Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

When Gun-Ho entered the office next door, the design workers stood up altogether.

“Hi. I came with President Jeong-Sook Shin here. She will join you starting today.”

“Hi. I’ve heard a lot about you. My name is Min-Sook Oh.”

“You look familiar. Have we met before?”

“I’ve done some contracting work for KimBooks before.”

“Oh, I see. That’s why you look so familiar. Nice to meet you. I’m Jeong-Sook Shin.”

Min-Sook introduced the other two workers to her.

“This lady here worked in the design team with me. And the lady here, she handled administrative work for our previous company.”

“Oh, is that right? Have you worked with a publishing application before?”

“No, not yet.”

“We will start using a publishing application at work. The daily orders from Kyobo Book Center and Yes24 for example or some other companies will be all handled using the software. We will use the publishing application for our shipping request as well.”

When Jeong-Sook started talking with her employees about the work at the publishing company, Gun-Ho stood up to leave.

“Alright. I will leave you all here so you could comfortably talk about the work. I have an important meeting I need to attend anyway.”

President Shin quickly handed a piece of paper to Gun-Ho.

“What is this?”

“It’s a list of the books we will publish.”

“Haha. If you are okay with the book selection, then I am okay with it. I totally leave the decision up to you to use your discretion. Manager Kang, why don’t you hand over the company bank account and credit card to President Shin?”

“Yes, sir.”

Manager Kang handed the new publishing company’s bank book and business credit card to Jeong-Sook. Gun-Ho then walked out of the office. They will talk further about the details of the tasks and things of their publishing company.

The workers came to the front door of the office to see Gun-Ho leaving.

“Today is the first day of the company. Why don’t you celebrate by having lunch in a nice restaurant all together today?”

Gun-Ho then headed to Asan City.

Gun-Ho was having a cup of coffee in the morning with several directors and managers when the plant manager brought up the topic about Jae-Sik Moon.

“The security guard who used to work night shift here quit the job. I heard he is someone you know, sir.”

“I recently established a publishing company named GH Media. He will be working for that company as a chief editor.”

“A chief editor?”

“Yes. He used to work in the publishing field, and his novel has recently been selected for an award. The prize was 50 million won.”

“Oh, I see. I didn’t know he was a writer. Well, I think I saw him writing something in his security guard office. I guess he was writing a novel.”

The people in the office all laughed together.

“That’s good for him. He didn’t seem to fit in here anyway. He was inept at the work, and I was thinking of letting you know about it. Well, he found a job that fits in with his talent. I am happy for him.”

Gun-Ho was picturing Jae-Sik sitting at a desk writing and working with books that he loved. Gun-Ho felt happy for Jae-Sik.

After having a morning meeting with managers and directors, Gun-Ho checked his email. There was an email from President Jeong-Sook Shin; it said,

“President Goo, I understand that I don’t have to give you a daily report; however, I believe I need to let you know the decision on the books which we will be publishing, and the salaries of the workers. Here is the list of books we plan to publish.”

President Shin listed six books. The book list showed mostly the books about self-development that could be easily read by readers, except ‘Economy Trend in China for the 21st Century’ authored by Professor Jien Wang. Three of them were written by Japanese writers, and two of them were authored by famous Korean columnist.

“The book titles of these books are very provocative.”

Gun-Ho then looked at the workers’ salaries.

“President Shin 3.5 million won, Chief Editor Jae-Sik Moon 2.5 million won, Min-Sook Oh 2.2 million won, Assistant designer and administrative staff 1.9 million won.”

“I told her that I would pay her 5 million won, but she lowered it to 3.5 million won for herself. I guess she was concerned about what other workers would think about her receiving a high salary now when the company even haven’t started generating revenue. However, I know she will ask me to raise it once a book starts selling. She seems to be a sensitive person about money.”

Gun-Ho was reading an economic newspaper when the sales director entered his office.

“Sir, this is the product cost that we will bring to S Group.”

“How much is the product cost per unit?”

“It’s 4,800 won.”

“The labor cost is 860 won, huh?”

“Yes. The labor cost is divided into three different labors: handling the extruding machine and mixing the chemicals, and cutting work, and lastly quality assurance and wrapping.”

“Is this based on the next year’s projected labor cost?”

“No. We used this year’s labor cost. We need to base this year’s labor cost for the products that will be manufactured this year.”

“The product unit cost seems to be very high. What costs are included?”

“It includes electricity and rent for the factory.”

“A rent for the factory?”

“Yes. Even though we own the factory, I included the rental cost. Also, various supplies expenses and depreciation are reflected in the production cost.”

“The manufacturing cost per unit itself already exceeds 3,500 won.”

“The cost of wrapping and shipping have reflected that cost.”

“How much did you list for sales and management?”

“15% of the product cost.”

“Do you think the S Group will raise the issue on it?”

“They will try to lower that cost. However, I will convince them to approve our estimated product cost.”

“Okay.”

“Please sign on the production cost sheet. We will need your signature on it so we can use it outside the company, sir.”

Gun-Ho signed on the production cost.

Gun-Ho asked with a smile,

“How much do you think they will ask in their first order?”

“I am not so sure, but I am expecting that they will ask us to produce about 50,000 units.”

“50,000… It’s 240 million won then.”

The sales director was surprised by that, Gun-Ho calculated the revenue without using a calculator.

‘He has an excellent number of sense and high capacity for mental computation. Wow. No wonder he succeeded at his young age.’

“Have we received enough raw materials from Dyeon America already for those first 50,000 product unit?”

“We received 3 tons of raw materials so far. We are unloading it right now using a forklift truck.”

“Are you visiting S Group tomorrow with the production cost document?”

“Yes. I will go with the assistant manager who was in charge of that estimation.”

“Sounds good.”

“Okay, sir. Please let me know if you need anything.”

The sales director was walking towards the office door to leave when he turned back and came to Gun-Ho to say,

“Sir, I have something I’d like to ask you.”

“What is it?”

“Can we have two workers from the research center assigned to our sales department once the research center is dissolved?”

“I will send you one worker.”

“We need two of them, sir. We need at least two more people in order to strengthen our sales capacity.”

“Let’s talk about it later then.”

“Okay, sir. I will leave now.”