Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

As President Song showed the mold that Mr. Sakata Ikuzo sent from Japan, Gun-Ho said,

“I wouldn’t be able to tell whether it’s well made or not even though it’s in front of me.”

“I think Mr. Sakata Ikuzo is an incredible engineer. His mold is carved roughly, but the products made with the mold are so perfect. Look at these.”

President Song showed Gun-Ho an automobile part—a soft protector.

“Well, even in my layperson’s eyes, the product looks beautiful.”

“We are going to make 5,000 of these and send them to Changwon City tomorrow.”

“Don’t we need to send someone along with the products to Changwon City?”

“That wouldn’t be necessary. We can just mail them through Kyoungdong Express. We just need to include our test results of the products.”

“But this is the very first shipment to them. Wouldn’t they mind? Maybe they would think we don’t show enough care for the business with them.”

“It’s okay. I have known their sales manager, and their research center’s chief officers for a long time. I had worked with them before.”

President Song continued to talk,

“This is a new product to be used for the S Group’s new model of a vehicle. They made the product order from us and also from Egnopak. That’s how auto manufacturing companies do. They usually make product orders from two different companies for the same auto part.”

“I am aware of that.”

“They are doing so to prepare a situation where one of the supplying companies couldn’t or refused to supply the auto parts. That way, they can continuously manufacture their cars without being affected by a supplying company’s status.”

“Do those kinds of situation really happen?”

“Actually, it happens a lot. Many auto parts supplying companies produce defective products, or they find their workers on strike. In those situations, the auto manufacturing companies cannot receive their necessary auto parts. If things go wrong, they wouldn’t be able to produce their cars, and it could place them such as Hyundai or Kia in a very difficult and embarrassing position in the international market.”

“Hmm.”

“For this protector, S Group ordered 30% of their necessary quantities from us, and 70% of them went to Egnopak. If we do a good job and the situation helps us, maybe we would be able to take the current Egnopak’s current position with 70% of the S Group’s product quantities someday.”

“How come did S Group order only 30% from us? And ordered 70% from Egnopak?”

“Well, 30% is a huge amount of products for us. Look at our factory. Egnopak has 3,000 employees while we have only 250. When their examiners visited our factory, they verified the factory’s production capacity, including the number of workers, the number and the status of our machines, and the statistics on our previous year’s defective products, and etc. So, given all this information, giving us 30% of their necessary quantity is very generous. As their needs increase and we hire more workers and expand our factory, the number of quantities of their order from us will increase accordingly.”

“Hmm. I see. And here is the…”

“What is this?”

“It’s an OTP card. You will need it when you deposit and withdraw funds to or from our major banks. I want you to handle it.”

“Oh, no no. I don’t want to yet. I will take it when this company is successfully registered with KOSDAQ.”

“President Song, you are a stubborn man.”

“I was actually famous to be stubborn when I worked for S Group as a vice president. They called me Mr. Stubborn Song.”

“Really? Haha. I guess then I have to lose this time.”

“Well, if you don’t have anything else, I will go back to work.”

Gun-Ho then received a call from Min-Hyeok Kim.

“Hey, it’s me. I just wanted to thank you for coming to my wedding twice, also for helping me to smoothly go through them.”

“They were your weddings; what are you thanking me for? It’s not like I paid for the expenses of your wedding ceremony.”

“Well, you actually helped me a lot even financially. I wouldn’t have been able to buy the condo in Juan Town for my parents without your help. We did the wallpaper of the condo and purchased some new furniture before my bride arrived. My wife and her parents were satisfied with what they saw.”

“It was not even an expensive condo.”

“They have no idea about various condo prices in different areas in Korea. They think our condo in Incheon City costs about the same as the condo in Mok Town, Seoul. What they see in a condo is its size and the number of bedrooms and bathrooms. They seemed to be happy when they learned our parents’ home is 108 in Chinese measurement, and it has two bathrooms. My father-in-law actually disapproved of our marriage at first because he heard a lot of horrible stories about international marriage fraud. Now, he likes me better than his daughter according to my wife.”

“Really?”

“Why wouldn’t he? His son-in-law has a nice condo in Korea, and he has another luxurious condo in Chiwonhwawon condo complex in Suzhou City. He said he wouldn’t have to worry about her daughter any longer.”

“Haha. That must be a big relief.”

“So, I am grateful for your help, Gun-Ho. Once I go back to work in China, I will put all my energy working for the company.”

“Well, sounds good. Let’s do our best.”

After getting off the phone with Min-Hyeok, Gun-Ho walked out of the office and had his lunch. After having a meat soup, Gun-Ho headed to the office in Dyeon Korea.

When he arrived at Dyeon Korea in Asan City, Gun-Ho walked around the production worksite. All the machines seemed to be placed and installed, but they were not working yet. It seemed that Director Jong-Suk Park didn’t come to Dyeon Korea that day.

“Where is everybody?”

At that moment, Gun-Ho heard some people talking in the compound room. When he approached the room, he saw a red sign on the door. It said “restricted area.” Gun-Ho entered the room anyway. There were three American engineers, the production manager, the assistant manager working on mixing the materials. They were wearing some sort of gas mask.

“You are all here.”

Those five workers greeted Gun-Ho when they saw him entering the room.

“We will produce our very first product tomorrow.”

“So, we are adding this to the raw materials, huh?”

“That’s right, sir.”

Gun-Ho looked at the raw materials under the table. They were small white pieces of substances, size of rice grain.

“Once we add the mixed chemicals to this raw material, it will produce another raw material which is heat resistant and cold resistant with stronger durability.”

“Hmm.”

“You shouldn’t stay here any longer, sir. You shouldn’t breathe the air here without a mask.”

Gun-Ho nodded his head and walked out of the compound room.

In the evening that day, Gun-Ho received a call from President Jeong-Sook Shin.

“I’ve met with Mr. Ding Feng at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art today.”

“Really? How did it go? Any good news?”

“There was an art exhibition going on at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art earlier today, so Mr. Ding Feng and I looked at the arts together. He said Korean paintings are so advanced and beautiful.”

“Who did the interpretation for you?”

“We have a person here in GH Media who is doing the translation work for the Chinese books that we bought from the international book exhibition in Shanghai the other day. He came with me and interpreted it for me. He graduated from Beijing University, and he is now teaching at a college.”

“If I remember correctly, you made a contract for three history books. Which one are you going to publish first?”

“We are currently translating the book with a title, ‘Is Cao Cao a hero or a villain?’”

“Have you talked to Mr. Ding Feng about your plan to hold his solo art exhibition in Korea?”

“Yes. Actually, he liked the idea a lot. He has always wanted to have his own art exhibition in Korea, and he just couldn’t figure out where to start to make it happen.”

“Oh, that’s nice. Then he will do it.”

“I told him that we will need at least 30 paintings of his without a frame. He said he would need some time to prepare. He said he had a shy of 30 pieces of his paintings. I will need time also anyway in finding a good place to hold his art exhibition.”

“Hmm.”

“Mr. Ding Feng wants to come to Korea again to see the place for his art exhibition.”

“That sounds good.”