It was December 5th.
Gun-Ho received a call from Dyeon Korea’s Director Kim.
“I came back from the trip to Guangdong Province, China, sir. The factory that Director Hyeong-Woo Lee picked looks fine. He was holding it by a verbal contract, and I signed the contract before leaving the area.”
“Well done.”
“Also, the paperwork for establishing a subsidiary company there is completed as well. I understand that Director Hyeong-Woo Lee will not stay there to manage the company, but for now, I listed his name as the president of that company.”
“Sounds good. We can update it later once someone is officially appointed to the position.”
“And, we have now the last month’s profit and loss statements for our manufacturing facilities overseas, including the one in Noida, India and the one in Tianjin City, China.”
“Really? So, they already sold some products, huh?”
“I will give you the last month’s performance reports on our four factories abroad. The factory in Chennai, India made 300 million won last month while the one in Noida, India generated 400 million won. Even though the factory in Noida started its business later than the one in Chennai, its sales revenue is greater than the Chennai location because the sales that Manager Jong-Geun Lee had made were added to it. That’s how its sales revenue for the last month came out as 400 million won.”
“Hmm, I see.”
“For the factories in China, the Suzhou location made 400 million won, and Tianjin location made 200 million won.”
“What is our total sales revenue if we combine them all?”
“It’s 1.3 billion won, sir.”
“That is for the last month, so assuming that they will continue to make the same amount for a year, their total annual sales revenue will be 15.6 billion won.”
“That’s correct, sir.”
“But, even if we combine those overseas sales revenues with our domestic sales revenue, it won’t reach 100 billion won yet.”
“We are anticipating making over 100 billion won next year, sir.”
“Of course, we should.”
“As we signed the contract for the new factory in Guangdong Province, China, we placed an order for 4 new machines with GH Machines. When I stopped by GH machines yesterday, they already finished building up those 4 machines. I’m going to ask them to ship the machines to China as soon as we make the full payment to them for those machines.”
“Okay. Good job.”
Later that day, Gun-Ho received an expected call. It was from Lymondel Dyeon in Seattle, U.S.
“Hello?”
“Hi. This is Angelina Rein from Lymondell Dyeon.”
“Oh, Ms. Angelina Rein. It has been a while. How are you?”
“I called because I have something that I want to discuss with you about.”
“Please hold one second. I will bring my interpreter.”
Gun-Ho quickly called for Secretary Yeon-Soo Oh. But, instead of Secretary Yeon-Soo Oh, Assistant Manager Ji-Young Jeong from the general affairs department entered the office. She said, “Ms. Yeon-Soo Oh stepped out right now. She went to the lady’s room, sir.”
“The lady’s room? Well, I need her right now. Can you go to the lady’s room and tell her to come to the office as soon as possible? I have someone on the phone right now from the U.S.”
“Yes, sir.”
While waiting for Secretary Yeon-Soo Oh, Gun-Ho spoke to Ms. Angelina Rein several times that he was sorry for keeping her waiting.
“I’m sorry. Just a moment.”
“Okay. No problem.”
After a while, Secretary Yeon-Soo Oh came into Gun-Ho’s office.
“It’s Ms. Angelina Rein from Lymondell Dyeon. Talk to her, please.”
After listening to what Ms. Angelina Rein said for quite a while, Secretary Yeon-Soo Oh turned her head to Gun-Ho and said, “She is asking about what you think of Mr. Adam Castler who is working here right now. She wants to hear your opinion on his leadership, work ability, and interpersonal skills, etc. She is asking if you could give him a score on a scale such as A, B, and C for each.”
“Well, tell her that I would give him all A.”
“Yes, sir.”
In the afternoon, Gun-Ho received a call from A Group’s CEO Park.
“Have you thought about selling your ownership interest on Dyeon Korea?”
“As I mentioned to you the other day, I can’t sell it for 170 billion won. Dyeon Korea is a financially strong company without any debts. Moreover, it has a significant amount of cash piled up in the reserve right now.”
“We will have to emphasize the fact that the company is loaded with a substantial amount of cash in the reserve, to the potential buyer then. Would you like to have a meeting with the potential buyer tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow?”
“Do you have necessary documents already prepared, by any chance, that you could present to the potential buyer?”
“Yes, I do have them.”
“Good. Then, please bring the certified copy of corporate registration and those documents about the company business to W Group’s secretary’s office. You know the W Group that is located in Euljiro, right? I will schedule the meeting at 2 pm.”
“W Group?”
“Yes.”
After getting off the phone with CEO Park, Gun-Ho made a call to Dyeon Korea’s internal auditor.
“It’s Gun-Ho Goo. We have IR documents that we prepared for the presentation targeting institutional investors last time, as part of Investor Relations, right?”
“We do have them, sir. They are PowerPoints documents.”
“I need the introduction section that is describing the company and its business. Can you update the numbers there, and send them to me now? Oh, you know what? Please send it to GH Development’s Manager Hong.”
“Yes, sir. I will work on it right away.”
Gun-Ho called for Accounting Manager Hong.
“You will receive company documents from Dyeon Korea’s internal auditor soon. Please make 5 copies of those documents and bring them to me.”
“Yes, sir.”
The following day, when Gun-Ho arrived in his office in GH Building, Sinsa Town, the Dyeon Korea’s documents that he requested to print out and make 5 copies of them were sitting on his desk. A certified copy of Dyeon Korea’s corporate registration was placed next to the documents as well. Accounting Manager Hong must have left them on Gun-Ho’s desk. Gun-Ho started reviewing the documents.
“These are all in color. Looks good.”
After lunch, Gun-Ho had his afternoon coffee in his office as usual. He then brushed his teeth and put those Dyeon Korea’s documents and the certified copy of corporate registration in a large envelope. He then headed out to W Group in Euljiro.
On the way to W Group, in his Bentley, Gun-Ho thought about W Group. W Group’s president was infamous for his arrogant attitude. He was also known as someone who was often on a serious power trip, to an abusing level. He often slapped his employees’ faces and kicked their shin whenever he was not satisfied with them or with their work. His horrible behavior toward his employees was worse when he was younger.
Gun-Ho chuckled and thought, ‘Min-Hyeok Kim actually tried to get into W Group hoping to work for them, and he failed twice. At least, he was able to apply for a job opening with them because he graduated from a college located within Seoul City. On the other hand, I, who graduated from a low-ranked college in the countryside, couldn’t even dream to submit a job application with them.’
He continued to think, ‘Who will I be talking with today. Will they send their chief secretary? Is W Group’s chief secretary considered at the same level as its president? Or senior director? Oh, that’s right. W Group has W Chemicals. W Chemicals’ CEO probably will be at the meeting with me. But W Chemicals is a large company that generates more than 1 trillion won yearly. I wonder if its CEO will be there to meet with me.’
When Gun-Ho arrived at W Group, and when he was about to enter its building, he recoiled from the scene that there was some sort of gate at the lobby where only the people with an ID card could pass. All of the employees, who were walking in and out of the building, were wearing an ID card around their necks.
“How do I get in there then?”
When Gun-Ho was standing there trying to figure out what to do, a security guard approached him and said, “If you are visiting someone in our building, you can get a visitor’s pass from the front desk over there, sir.”
