with the props and stage sets.
HelloMission
The sharing session by the CEO of Hello Mission taught me that it is important to believe in your dreams. He shared that his friends and family thought that his idea was impossible but he persisted on and proved them wrong.
VisualDarts
The visit to VisualDarts gave me a glimpse of how the gaming industry is like. It was here that I learnt that when you first start out, one should focus on your niche area and to do well in it. Others can come later when you have establish yourself and have more resources to expand.
KBS
Korean Broadcasting System, KBS is the oldest broadcasting station in Korea. Although there's no presentation given today, but we were honoured to be able to see how the stages were setup given a certain period of time - 8hours. It was indeed an eye opener to be able to see the studios of KBS and even the wardrobe! One thing to note is that their old building is managed by 40 employees and the new building with 20 employees. It's a visit that we don't get to experience in Singapore, MediaCorp.
Hello Mission
Hello Mission was founded in 2013 provides services that can also be known as global human resource networking platform. The kind of "Mission"/ request can be of any types such as looking for a photographer, translator it getting people for interviews. Hello Mission faced financial issues in their initial stage. Government fundings had helped them to overcome this issue. He also had no experience with startups, so he was stressed and pressured by people.
He continued on because of his love for travelling and food. He wanted to make travelling more fun without travel agencies. Connect people with missions. Facebook and Twitter only allows users to communicate with friends, and couldn't buy something in one country and sell in another.
I find that this is a rather interesting idea because I do not need to fly to a particular country to get our favourite item. Instead, we can someone who is traveling to that country to get it for us. I feel that we could also establish friendships from this platform, and stories of the country the item is purchased can be shared as well.
I'm looking forward to the future plans that were mentioned - allow you to buy lots of souvenirs and sell it back in your country, "Market for souvenirs or local specialities", concept is that "I bought it", so they don't have to go out of the way to buy, just along the way. Some people may do souvenirs collection from various countries. This will another means for the collectors to get their collection. Most importantly, I really hope that these ideas can help to be their concrete business idea to progress and be sustainable.
Visual Darts
Visual Darts is founded in 2001. Their main focus is on visual designs, mobile game and 3D printer content development but not programming because there's too much to do. They are also the biggest graphic company in Korea with 5 teams. All of their designs are of Korea-Japanese style. They are encourage to know the tools well and participate in competitions to do concept art or 3D designs. Their future plan is to become a game development company where they just have to hire programmers.
I've learnt that Korea is famous in the gaming industry and I find that this company has its advantage here. It has made me to better appreciate the design works done by the designers. It's amazing that they have globalised with clients worldwide.
KBS
It was great to finally see what goes on behind the production of a program at the oldest broadcasting station. I was really surprised that in the small studio, they have 300 lights hanging all around the stage. Not too sure why they need so many lights though.
I was hoping that the tour would allow us to see even more things, and maybe some celebrities working on their schedule. Overall, a great experience, and we got to take lots of photoswith the Descendants of the Suns setup right outside KBS. I have yet to start watching the show though.
Hello Mission
It seems to me that Hello Mission hasn't really taken off till date, and it has been slightly over three years. It stands out due to the fact that they do more than just shopping, missions can come in any form, e.g. finding a photographer, finding a translator, conducting interviews.
The CEO, HyeongSeop Seo, said that "problem makes experience, and experience makes opportunity". This makes a a lot of sense, but it would have been better if he could share with us some concrete details as to how he overcome/plans to overcome all the problems that he has highlighted.
Similarly here, we noticed the stark difference in rental rates between Korea and Singapore, and that deterred him from starting up in Singapore even though he did consider.
Visual Dart
I was kind of surprised that this company despite being in the market for 15 years, have yet to move into game development. This is still part of their future plan, where they only got to hire developers since they already have the design talent. Of course, there are additional complexities if they were to do development too. But I believe that a company of their calibre is capable of pulling this off.
This visit has allowed me to understand the complexities behind 3D models and concept art. I never knew there were so many details behind the games that I play. This certainly made me learn to appreciate the hard work put in by the designers.
KBS
Getting a glimpse on how the media industry works, I'm shocked with how much work has to be done just to air a particular programme on TV! "800 SPOTLIGHTS = 7/8 HOURS = ALL DONE MANUALLY" Tough job that's.
Hello Mission
BELIEVE IN YOUR DREAM AND FIGHT FOR WHAT YOU TRULY WANT
DON'T BE BOTHERED BY WHAT PEOPLE WILL/IS GOING TO SAY
NO MATTER WHAT... JUST FOLLOW YOUR HEART
VisualDart
If you're thinking of working abroad, Korea will be a better option as compared to China
How do you get big companies to work with you? Show their work & persuade them. USE YOUR MOUTH. If you never try, you never know. However, It's important to make sure that the end result is up to expectation before giving it to the client. 1st impression is extremely important if you want the company to work with you again.
KBS
This is my first time visiting a broadcasting company. The tour was interesting. However, I hope to find out more about how a full live program runs if i have the opportunity to visit any broadcasting company.
Hello Mission
I feel there are loopholes in their business model. For example, they might lost a lot of customers if they do trading on their own without using their platform. Hello Mission should look into this issue and try to gain back this group of customers.
Visual Darts
Their designs are great. I hope they could continue to produce great designs to the gaming industry and hopefully starts their own games.
