Dialogue and Negotiation central in reviving COEX Mall

Coex Mall is a major underground shopping mall located in Seoul’s Gangnam district, which became globally known through Psy’s viral hit “Gangnam Style.” For the last three and a half years, a miraculous transformation has been taking place at Coex that could serve as a new model for Korean society. It was a “miracle of negotiation” made possible through communication, compromise, patience and wisdom.

The Korea International Trade Association(KITA), a key advocate of overseas export by Korean SMEs, established Coex at the beginning of the 21st century and Coex was considered to be one of the top commercial areas in Korea at the time. But for the next 10 years, Coex struggled to maintain its past reputation.

Store tenants were stuck in their old habits of doing business and could not adapt to the ever-changing trends and demands of consumers. To address this problem, KITA announced its plans to conduct a sweeping renovation of Coex and set forward for prompt execution.

In response to this decision, Coex store tenants expressed fierce opposition citing their rights as business owners and as a result, KITA and Coex became locked in a stalemate. However, KITA Chairman Duck-soo Han and the executives sought a way to convince the tenants and reap win-win results even though the process may take longer than initially expected. They agreed the store tenants’ rights must be upheld and that protecting their rights should be deemed no less important than reviving the mall to its former glory.

Instead of choosing to take the ‘all or nothing’ path where physical confrontation often occurred due to ideological, generational or class differences, the executives had taken a new approach and on November 27, Coex Mall successfully celebrated its grand re-opening.

CEO Young-bae Park, who led the negotiations for over three years sat down for an interview with The AsiaN. Park says, “It was a very difficult time. I used to suddenly wake up in the middle of the night because the tenants would come out in my dream. But I am very glad that our company and the tenants found a way to grow together through close communication.”