Korea: Economic Growth Strategy

Following a sustained period of growth, Korea is now the 12th largest economy in the world. It has frequently been noted as one of the most successful models of industrialization in the world.

Challenge
However, since the mid 1990s, Korea’s geographic position between the rapidly growing Chinese economy and the world-class competitiveness of the Japanese economy has led to increased vulnerability. Korea faces increasing head-to-head competition in the global market. It was clear that the Korean economy would not be able to achieve further meaningful growth to escape from the so-called “$20,000 GDP per capita trap” through traditional methods of competition.

To address this issue, A.T. Kearney launched a joint initiative with the largest financial newspaper in Korea to develop a quantum-leap strategy for the country’s economy.

Approach
Our research and analysis showed that the key success factor for further growth was capitalizing on disruptive changes within the global economic environment, which we defined as “Business Creativity.”

We diagnosed Korea's current business creativity level to develop a “Creativity Index” and assess the business creativity level of major industry sectors within the country. Based on the research results and further analysis, we concluded that enhancement of the creative index by 0.5 point would lead to $30,000 GDP per capita.

Results
This finding led to a series of concrete recommendations for both the private sector and the government.

These recommendations were launched at a high-profile event in Korea and led to requests for further exploration into this area. Accordingly, A.T. Kearney recently published a book titled Creativity based Innovation: Incubate Creative DNA. [link to book overview, purchasing info?]