Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

Gun-Ho showed a seat to Amiel with a floor cushion on the floor and an embroidered folding screen behind. A large floor table with all sorts of Korean food with Sinseollo* and liquor was brought in. There were so many Korean dishes on the table that the legs of the table looked a bit bent.

Gun-Ho’s party was talking about their playing golf earlier that day when two girls in a Korean traditional dress came into the room with Gayageum. They gave a slight nod of greeting to Gun-Ho’s party and started playing Gayageum.

Amiel closed his eyes to fully enjoy the music. When the girls finished playing, he clapped passionately.

“Excellent!”

Amiel asked them to play one more music.

“I like the vibration of Gayageum better than Japan’s Shamisen. It gives deeper sound.”

After they played three songs with Gayageum, another three young girls entered the room. They would serve Gun-Ho’s party in enjoying their time there with food and liquor. One of the girls could speak English very well.

Amiel seemed to feel good. It was his happy and lucky day. He played golf, took a hot spring bath, and now he enjoyed Gayageum music; moreover, the pretty girls were sitting with him to serve him.

Amiel looked at Gun-Ho with a smile and said,

“President Goo, to be honest with you, I was a bit surprised when I saw your factory in Asan City.”

“Why?”

“I thought you were just doing a rental property business, and I’ve never thought that you would run a big factory like that. Well, I know you used to work as a mechanic, but still… it surprised me.”

“Thank you, Amiel.”

“Do you really really want to do a joint venture with Dyeon?”

“Of course, I do.”

The girls served meat and fish to Amiel after removing its bones and cut into pieces so he could easily eat them. They filled Amiel’s glass with liquor as well.

“Thank you. It tastes good!”

Amiel said while having his fish dish,

“Once you are done with restructuring your company, make nice financial statements.”

“Hmm. Okay, I will do that.”

Attorney Young-Jin Kim added to help Gun-Ho.

“President Goo has another factory in China. He already established a sales network in the Chinese market.”

“Hmm. That’s nice. I will help you, President Goo. For now, finish restructuring your company and make a business plan for a joint venture. You will need to include anticipated sales revenue from overseas markets as well, such as China and Southeast Asia.”

“Hmm.”

“I will send you basic information about Dyeon once I go back to Japan. It will be useful to know things like types of raw materials, prices of supplies, compound costs and etc.”

“Okay. Let’s make it happen.”

The three men clinked their glasses to each other’s.

“Girls, please join us and drink!”

The girls joined the three men in clinking the glasses while laughing.

Gun-Ho came back to Asan City, and he was sitting at his office. He felt good since Amiel was positive about Gun-Ho’s participating in the joint venture with his company. He was thinking,

‘Let’s not restructure the company forcefully, but let’s do it smoothly and naturally. It shouldn’t have to be a painful process.”

Gun-Ho decided to move the factory somewhere else. He wanted to quietly look for a good factory that he would move to. He called for the internal auditor.

“I think we should move our factory.”

“Our factory? To where?”

“Can you look for a good one on an auction website? Once you see any large factory that was selling for less than half price of its original price, then let me know.”

“Yes, sir. What about the location?”

“Anywhere around Northside of Asan City should be good. If you could, I prefer a factory that is larger than 5,000 pyung.”

“Yes, sir. Are we then selling the factory in Asan City?”

“No, we will keep the main factory. However, we will sell the second factory where the research center, the storage, and the dormitory is located.”

“I agree with you on selling the storage building and dormitory in restructuring our company. However, if we sell the second factory, where do we conduct our research?”

“Do you think it’s worth keeping our research center? Is it being productive?”

“Umm, yes, I think so.”

“The research center hasn’t produced anything for the past three years, not even one patent. It seems that we’d better buy a patent, rather than get a patent with our own technology. Moreover, the workers in the research centers are mostly old people. The chief officer has a Ph.D. from Germany, but he is already 60 years old.”

“That… doesn’t mean we need to let them all go…”

“I won’t lay them off. I will send all of the 30 workers in research centers to other departments.”

The internal auditor nodded his head.

“I think that is a good idea, sir. Once they are reallocated to other departments, some will continue to work there and some will quit the job voluntarily.”

“Also we have so many old lady workers over 50 years old in the production department, who have a family.”

“Once we move the factory, many of them will quit the job as well.”

“That’s right. Their homes are in Asan City. Those ladies won’t be able to move with their jobs because of their family. So, we get rid of inefficient departments and keep good ones with the remaining workers.”

“Haha. You are so good, President Goo. You mostly have the workers make their own decision whether to quit or keep the job with the changes in the company.”

“The problem is with the management people.”

“You are right. We have way too many people in management. So I was thinking of two options.”

“What are they?”

“The previous president—Se-Young Oh—usually embraced his employees even though they made some mistakes and tolerated them. He didn’t fire people because of their mistakes or faults.”

“Hmm.”

“So I looked through their employment files and found some people who forged their resume and other papers in getting a job in this company.”

“Really?”

“Most of them are the previous president’s relatives or someone who has a personal relationship with him, or their children. So, we can ask them to re-submit their papers when we move to a new factory and tell them that we need those for the record, papers like college diploma and identification card. If they can’t provide those papers, then we can let them go.”

“What’s the second option?”

“This company had hired people based on an interview; it didn’t conduct any written test. So, I would require all workers in the management to take a written test on something like computer skills or language.”

“But they are already here and working for the company. We can’t fire them just because they failed a written test.”

“I know it would be difficult. However, their test results will be reflected in their performance evaluation. We can apply the test score in their next promotion or salary raise decision.”

“Hmm. So some of them might feel embarrassed with their test results and decide to quit the job.”

“That’s right. We shouldn’t keep the people who forged their papers, and those who would get really bad test result. It’s better that we hire new people then keep them if necessary.”

“Hmm.”

“Once we move our factory, at least 50 out of 250 workers will leave the company. We can start fresh then.”

The next day, Gun-Ho called for the internal auditor again.

“Spread the word that we will move our factory. So the workers wouldn’t be shocked when they receive the official announcement. They will resist less that way.”

“Yes, sir.”

The internal auditor was thinking about Gun-Ho on the way out of his office.

“He is young, but he could be so brutal.”

Note*

Sinseollo – It is also called the royal hot pot. All sorts of vegetables and meat in a rich broth.