Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

BM Entertainment’s President Hyeon-Man Yee crossed his legs while sitting on the sofa with a cup of tea on his hand, and he said, “You said that you wanted to ask me about something. What would you like to know?”

BM Entertainment was a publicly-traded company being registered with KOSDAQ. This company’s market value was exceeding 300 billion won. President Hyeon-Man Yee was a highly well-known public figure as well. Even though he had needed help and received help from Gun-Ho back in Shanghai once, he considered Gun-Ho as an ordinary businessman with a few small companies which were not even public companies. Moreover, he was in his 50s while Gun-Ho was only in his 30s. Therefore, he thought that he had a higher social status than Gun-Ho. He obviously didn’t know about Gun-Ho’s potential just yet.

Gun-Ho crossed his legs after sipping his tea, and he said, “I was wondering if you know anyone who is very familiar with the soap opera production industry. If you do, I was hoping that you could arrange a meeting with that person.”

“We are a management company working with singers mostly, and we get involved in producing music as well. However, it’s different from a soap opera production field.”

“I’ve been only in the manufacturing industry. I know nothing about the entertainment field. Someone recently asked me to make an investment in a soap opera production in Shanghai, so I came here to get some advice from experts like you.”

President Hyeon-Man Yee changed his posture by crossing his legs again the other way around, and he asked the manager who was sitting next to him, “Do you know what Woon-Hak Sim is doing these days?”

“Well, I heard people saying that he has not been doing well financially after he filed bankruptcy not long ago, but I don’t know what exactly he is doing these days.”

“What do you think if we introduce him to Mr. President Goo?”

“Well, I think it’s a good idea. He is good and savvy since he has been in the industry for a quite long time.”

President Hyeon-Man Yee changed his posture again and said to Gun-Ho, “Mr. President Goo, I know this person who used to work at a broadcasting station as a PD. He participated in producing many soap operas for a long time. He has been out of this field ever since he failed his own business. I think that starting his own business was a reckless and stupid decision in the first place. Anyway, he is very competent and knowledgeable in the entertainment field, especially in the soap opera production industry. I will introduce him to you.”

“What happened to his business?”

“He is very good at producing soap operas, but the thing is that he insisted on casting only top stars in his own soap opera. After he paid those stars and the drama writer, he was left with nothing much to cover the expenses incurred in the process. It might not be a big deal to the people with enough funds like you—Mr. President Goo—but, if you have to take a loan in order to make a soap opera, that could put you on the path for bankruptcy. Some people committed suicide when they failed that way.”

“Hmm, really? Well, please arrange a meeting with him for me. I’d like to meet with him first.”

“Okay. If you could go back to your office and wait until we give you a call, I will search him around and get back to you.”

“Haha. Thank you so much. I really appreciate your help.”

“Don’t mention it. It’s the least I can do for you.”

Gun-Ho left BM Entertainment’s office in Cheongdam Town and went back to his building in Sinsa Town. When he arrived there, he went to GH Gallery before going up to his office. GH Art Gallery was hosting an art exhibition with three young artists’ artworks. At the entrance, GH Media’s worker was distributing a pamphlet to the visitors. When she saw Gun-Ho, she gave a bow to him.

The art gallery was quiet, maybe because the three young artists were not very well-known artists. Gun-Ho was thinking of purchasing an art piece there, and then he decided not to because he couldn’t find anything that attracted him, and also, it was not easy to find an adequate place to display an art piece anyway.

Gun-Ho then went up to his office on the 18th floor.

When Gun-Ho was about to sit on the sofa in his office, his phone started ringing. It was Jae-Sik Moon from China.

“Did you receive my email? I sent you the list of each manager’s name of the newly structured departments of the joint venture.”

“Yes, I did.”

“Also, since we are running a terminal business, we need to hire new employees, not for the management but the workers who will work in the worksite.”

“You mean the staff who will work with the freight, selling bus tickets, and inspecting tickets, and stuff?”

“Yeah. I’ve talked with the Chinese partner here as well.”

“Of course, we will need personnel for those works in order to operate the terminal.”

“And, now I have my own office. They gave me an office in the east station which is being operated right now.”

“That is the construction site as well. Will you be okay there with all the construction dust and noise?”

“I should be here and running the business. This is my workplace. We are not moving the current terminal to some other place, but we are rebuilding the current one in the same place.”

“Hmm, that’s true.”

“They are working on decorating my office a little bit. It’s spacious. I will have my own office here, and the vice president—the Chinese man—will have his own office here too.”

“Hmm, really? What about Ms. Eun-Hwa Jo? Is she now an employee of the joint venture for the office position?”

“Yeah. We hired her as an office worker. Her salary is a bit low, so I’m personally adding 400 Yuan to her current monthly salary.”

“Hmm, I see.”

“The vice president and the sales manager visited Guiyang City’s transportation department the other day. It didn’t go well though. They are still trying to negotiate.”

“What was the matter?”

“We are insisting that we need to run at least three buses while they want only two buses. We need to reach an agreement with them because of the Duikai Policy (the concurrent operation of two parties). We have to come up with the number of buses that both parties agree to.”

“Do we have only one bus line to Guiyang City?”

“No. They are working with Yibin City and Luzhou City in Sichuan Province right now to run our buses there too. The thing is that they are not running an express bus. Their roads are not in an adequate condition to run an express bus because those cities are located in a different province from us—Guizhou Province. The negotiation with them is not easy either.”

“Didn’t they tell us before we decided to join their project that there was no problem running 20 buses for the passenger transportation service business?”

“Yeah. That’s how they do the business. Someone told me though that we will eventually get the lines, but it might take some time.”

“Really? Well, try to relax then. If it takes time to work out, don’t get stressed in the meantime.”

“After we started negotiating to get bus lines, many motor vehicle manufacturing companies have been contacting us. They want us to buy buses from them.”

“How much does it cost to get an express bus in China?”

“It’s about 200 or 300 million Korean won per bus. Most of those motor vehicle manufacturing companies work with foreign auto companies. I’m thinking of selecting the Daewoo manufacturing company.”

“Daewoo Express Bus? Are you saying that you want to import buses from Korea?”

“No. I’m talking about Daewoo Company in China. There is an autonomous region called Guangxi in Guilin City. It’s close to Guizhou Province. There is a company called Guilin Daewoo Bus Co., Ltd. That’s a joint venture bus manufacturing company between a local company and Daewoo.”

“Really? I didn’t know that. It seems like Daewoo Company is everywhere. Daewoo Company no longer exists though, doesn’t it? They went broke.”