The Famous Millionaire

“Uh? It’s Brother Kwangsu on the phone. Has he already finished the coverage? Hello?”

Hyunwoo picked up the phone. Kwangsu Han of Real Film began talking to him abruptly, “It will air at 7 pm on April 2nd.”

“What? Where are you now? Did your coverage go well?”

“That’s why you need to keep in touch with me, man. How come you’re asking me like that? I came back from Vietnam a long time ago. I hear they have set the broadcast date on N&C’s castor Dream Team.”

“Ah, is 7 pm on April 2?”

“Yes. You know the program ‘Everything in the World,’ right? I really spent lots of time making the special with great devotion. If you like it, buy me a great dinner, okay?”

“Of course! Thanks so much.”

Hyunwoo marked April 2 in red ink and set up a notification on his cell phone. And on that day he and his team members got together at the conference room, putting off their quitting time.

“Finally it’s today.”

“Wow, I’ve got high expectation.”

Above all, Manager Park was very nervous because he participated in the program directly.

‘Everything in the World’ is a TV program that didn’t have a specific topic. Instead, they produced episodes on topics that might attract an audience like delicious or strange restaurants, and sometimes it features eccentric or poor people. As there was no rival program in the same time slot, it had the best ratings for more than 10 years.

“Oh, here it is!”

Everybody turned their eyes to the TV at Suji Min’s words.

The coverage started with the dream team’s formative stage. Hyunwoo, who took the lead from the start, was missing though Manager Park was shown. The feature focused on each member of the dream team as the best technicians in their fields, though they were not perfect.

Watching the program, the audience might have felt naturally that there could be a tremendous synergy if the dream team members gathered. The moment the audience might feel that way, Youngsu Park met Dohyuk Kim, the dream team leader, and Dohyuk started persuading the team members with the full support of Aurum.

In this particular scene, Real Film used stand-ins for the dream team members including Dohyuk as Real Film could not bring the team members to Korea for the shooting.

Though it was a very hard journey, the dream team was finally composed thanks to Dohyuk’s persistent determination. It was a very touching moment for Hyunwoo, so he clapped as he watched.

Then, the program brought up the problems such as the unit price, annual salary, and equities that stood in the way of the dream team’s future. They could not find a castor company in Korea that could hire them.

Then, they were dramatically connected to N&C in Vietnam. The Korean businessmen in Vietnam joined hands with the dream team and renewed their determination. They spent day and night on the research and development of a new, high-quality castor and finally succeed in producing a dream product.

It was the moment everybody’s heart was throbbing.

How great would be the quality of that product?, the audience might have thought.

N&C’s castor went through the quality test of Aurum immediately and ranked A+ grade in all areas, and it easily passed even the quality test of Oda Trading which was well known for its technology in Japan.

Until then, Japan’s Castor had the monopoly on the castor market, but the castors made by the Korean dream team succeed in pushing out the Japanese product.

The last segment of the program was an interview with Dohyuk Kim, “The success story of the dream team has just begun. The Vietnamese government is fully supporting us. Our dream team will show how fast we can grow when Korea and Vietnam meet like this.”

“Wow! Great!”

Clap! Clap! Clap!

The team members clapped loudly as did Hyunwoo.

The feature program contained all the contents Hyunwoo asked for. In particular, Dohyuk’s praise of the Vietnamese government’s support was well covered. Hyunwoo hadn’t expected that much as far as that portion was concerned. He thought that Korean Broadcasting would edit Real Film’s coverage anyway, but that portion was not taken out for some reason. Maybe it was because of Kwangsu’s lobbying or KB team’s own conclusion that it was okay to keep that portion unedited.

Thanks to that, Hyunwoo could use the program more extensively for publicity.

His foremost goal was to use it as a promotion either in Korea or in Japan, but he thought it might have more promotional effect in Vietnam.

If Hyunwoo had the program dubbed into English and showed it to the Vietnamese officials, they would scramble to use it as promotion material.

Wow, I think I did it right to assign the job to brother Han.

To put Hyunwoo’s feelings at the moment into one word, it was a satisfaction.

Aside from the team members, Manager Park was also satisfied. Though the program mentioned a lot about the Vietnamese government’s support, the best part of it was Manager Park’s support.

Very good! Great. Wonderful job!

Manager Park encouraged Hyunwoo as if he wanted to be lavish him with his praise.

“Thanks. Is it okay if I promote Aurum by using this program?”

“Of course! Let me take care of winning the president’s approval. Just submit any idea!”

Hyunwoo drafted another press release. So far, whenever he drafted a press release, Sunyoung Do of the PR team edited the wording. This time, she wouldn’t do it because the release was intended to promote Aurum not N&C.

The content read:

Korea’s dream team has succeeded in replacing Castor of Japan’s products as the best quality in the world. This testifies the wonderful technology of the dream team. In Korea, only Aurum is using N&C’s product because Aurum fully supported the whole process of forming the dream team and its success story in Vietnam. Thanks to the investment and efforts of Aurum, Aurum receives N&C’s new product at a discount, and this has contributed to Aurum’s recent jump in stock price.

No one touched the contents of the press release. Daebong Park and the PR team okayed it, and the media published it without any editing.

