CWN(CHANGE WITH NEWS) - NETAND to Showcase Korean Security Excellence Through Partnerships [ENG]

▲ⓒCWN

NETAND, South Korea’s leading IAM (Identity and Access Management) security firm, has named ‘leverage’ as the cornerstone of its overseas market strategy. Rather than pouring in large sums of capital indiscriminately, the company plans to build local partnerships and take a long-term view. It is one of the survival strategies the company has developed for a cutthroat global marketplace where technical capability does not always translate into results. We sat down with Duhyung Lee, Executive Vice President of NETAND’s Global Business Division and the man at the helm of the company’s international expansion, to hear the story firsthand.

“You have to be clear-eyed about it. Instead of complaining that foreign markets are hard to break into, we need to ask whether we’re actually ready.”

Lee spoke without hesitation. A seasoned professional who had proven his mettle at global powerhouses like HP and Dell over more than two decades, Lee opened not with promises but with a diagnosis.

“Korean companies tend not to fully absorb foreign cultures when they look abroad. Instead, they filter everything back through a ‘Korean lens.’ That approach is a recipe for failure in global markets. In Asian markets, especially, customers place great importance on having their culture, practices, and regulations respected. Even a company that dominated back home will run into serious trouble if it goes overseas relying on its track record and technical credentials alone, without genuinely understanding the local culture.”

The Trap of ‘Meetings That End With a Handshake’... ‘Local Partners’ Over One-Off Encounters

One of the points Lee stressed most strongly was the limitations of ‘direct sales.’ “When you’re communicating directly without a reseller, the energy in the room is great,” he said. “But then you shake hands, say ‘thank you,’ and that’s it. Return for a follow-up visit, and everything has reset. Renting a booth at a massive trade fair, or hosting an event where staff flown in from headquarters say a few words — none of it amounts to anything.”

“But once you actually set up an office and get into the operational phase,” he continued, “you’re no longer seen as a visitor passing through — you become a partner people work alongside. Conversations carry over after meetings, and new opportunities start to open up. At the end of the day, winning over and supporting customers requires having a partner on the ground.”

▲ⓒCWN

NETAND Sets ‘Global Standards’ and Grows Through ‘Organic Growth’

Lee’s prescription comes down to two things: global standards and organic growth.

“NETAND wants to establish global standards and build systems tailored to the environments of our overseas customers. A tree with deep roots grows tall. We won’t be spending money on mass marketing the way many companies do these days. Spending money doesn’t guarantee results. Even in a crystal-clear mountain stream teeming with fish, plunging your hand in blindly won’t catch you a single one. The foundation is a leverage strategy, and we’re approaching it through the lens of organic growth. Even in a one-on-one meeting, we’re looking for a ‘win-win partner’ — someone who benefits just as much as we do. We want to get involved from the very start to help nurture the next generation of talent. NETAND has participated in the Korea Information Security Industry Association’s Southeast Asia Security Professional Training (SMTP) program for two consecutive years. By building up the local talent base and broadening our network, we believe our capacity to execute in the market will expand in kind over the long term.”

Korea’s No. 1 HIWARE Leads the Charge... NETAND Sets Its Sights on the Top of Asia’s PAM Market

NETAND has held the top market share position in Korea’s unified access control market for the past decade, building a reputation for technical reliability with a client base of more than 1,500 organizations. Its flagship product is HI-WARE, an integrated access-control and account-management solution.

HIWARE is also built on the ‘Zero Trust’ architecture, a defining theme in global security discussions, that verifies and manages every user access request through a step-by-step validation process. Its support framework is flexible enough to cover both cloud and on-premises environments. Lee’s strategy is to use these strengths to help overseas partners deliver security guidance optimized for the complex IT environments of their local customers.

“Our ambition is to reach the top of Asia’s PAM market — privileged access management, which centrally controls and monitors privileged account and system access across enterprises and institutions. At the very least, that is the goal we are working toward. To get there, chasing short-term sales figures won’t deliver results. We’re focused on identifying and building the structural foundations for sustained growth.”

[ⓒ CWN(CHANGE WITH NEWS). 무단전재-재배포 금지]