Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

After the inauguration ceremony ended, Gun-Ho visited all of the Mulpasaneop’s vendors accompanied by the sales director. There were not many vendors though; there were about ten of them. Four of the vendors were big companies, and Gun-Ho couldn’t directly meet with their presidents; he instead, met with someone in charge.

The president of one of the Mulpasaneop’s customers was President Se-Young Oh’s friend. Even though that company was a big company, the president wanted to meet with Gun-Ho; it was very unusual. Usually, the president of a big company didn’t directly meet with its vendors or customers’ president if they were not from a big company.

“I’ve heard a lot about you from President Se-Young Oh. He highly spoke about you, so I wanted to see you in person.”

“Thank you, sir. I am new in this field, and I don’t know much about the business yet.”

“No, no. Don’t say that. That’s not true. Even though I am running this big company as the president, I am just an employee who gets paid a salary on a monthly basis, but you are the owner-president of your company. I look forward to working with you.”

“I will do my best, sir.”

“As long as you produce quality products without a defect, we will definitely place orders for your new products.”

As soon as the president said that he was interested in ordering, the sales director told the president right away.

“Sir, the last time you told us that you would order BH5604 from us, that didn’t happen. You actually ordered it from somewhere else. It seems like you will be ordering more of the same product; can you make the order from us?”

“Really? Director Park has been with Mulpasaneop for a long time, right? You will have to assist well the new president—Gun-Ho Goo. As to the product, why don’t you send me a sample? I will review it.”

Once they returned to the car, the sales director started making complaints.

“The factory manager has a lot of issues. He doesn’t effectively handle the workers in the production department. Our factory is making so many defective products. That factory manager has been working with our previous president for 40 years, and I guess he is too old. He sometimes does things I don’t understand at all.”

“Hmm, is that so?”

Gun-Ho decided to observe the factory manager for a while.

When it came to the factory matters, Gun-Ho thought of his friend, Jong-Suk Park who was working at a factory. He made a call to him.

“Hey, MacGyver Park! What are you doing now?”

“Hey, bro! I was about to leave to do some welding.”

“Really? How much do you get paid from your current employer?”

“You suddenly called me now, and you are asking about my salary? Well, since I am the team leader, I get paid almost 3 million won.”

“Jong-Suk, come to Asan City. I will provide you with OneRoomTel too.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I just acquired a company. I will give you a managerial position. A manager in this company gets paid more than 4 million won.”

“Get out of here, man.”

“You, jackas* don’t believe me, huh? You said your company has 40 employees, right?”

“It’s actually 45 workers.”

“Whatever. My company has 250 employees. Pack your stuff and move here!”

“I don’t know.”

“Have I ever lied to you before? And the factory manager here is an old man who will have to retire soon. So you will have a promising future with this company.”

“The machines I am using here and the machines in your factory might not be the same since they probably have different specification. I’m not sure if I know how to operate those machines in your company.”

“You are a quick learner, bro. You will learn how to operate the machines in the blink of an eye. Come and join me!”

“I will get off work early tomorrow and will stop by there. I will have to see it first before making any decision.”

“Sounds good. I will buy you a tasty dinner.”

Min-Hyeok called Gun-Ho and told him that the joint venture would increase their capital stock.

“The city’s construction department approved it. They approved for the joint venture to increase the capital stock by 15% without consideration. Once it is done, the joint venture will then return our investment funds of 1,725,000 dollars.”

“So we are being paid 225,000 dollars for our hard work so far. That’s not much.”

“Do you want me to talk to them about it?”

“That’s okay. Leave it. I started that joint venture because of my friend—Deputy Mayor Seukang Li. He will hook us up with another good business opportunity later. At least we didn’t lose any money, which is good. We made 225,000 dollars after all.”

“They said that they will send the funds to your bank account.”

“Okay. Once we receive that fund, move to Ohyeon, Suzhou City right away. Get a condo there; as long as the rent does not exceed 5,000 Yuan, you can get any condo you want.”

“Okay. I will call you once I move to Suzhou City.”

Gun-Ho received a call from Deputy Mayor Seukang Li.

“I heard you are leaving the joint venture.”

“Yeah, it happened that way. From now on, the work that the joint venture will have to focus on is to manage the industrial park, so it would be more efficient for one company to manage it rather than two companies doing it together through a joint venture.”

“I’m sorry that we couldn’t increase more of your capital stock without consideration. I couldn’t be flexible there because the government could only get involved in a limited way.”

“That’s okay. At least I made money and didn’t lose money, so that’s okay.”

“I’ve heard you will have a business in Ohyeon.”

“That’s right. Ohyeon is within your city—Suzhou City so I might need your help later for my new business.”

“I heard from President Min-Hyeok Kim that you are taking over an auto parts company.”

“Right. It’s manufacturing auto parts and selling to car manufacturers.”

Seukang Li told Gun-Ho how sorry he was several times before he hung up the phone. It seemed that he was conscious about the 15,000 dollars he received from Jien Wang last time as a commission. Gun-Ho was getting 225,000 dollars as he quit the joint venture, and if he subtracted the 15,000 dollars then he would still end up making 210,000 dollars. Gun-Ho didn’t make much by participating in this joint venture.

However, Gun-Ho didn’t take it that way.

“It was an absolute success.”

At first, he didn’t lose any money and Seukang Li now felt that he owed Gun-Ho, which was really good. Gun-Ho knew Seukang Li would do something very helpful to him in return in the future. Second, Gun-Ho now had a valuable friend and worker—Min-Hyeok Kim. He had grown a lot while he was working in China. So he was more than capable of running Mulpa Automotive on his own.

“Min-Hyeok, I helped you to fly by putting wings under your arms. How much further you could fly is totally up to you now. Fly further and higher, my friend.”