Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

Gun-Ho went to Dyeon Korea in the afternoon. Director Kim came into Gun-Ho’s office.

“Dingding is moving her office to our new factory building in the industrial park tomorrow.”

“Is that right?”

“Since she doesn’t have any employees now, President Min-Hyeok Kim will help her out for a while. He is going to send one of his workers in the maintenance team of GH Parts Company to the factory building to see if there is anything to fix.”

“Did she post job openings for a production worker and a management worker position?”

“I was told that she sent a request to the labor market notifying them that the company is in need of workers. And about the machines… GH Mobile is currently building more machines for Dyeon Korea. Since Dyeon China needs the machines as soon as possible, I think maybe we should send our machine no. 1 and 2 to China.”

“They need not only the machines but also the engineers who can handle those machines.”

“You’re right. So, we decided to send two of our workers to China. One is an assistant manager in the research center, and the other one is an engineer in the maintenance department.”

“Do you think that will be enough? Only two workers would be able to handle the machines in our new factory in China?”

“Manager Hee-Yeol Yoo from the research center and Manager Ahn from the maintenance team will go to China with them and stay there for several days to make sure that things are stable. Manager Yoo and Manager Ahn will spend about a week or so there before coming back to Korea.”

Director Kim then showed the approval form to relocate those two workers to China, to Gun-Ho for his signature. The form already included Vice President Adam Castler’s and Director Kim’s signatures on it.

“Did these two workers volunteer for the positions in China?”

“Yes, sir. When we announced that we were looking for two workers who would be willing to work in our new factory in China, we received a lot of applications. The competition was almost 1:3. The positions in China are attractive to many of our workers because they will receive their salary 1.5 times higher.”

Gun-Ho signed the form.

“Thank you, sir. I will send this form to the general affairs department, so they could send out the official announcement to each department. And, I will have the machine no. 1 and 2 ready to be shipped to China tomorrow.”

“Sounds good. And, we’d better hurry with sending those two workers to China.”

“Understood, sir.”

“I understand that the factory in India is not ready yet since they are still repairing the place. So, are you going to start finding the workers for the India location after we sent those two workers to China?”

“While we received a lot of applications for the positions in China, no one came forward to apply for the positions in India yet. I’m thinking about selecting two workers of our choice for India with more incentives than for those going to China. We will give them a better opportunity to be promoted once they work in India, in addition to raising their salary by 1.5 times more.”

“If no one has volunteered yet, then that should be what we have to do.”

“Once Manager Yoo and Manager Ahn come back from China, we will send them to India as well. Manager Yoo will set up the compound room there and train the workers, and Manager Ahn will handle installing machines and training.”

“Hmm.”

“Dyeon Korea will expand our production facility to the entire Asia, not just China and India. When it happens, we will set up a job rotation system, so every single worker in Dyeon Korea will have a chance to work abroad. If one doesn’t have work experience overseas within our company, that person will be excluded from the next promotion opportunity.”

Gun-Ho nodded his head.

After Director Kim left Gun-Ho’s office, the internal auditor came in.

“We had a visit from the stock brokerage company. In addition to our financial statements, they asked about our credit accounts, the outstanding balance of credit purchase, and also our inventory on raw materials, goods-in-progress, and finished products.”

“I believe that they are trying to figure out our company’s value with all those data.”

“Of course, sir. They will need all that information in analyzing our marketable securities.”

“Didn’t they say anything else?”

“They were wondering about how we did during the last six months from January to July of this year. They want us to pressure our accountant’s office to make our first half-year financial report as soon as possible.”

“We should then ask the Anchang Accountant Office to finish the financial report as quickly as they could.”

“I already made a call to Anchang Accountant Office’s Accountant Nak-Jong Lee asking him to make our half-year financial report quickly.”

“Good.”

After a moment, the internal auditor carefully asked Gun-Ho, “Umm, sir, once we get the first half-year financial report, are you planning to request the preliminary examination for the KOSDAQ registration?”

“I haven’t decided yet.”

“We will need to prepare documents and presentations on our business, targeting institutional investors as part of Investor Relations then.”

“Regardless of whether we would request for the KOSDAQ preliminary examination or not, it will be good to have documents ready explaining our business.”

“Understood, sir. I will work on the documents then with Ms. Accounting Manager Myeong-Soo Jo and Mr. Assistant Manager Il-Gi Seong from the sales department.”

“You will need data regarding our production plan as well. Do you think three of you would be able to figure it out?”

“Assistant Manager Il-Gi Seong used to work at the compound room, and he is highly knowledgeable about production as well. If we need help, we will ask help from other departments.”

“Okay.”

On the way home that evening in his car, Gun-Ho thought about it with his eyes closed.

‘2 million shares have been issued so far. Once we go public, we will have to issue the shares of 30% more. By that time, I won’t be able to keep the shares to myself only, but I will have to let part of them be traded in the stock market. As a result, my percentage of ownership will shrink…

That means that after the company goes public, my asset will increase, but my percentage of ownership of the company will decrease; this fact sort of bothers me.’

It was Friday.

News about Minister Jin-Woo Lee appeared in the news on the internet every day. They all talked about high probability that he would be elected during the upcoming by-election. Gun-Ho agreed with them. First of all, his competitor was not a very popular man. He was a former news anchor, and he often made a mistake when he talked in public.

On the other hand, Minister Jin-Woo Lee was once a congressman, and he was very experienced in the political sphere. He was highly skillful in communicating with others. He knew how to tactfully dodge a question that he didn’t want to answer.

Gun-Ho was reading a newspaper in his office in GH Development, Sinsa Town when he received a call from Minister Jin-Woo Lee.

“Mr. President Goo, we’ve received your contribution to our party. I’m calling you today to show my gratitude. Thank you very much.”

“I’m sorry that I couldn’t contribute more.”

“Don’t say that. You have no idea what it means to the members of the party. We will work hard not to disappoint our sponsors like you.”

Gun-Ho found the phone conversation with Minister Jin-Woo Lee somewhat ridiculous and funny.

‘Why is he talking this way? He sounds very diplomatic. Oh, maybe someone is listening to him right now? He could have simply said, “thank you.”

‘He will need more money after he gets elected in the upcoming by-election. Once he is elected, he will have to compete to become the leader of his political party, and also he will have to prepare to climb up his path toward becoming the president of the country. GH Mobile is not generating enough funds for me to provide him with more funds. He has to do better than this in supporting my business. With only a 30% or 40% increase in sales, I can’t do more than I’m doing for him right now. Don’t you think, Mr. Minister Lee?’