Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

Gun-Ho made a call to Min-Hyeok to ask Min-Hyeok’s bank account number in China.

“Why?”

“I’m going to send 30,000 dollars to your account. Can you take it out and give it to Professor Jien Wang? And don’t ask me why.”

“Okay.”

“You have a car allocated to you by the company, right?”

“They excessively gave me an Audi. I have a chauffeur too. The Chinese people here told me that the president of a company should ride a luxurious car with a chauffeur because the president represents the company. It is explained in the last week’s report. Did you review it?”

“Yes, I did. Actually, I am the one who told them to get you an Audi. Why don’t you go to Professor Wang with the interpreter, Ms. Eun-Hwa Jo in your Audi? If he asks you what the money is for, you just tell him you have no idea, and President Goo told you to give it to Professor Wang.”

“Okay.”

The next day, Gun-Ho received a call from Jien Wang.

“Hey, President Goo. Why did you send me that much money?”

“That’s your commission for introducing me to the joint venture. The investment amount is 3,000,000 dollars, so I gave you 1% of that amount.”

“If you wanted to send me the commission, you should have sent me 1% of your investment fund, not 1% of the capital of the company. I will take 15,000 dollars since that’s how it works according to the international business practice, and I will send it to Seukang Li to support his political activity. Thank you, President Goo.”

“Then assume that I send the other 15,000 dollars to support his political activity as well.”

“No, you shouldn’t. If you do, we can’t keep our good relationship for a long time. Also, it’s not a good idea to take the money from a foreigner for that purpose. We three will have another bigger project to do together in the future; let’s not mix up funds like this at this time. I will return the 15,000 dollars to the president of the joint venture—Jin-jjong.”

“Well, if you insist, Jien.”

After a few days, Gun-Ho received a call from Min-Hyeok.

“Professor Wang came to the office and placed an envelope on my desk and told me to give it to you. It’s money, 15,000 dollars.”

“Whew. Okay. Keep it with you for now.”

Gun-Ho received another call from Seukang Li as well. His voice was always calm, maybe because he was a government official.

“Gun-Ho? You shouldn’t have done that.”

“I was just complying with the international business practice.”

After a moment of silence, Seukang Li continued to talk.

“Okay, then. Thank you.”

It was probably for security reasons but, Seukang Li didn’t talk much and hung up the phone after a short conversation.

It was the day of the presentation in order to attract Korean companies into Jinxi Industrial Park.

Seukang Li, Jien Wang and the construction director of Kunshan City came from China to participate in the presentation. The joint venture’s president, Min-Hyeok and the vice president, Kkao-jjong joined them.

Gun-Ho asked the college instructor to interpret for him at the presentation; he was the one who had translated the joint venture’s business plan for Gun-Ho before. Manager Kang and Ji-Young came to participate as well; they both were wearing a suit neatly.

They placed a reception table at the entrance of the Gloria Hall in Koreana Hotel, and Manager Kang, Min-Hyeok and Ji-Young greeted the guests there.

“Please take a pamphlet with you.”

“Could you sign on the guest book, please?”

“We have prepared a drink over here.”

It was almost time to start the presentation. Min-Hyeok entered the hall to set up the PowerPoint he prepared, and Manager Kang grabbed the microphone to proceed with the presentation.

The total guest who came to the presentation was about 100 people. They were businessmen who saw the advertisements in the newspaper. The large Gloria hall was not fully filled with people but enough people came. On the platform, Seukang Li, the construction director of Kunshan City, Jien Wang, Kkao-jjong, and Gun-Ho was sitting on a chair. Manager Kang smoothly led the presentation. He was doing good; it seemed like he practiced a lot.

“Ladies and gentlemen, thank you all for coming today. We are going to start our presentation about the industrial park located in Kunshan City, China. After the presentation, we will have an individual consultation time where you can meet with one of our staff to talk about your opportunity with us. First, let me introduce to you the personnel from China. I will start with the front row. This is Deputy Mayor of Kunshan City—Seukang Li.”

Seukang Li stood up and bowed respectfully.

Manager Kang introduced all of the five people on the platform and then introduced Min-Hyeok as well.

“Deputy Mayor of Kunshan City—Seukang Li will explain about the industrial park.”

Seukang Li explained about the industrial park in his city in Chinese, and then the college teacher interpreted for the Korean guests. It seemed that this was not his first time interpreting; he did very well.

After Seukang Li’s explanation, Manager Kang introduced the next speaker—Gun-Ho.

“President Gun-Ho Goo from GH Development will explain further about the industrial park. GH Development is a Korean company and the co-venturer of this joint venture.”

Gun-Ho held the microphone, and Min-Hyeok opened the PowerPoint. Gun-Ho started explaining while pointing things on the PowerPoint with a stick.

“If you want a factory in Korea right now, about the size of 3,000 pyung, it would cost you 2 billion won. And the monthly rent would be anywhere from 5 million won to 10 million won. The Jinxi Industrial Park in Kunshan City can provide you a factory about the same size for half the price. The monthly rent is 2 million won, and the security deposit is only 1 billion won. As you can see in these pictures, these are newly constructed buildings; they are neat and clean. Please look at the sewage treatment plant here. China has developed significantly, and their technology is highly advanced now. The road here is large enough for a 40-ft container truck to use. You can also enjoy corporate tax-free for the first three years.”

Someone in the middle area shouted, “I have a question.”

“We will give you plenty of time to ask questions after the presentation.”

Gun-Ho was better at explaining about the industrial park and factories rather than Seukang-Li since he knew practical things in the field because of his previous work experiences at factories.

During the Q&A session, people started asking tons of questions.

“How much should we expect to pay for the electricity per kilowatt?”

“What is the maximum power capacity they can provide?”

“What is the duration of the contract?”

“Can we register the factory with the Chinese government under our name?”

“Is it possible to lend money using the factory?”

“How far is the industrial park from the port of Shanghai?”

“What’s the average monthly salary for a Chinese worker?”

Gun-Ho answered all of the questions smoothly and clearly.

Some of the participants wanted to visit the site before making their decisions. So, Gun-Ho asked who else wanted to visit the site, and 17 companies hoped to make a visit.

After the presentation, they had an individual consultation time. Gun-Ho and Min-Hyeok talked with each company. By that time, about 50 companies were left in the hall hoping to talk about the opportunity.

That day, Gun-Ho made a contract with four companies, and Min-Hyeok did it too with two companies.

After the consultation time, Gun-Ho told Seukang Li how many companies actually made a contract.

“Six contracts? That’s what I expected.”

“Don’t be disappointed yet. There are 17 companies that wanted to visit the site first before they would make a decision. I guess we will make at least two or three contracts from that group after the tour.”

Seukang Li assigned work to the joint venture vice president—Kkao-jjong.

“Once we receive the security deposit from those companies that made a contract today, build a prefabricated factory as soon as you can, according to the factory type they selected. Once we have a few factories built on the site, other companies will come to look at them. That will help them decide quickly.”

“Okay, sir. Building a factory is our area of expertise.”

Gun-Ho smiled.

“Once they receive the security deposit, they will use it to build a factory. If they start receiving the rent from the companies, they will spend less money that I invested. If ten companies move into the industrial park, they will make 20 million won per month, and it will cover the wages of the workers in the joint venture. Well, it’s about the same amount I make from the OneRoomTels.” Gun-Ho chuckled.