Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

Gun-Ho made a call to Min-Hyeok in China.

“Min-Hyeok, I am taking over Mulpa Automotive in China.”

“What? Mulpa Automotive?”

“Yes. Why don’t you run that company?”

“What about the industrial park here?”

“Let’s take our hands off the industrial park. Managing the industrial park is no fun.”

“That’s true, but this is just so sudden. I’ve never expected this.”

“You said that the industrial park is almost half full, right?”

“As of today, two-thirds of the park is full.”

“The security deposit we have received from the companies so far must accumulate a lot.”

“I believe it must be more than 1.7 billion won.”

“Why don’t you meet with the president of Jinxi Construction Company?”

“And what do I tell him?”

“Tell him that we are acquiring a company in Suzhou City and that we are thinking of leaving the joint venture.”

“What if he said no? Then what should we do about Mulpa Automotive?”

“Well, we will then have to find someone else who could run Mulpa Automotive; maybe post a job opening on WorkNet.”

“That factory… I want to run it.”

“Why? Are you bored with the joint venture?”

“In fact, even though I have a job title as the president and driving an Audi here, I feel like I’m just a puppet here.”

“Haha, you think so?”

“All those Chinese people do the actual running of the company. All I do is just sign the report they show to me.”

“I see.”

“But I learned a lot by working here. I now understand the business system in China, and how they operate. That’s nice.”

“Really? Well, since you are the president, you must oversee the entire system and had the chance to observe their conducting business at that level. That makes sense.”

“Okay. I will talk to the president of Jinxi Construction Company, and will let you know how it goes.”

“Sounds good.”

Two days later, Gun-Ho received a call from Min-Hyeok.

“I talked to the president of Jinxi Construction. I mentioned our intention to leave the joint venture. It seems that he liked it. He seemed to be really glad to hear it.”

“Really?”

“I guess they don’t feel comfortable running the company while I am there.”

“That’s understandable.”

“They actually applied to increase their capital stock without consideration to the department of construction of the city.”

“They did? How much will they increase?”

“He said 20 %”

“Hmm, that’s not much.”

“Why do they increase the capital stock? They don’t have any plan to invest anywhere.”

“They want to justify their asking for us to leave.”

“It is for a justification?”

“The joint venture’s capital is 3 million dollars, right?”

“That’s right.”

“How much will the capital be after they increase it by 20%? It will be 3.6 million dollars, right?”

“Right.”

“With 3.6 million dollars, how much can they give to us? 1.8 million dollars, right? Our initial amount of investment was 1.5 million dollars, and they need to let us make some money through the investment in the joint venture, right? I thought they would increase the capital stock by at least 30%.”

“Oh, I got it!”

“They will contact us soon. Let’s wait and hear what they say.”

“What about Mulpa Automotive?”

“We don’t have to run the factory right after we acquire it. Let’s take some time. You said you had dinner with the representative of the workers, right? Get along with him, and ask him to gather the workers who used to work for Mulpa Automotive.”

“Okay.”

“Don’t forget that we get not only the machines but also the moulds. Some of the moulds are not owned by Mulpa Automotive but by some vendors.”

“Got it.”

“Don’t rush. We need to quit the joint venture first before we could actually run the Mulpa Automotive factory.”

Anchang Accountant Office started the sales process of Mulpasaneop; however, there was no one but Gun-Ho who wanted to acquire Mulpasaneop. The sales price of the company was relatively low; however, the acquirer had to take over the enormous amount of debt as well. Two companies made some inquiries about buying the company and then gave up once they learned the exact amount of the company’s debt. Once the president received 2 billion won from Gun-Ho, he stopped coming to the company anymore. The court issued a decision that it was ending the court receivership because Mulpasaneop was sold to a third party.

“Congratulations. You are now the president of Mulpasaneop.”

The auditor who used to be the court officer during the court receivership came to Gun-Ho’s office with a draft of the first board meeting minutes.

Gun-Ho read the draft of the board meeting minutes and chuckled.

“The entire board directors attended and elected Gun-Ho Goo unanimously as the president of Mulpasaneop.”

Gun-Ho was using the president’s office. He changed the office’s entire interior with bright color and replaced everything with luxurious items.

When the accounting manager entered the office, she was surprised.

“Wow. This room used to be very depressing. Now it’s so bright and fresh.”

Gun-Ho replaced the frame that had old Chinese characters with a vibrant oil painting. Gun-Ho’s tastes in decorating were reflected through his office.

The auditor insisted that they had to have an inauguration ceremony for the new president—Gun-Ho. So the entire workers gathered in the assembly hall and started the ceremony.

On the day of the inauguration, Gun-Ho became deeply emotional. He wanted to have a factory like this for a long time. Gun-Ho finally made his dream come true. He now had a large factory with 250 employees and with sales revenue of 70 billion won.

“They placed a banner there too.”

In the assembly hall, a banner was hanging; it said, “The inauguration of our new president.” Gun-Ho was aware that he took over this company with an enormous amount of debt, but he decided to pay it off gradually as he ran the company. He once thought about paying off the debt all at once with his cash—210 billion won in his stock account.

“Why do we have this many flower wreaths here?”

The factory manager ran to Gun-Ho and explained,

“These are from our vendors and customers. Twenty of them are from raw material suppliers.”

“It’s such a waste.”

When Gun-Ho stepped in the assembly hall, every single one of the 250 workers stood up and clapped.

Gun-Ho was about to start his inauguration speech.

The old lady workers from the production department started whispering.

“I didn’t know that our new president is such a young man.”

“He acquired this company with the funds from the investors behind him.”

“That’s more like it. He is way too young to have such money.”

“I don’t care who runs this company. I just need to get paid on time.”

“We received three-month overdue wage because of the court officer. We have three more months of unpaid wage left.”

“That court officer decided to stay with our company; he is now our auditor.”

“What does an auditor do?”

Gun-Ho started talking,

“I know you have been through a hard time with Mulpasaneop because of the company’s financial crisis. You will never experience such hardship with this company anymore. I value talented and hard workers. I will absolutely compensate any of you who contribute to our company. On the other hand, I won’t tolerate anyone who discourages our hard work, and who spends time without working at this company.”

Someone started clapping and it eventually made everyone in the hall clap. Gun-Ho didn’t want to make a long speech at his inauguration.

“I will provide a better work environment for you, and if the company makes more money, I will share it with you all. Please forget about how you have worked so far. We will now start a more effective and more efficient way of working to increase our productivity.”

The workers were clapping, and the upper management level personnel started introducing themselves. The only new person there was the auditor and all other personnel was the same people who had been working for Mulpasaneop for years.