Seoul Food
From Sunday's Birmingham News, yet another Great Moment in Headline Writing, and an interesting article on the efforts to land the Hyundai plant in Alabama. Setting aside the arguments for and against corporate welfare, and whether such incentive packages are beneficial to taxpayers, the article shows that there is much more to winning this game than simply throwing money around. Believe it or not, it takes a bit of, dare I say it, sophistication; along with a big slab of luck. A couple of excerpts:

[...] Siegelman brought in some help new University of Alabama System Chancellor Malcolm Portera. Portera had helped lure Mercedes-Benz to Alabama in 1993 and Nissan to Mississippi in 2000. Plus, Portera knew B.H. Ahn, the Hyundai executive in charge of the company's plant project.

Luck.

"I also got a phone call from him the first week I was here," Portera said. "He said, `Dr. Portera, I am now head of Hyundai Automotive Group. If we come here can we work with the University of Alabama?' And I said, `You got that right.'"

Sophistication.

[...] Siegelman hopped a plane, along with House Speaker Seth Hammett, D-Andalusia, and others to travel to D.C. to sell Hyundai on Alabama. Siegelman had already been working on one aspect of his sales pitch speaking Korean. The governor was coached on how to say "good morning," "how are you?" and "welcome to the United States." But as his plane approached the capital, the governor began to wonder if he was saying the phrases correctly. "He called the Korean embassy to try it out on them first," Hammett said.

Sophistication.

When Siegelman finally delivered the phrases to Kim, the gesture registered immediately. "President Kim asked me if I had ever been to Korea," he said.

Luck.

[...] A helicopter ride was scheduled to Hyundai's research center 100 miles away, but an overcast sky grounded those plans, so the group piled into a Hyundai limousine. At the R&D center, Siegelman watched the company test cars in the wind tunnel and even got to watch a crash test. "President Kim looked at me and said, 'I hate this part,' as the crash test was starting," Siegelman recalled.

On the ride back to company headquarters, Siegelman got lots of face time with Kim, as snarled traffic made the trip last nearly nine hours. "You get to know somebody well when you're trapped in the back of a limo with them for that long," Siegelman said. "We really got a chance to talk about more than just business."

Luck.

[...] December was spent exchanging telephone calls, information and Christmas cards. The next month, Hyundai wanted to tour the final six sites. After touring Mississippi, Hyundai officials landed in Montgomery on the afternoon of Jan. 22. Siegelman met them at the airport something Hyundai officials would later tell Hammett no other governor bothered to do.

Sophistication.

That night Alabama officials were ready to put on the ritz. Jacque Shaia, president of the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama, and her staff aimed to make an impression at The Legends golf resort in Prattville. Or a series of impressions.

When the Korean officials arrived in their rooms, they found gift baskets featuring a number of Alabama-made products: recordings by Alabama musicians, books about the state, paintings by Pell City artist Wayne Spradley, peanuts from the Wiregrass. Korean teas were placed in each room. So were robes embroidered with "Stars fell on Alabama."

A note in English and Korean invited the guests to a feast in the resort's dining hall. Taking no chances, Shaia briefed the waiters and cooks on the importance of the dinner and the need for secrecy.

Shaia's favorite flower orchids decorated the tables and the dining hall. It was a good choice.

Sophistication.

"It turns out one of the Hyundai executives was head of the orchid society in Korea," she said. "It was just serendipity."

Luck.

Hyundai executives and Alabama officials dined on hot and sour soup, Salade a la Normandy, Gulf red snapper en papillote and a spicy beef dish called bulgogi. Dessert was lemon ice cream and cream cheese, white and dark chocolate mousse with raspberries, and fresh fruit with poppyseed yogurt dressing. Menus were written in both English and Korean, as was a note that awaited the executives when they returned to their rooms wishing them a good night.

Sophistication.

"President Kim came to me several times during the dinner and said how touched he was by the hospitality," Shaia said.

Luck.

On Feb. 25, Hyundai said it was in the final stages of deciding between Montgomery and Glendale, Ky., meaning that sites in Opelika and Mississippi and Ohio were out of the running. Three days later, Hyundai told the state to send its economic development delegation, headed by ADO Director Todd Strange, to Los Angeles in just four days for an official presentation.

Again the EDPA swung into action, this time putting together a written proposal for Hyundai. Shaia and her team opted for something more special than the typical three-ring-binder.

Twenty-five suede-bound, hand-crafted books were created using rice paper and silk sheets. On the front, Korean characters urged "a warm welcome," just under a metal Hyundai car emblem rounded up from dealerships. "We were going for the `wow' factor," Shaia said.

Inside the book were pictures of orchids. "By now, we knew," she said. There was a quote from Confucius, "Friends of one and the same head are just as sweet as the aroma of an orchid."

In the book, a letter from the governor touted the virtues of Alabama and the Montgomery site. Siegelman pledged to create the Hyundai Center for Automotive Excellence, which would become "the foremost center for automotive research, design and manufacturing in the 21st century." He also promised to name a stretch of Interstate 65 the "Hyundai Expressway."

Sophistication.

The book also took a subtle jab at Kentucky, which was having trouble securing the last 111 acres of its Glendale site because a family was unwilling to sell. There were repeated assurances that Montgomery's site would be available.

Bumpin' and rubbin'. You NASCAR types know what I mean.

[...] Kentucky and Alabama officials spent April Fool's Day on the telephone fine-tuning proposals, making new promises and trying to read the tea leaves.

At 8:35 p.m. Alabama time, Siegelman's phone rang. It was Hyundai President Kim. "Governor, I am calling to tell you we are going to build the plant in Alabama," Kim told Siegelman, who pumped his fist in the air to let his staff know it was good news.

Whether you like Siegelman or not (and you all know how I feel about him) and whether you believe such jiggery-pokery with the public purse is right or wrong, the Alabama Development Office did their derned homework.
posted by Terry at 1:37:00 PM