Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

Gun-Ho walked to his office on the second floor.

President Song came to Gun-Ho’s office when he learned that Gun-Ho was there.

“It seems that we produced some defective products, right?”

“As we have more and more new hires at the production site, some defective products were found. Some of the new workers are showing their lack of work experience. I visited the production site this morning and talked to Director Park about it.”

“Do I have to worry about it? Were there many defective products?”

“No, sir. We caught it early, and stopped the production line right away before manufacturing many of the same defective products. It will incur us around 4 million won worth of damage though. The parts that we received from vendor companies were fine, and it looks like that we made mistakes while assembling them. I guess that we didn’t perfectly train the new hires during the training. We will have to enhance our OJT (On the Job Training) system.”

“Hmm, I see.”

“A Electronics’ factory in Dangjin City asked the plant manager and me to come to their office tomorrow. We will visit them tomorrow.”

“I guess that the defect that we produced is serious since they want to see both our president and plant manager together.”

“Not necessarily. I think that they want to give us more work, but they want to make sure that we don’t produce any more defective products before placing more product orders. I asked Director Park to have a meeting and correct the problem.”

“When I passed by the production site earlier, I heard Director Park yelling at the managers and supervisors at the production site.”

“Right, that must be him. Director Park yells when he is upset. I believe that he will correct the situation successfully after the meeting. We will be able to find out what was discussed during that meeting later. The office lady at the production site is very good at recording a meeting and handling paperwork in general. She is the one who was transferred from GH Logistics. She used to handle accounting work there.”

“Hmm, is that so?”

“I will make a copy of the minutes of the meeting that Director Jong-Suk Park had this morning, and I will take it with us when we visit A Electronics’ factory in Dangjin City tomorrow. The production workers will realize how serious this is once they find out that the president and the plant manager were called on to visit A Electronics. Once they realize the gravity of the situation, they will try to be extra careful not to make the same mistake.”

“Hmm, that’s true.”

“A production site usually has a very tough work environment. Many team leads, supervisors, and managers are rough. In my opinion, Director Park is handling and managing those people very well. If he was soft, he wouldn’t have been able to survive there.”

“Hmm, I see your point.”

Gun-Ho nodded his head twice.

“Well, sir, I will go back to my work if you don’t have anything further to ask me about.”

President Song left the office after giving Gun-Ho a bow.

After President Song left the office, Gun-Ho was having a cup of tea that Secretary Hee-Jeong Park brought, while reading a morning paper. At that moment, Gun-Ho received a call from Jong-Suk Park.

“Bro? It’s me, Jong-Suk. I heard you came to my office to see me earlier.”

“Yeah, you were having a meeting.”

“There were some defects found in our products, and President Song came to talk to me about it. It was not a pleasant moment, as you can very well guess. I got so upset after his visit and summoned all the management personnel in the production site for a meeting.”

“What did President Song said to you?”

“He said, ‘What’s your duty as a plant manager here? You are not doing your job right.’ I bear the responsibility for the defective products as the plant manager in this factory, but he said that to me in front of my workers. That really pissed me off.”

“Haha, I see.”

“I know it’s my fault. A Electronics’ Dangjin factory asked me and President Song to come to their office tomorrow. I understand why President Song was in a bad mood.”

“Haha, okay. Just make sure not to make the same mistake next time. Keep up the good work.”

“Thank you, bro.

Gun-Ho thought that President Song was one level above Director Jong-Suk Park in managing and handling people.

After finishing reading two morning newspapers, Gun-Ho looked at his watch.

“Huh? It’s almost noon already.”

Gun-Ho was thinking about what he would have for lunch that day when he received a call from Jong-Suk Park again.

“Bro? Are you still in the office?”

“Yeah, what’s up?”

“Suk-Ho bro is here. He is in my office now.”

“What? Suk-Ho Lee?”

“Yeah. He wants to talk to you.”

“Me?”

“He came to visit Korea for a short period of time, and he wants to see you before he goes back to China.”

“Okay. Bring him to my office.”

Gun-Ho thought that it was odd.

“Why is he here to see me?”

After a moment, someone knocked on the door, and Director Park entered the office with Suk-Ho Lee. Gun-Ho stood up from his seat and greeted Suk-Ho by extending his hand to him for a handshake.

“Oh, Suk-Ho Lee! It has been a long time.”

Suk-Ho Lee smiled awkwardly and had a handshake with Gun-Ho.

“Please come and take a seat.”

Gun-Ho picked up the interphone and called for Secretary Hee-Jeong Park.

When the secretary came into the office, Gun-Ho asked her to bring some tea.

“Please bring us three cups of tea.”

“Yes, sir.”

Hee-Jeong Park left the office after giving a bow to Gun-Ho.

“How’s your business going in China?”

“It’s doing okay.”

“I heard that you went to Suzhou City and Antang City for sightseeing. I’m sure that you had a great time there. They both are beautiful cities.”

“Yeah, it was good.”

At that moment, Secretary Hee-Jeong Park brought tea to the office.

“Please have some tea.”

It was awkward for the three men sitting there having a cup of tea without saying much. Suk-Ho Lee didn’t say anything while having his tea. He planned to talk to Gun-Ho about various things before coming to his company, but he just couldn’t initiate the conversation when he was actually sitting with Gun-Ho. Maybe it was because Gun-Ho was not the same person who he used to know. Gun-Ho was exuding charisma as the owner president of a large manufacturing company that had 450 employees.

“Your factory is enormous.”

“We have 450 workers here. The number is constantly growing, and the factory will become even larger next year.”

After graduating from college, Suk-Ho Lee had been self-employed running his own small business like a bar. It was his first time visiting a large factory like Gun-Ho’s. He was shocked when he saw the automated manufacturing facility with a lot of machines and equipment at GH Mobile. Looking at several hundreds of workers lining up and busily working gave him even more shocking feelings.

“This is amazing.”

Moreover, Suk-Ho Lee learned that Gun-Ho had a similar-sized factory in Asan City, and owned an office building in Sinsa Town, Seoul, which was worth 200 billion won, when Director Jong-Suk Park told him about it. He couldn’t dare to ask Gun-Ho to buy his store in Shenyang City, China, which was worth only 100 million won. His original plan was to make a proposition to Gun-Ho to buy it in installments.

Gun-Ho finally broke the silence.

“I thought you had something that you wanted to talk to me about,” Gun-Ho said with a smile.

“No, I just wanted to see you while I was in the neighborhood.”

Suk-Ho was fiddling with his cup feeling nervously. He used to tease Gun-Ho while often tapping his back when they were in high school, telling him that he was not smart and had a poor family. Gun-Ho was not that boy any longer. Suk-Ho Lee felt like he was with a giant instead. He felt so small while sitting with Gun-Ho in his office.