The special feature on the dream team aired on ‘Everything in the World’ and Hyunwoo’s press release created a synergistic effect. Aurum’s stocks were at their all-time highs for three days in a row, but that was not all.

As Aurum put advertisements on TV and in the dailies aggressively, Aurum’s sales surged drastically. Before and after the program aired, the daily difference in sales was more than fifteen percent.

Daebong could not sit idle. Calling Youngsu in his office, he offered him a company card, “Great job! Why did you wander like that when you could show and excellent performance like this? Treat your team members to great food! And select one person for special promotion at the upcoming regular personnel transfer season.”

“Haha, thanks, uncle!”

“Hey, stop calling me uncle in the company. I told you not to call me like that many times!”

“Yes, president!”

“Haha.”

Aurum was not the only company that enjoyed the effects of the promotion. In fact, N&C Korea enjoyed more actual benefits. Less than one month after the promotion ended, N&C Vietnam had executed contracts with as many as five companies at a much higher unit rice than Aurum enjoyed, totalling $700,000 per year. Thanks to that, N&C Korea could enjoy 6% sales commission on average.

As the quality for the price was so good, the profits of N&C Vietnam were still high even with the sales commission deducted.

“Wow! How much do I earn then?”

Hyunwoo’s income increased by 40 million won per year after the dream team’s segment aired If he divide it by half for Sungwoo Paek, he would still take 20 million won per year. He felt as if he was full even without having a meal.

Of course, the money was not coming in as much as he expected. Though the contracts were executed, N&C had reached its full production capacity, so it could not produce any more immediately.

“Hummm…They can’t supply the products even with the three shifts working day and night? N&C stocks will keep surging, hahaha.”

Hyunwoo recieved a call from N&C almost every day. This time the news Sungji Na conveyed was that the Vietnamese government gave an interest-free loan to N&C, and N&C purchased ground near the factory.

Sometimes, Master Technician Sangtaek Kwon called him to ask to purchase machines. He was in touch with his acquaintances in Korea, and whenever he was tipped off, he would buy the necessary machine quickly.

Sangtaek called Hyunwoo today and told him that there was a very good machine for sale, but Hyunwoo was not comfortable taking his call in the office, “It is Mr. Paek who has to confirm the machine anyway, Mr. Kwon, so please call him next time.”

“I don’t know him at all. How can I ask a favor of someone that I don’t know? And I don’t have any trust anybody if he is not Mr. Jang.”

“As I told you, Mr. Paek is the main person taking care of your request.”

“Still, I feel relieved only when I talk to you like this. Even though it’s annoying to you, please play an intermediary role for me.”

“Got it.”

Hyunwoo called Sungwoo again to relay Sangtaek’s request.

Whenever Sungwood received a call like this, he complained, “That machine located in Kimchon? I’m in Namwon now.”

“It won’t take that long if you drive there. Take care, dude.”

“Damn it. I think I have to find a job somewhere else. I don’t want small errands like this, man.”

“Haha, that’s a good idea. Tell me if you find another job, man,” Hyunwoo joked.

Then, Sungwoo changed the topic as if he had nothing to say, “Let me check out the machine tomorrow. By the way, he keeps calling me to say that he wants to go to Vietnam.”

“He wants to join the dream team in Vietnam?”

“No, he is an expert in plastic combination. I feel like I’m running a contractor company as things stand now,” said Sungwoo with a giggle.

Sungwoo’s position these days was understandable. Recently, he received many calls from local technicians to discuss their own expertise that was not always limited to the field of castor production. They usually asked him if they could join the dream team in Vietnam.

Of course, it was Sungwoo who they called because he was registered as the representative of N&C Korea.

However, Sungwood didn’t complain about it. Though he grumbled sometimes, he was tender-hearted by nature. Whenever he received such a call, he contacted Mr. Na in Vietnam to see if there were any relevant job openings.

The problem was that there were too many calls like that even though Hyunwoo didn’t want to turn a deaf ear to their request. Suddenly, a good idea came to his mind.

“Hey, I think I have to create a bulletin on the N&C cafe homepage,” said Hyunwoo

“What kind of bulletin?” asked Sungwoo.

“A kind of international job ad. The companies in Vietnam put ads about the experts they want, and the Korean experts put ads of their own about their expertise. Then, they can solve the problem themselves.”

“Wow, that’s a good idea! Do it quickly! Let me take a break, man.”

“Sure.”

“Great. Now, I think I can take a break, haha.”

A few days later, Sungwoo called him again. It seemed that he had confirmed the new bulletin.

Hyunwoo picked up the phone gladly, “Did you see the bulletin?”

“What bulletin? I don’t know. By the way, I’ve got something big.”

“Something big? What is it?”

Hyunwoo didn’t think it wa a big deal. What could be a big deal when N&C Korea was on a roll like this?

“We received an sample order from Art Hill.”

Having heard Paek’s explanation, Hyunwoo’s heart sank, “What? Art Hill?”

Art Hill was the company that humiliated him by failing N&C products before on purpose. They had approached with the intention of pulling N&C down from the beginning.

Hyunwoo bite his lips and thought, What should I do? One more challenge? Or reject their request?