Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

Once he came back to Asan City, Gun-Ho called for the internal auditor.

“We will have a visitor next week from Seoul. He is a bank branch manager who I have been working with.”

“Oh, really?”

“Please prepare the original appraisal of this factory and a copy of it.”

“Yes, sir. We have an old appraisal as well, four years old. I will have that ready as well.”

Gun-Ho nodded his head with a smile.

The auditor bowed to Gun-Ho before he left the office. Gun-Ho saw his smile then. The auditor had worked in a bank for a long time before he changed his career. It seemed that he already got an inkling of what Gun-Ho was trying to do with the bank branch manager who would visit the company next week.

“Ha, he caught it very quickly.”

Gun-Ho grabbed an economic newspaper.

While Gun-Ho was reading a newspaper with a cup of coffee, he received a call from Japan. It was the Korean restaurant owner in Akasaka—Ji-Yeon Choi.

“President Goo, it’s me, Ji-Yeon Choi from Akasaka.”

“Oh, Ms. Ji-Yeon Choi. Did you have a chance to talk to Mama-san Segawa Joonkko?”

“Yes, I did.”

“What did she say?”

“She said Mori Aikko found a good sponsor.”

“There are a lot of respectful businessmen in Japan, right?”

“Right, but most of those Japanese businessmen who are coming to the bar are old. I guess Mori Aikko liked you because you are young, in your 30s.”

“Really? Haha.”

“Mama-san said that a nice condo in Shibuya came out on the market and she recommended it for you. It is a condo located in Daikanyama, Shibuya, Tokyo. It’s close to a subway station too.”

“How much is it?”

“Well…, I think Mama-san got greedy and she wants a 85㎡ large condo. I told her to find one with 50㎡ but she kept on insisting 85㎡”

“Is it 25 pyung in Korea?

“Yes, that’s correct. They said, they have a grandmother in Sapporo City and they want to bring her here.”

“Hmm.”

“You have to let me know how you want to handle it.”

“How much did you say it is?”

“The condos in Tokyo are expensive. They call a condo as a mansion, and it’s about the same price of a condo in Gangnam, Seoul.”

“Hmm.”

“Well, you will have to see the condo for yourself first before you buy it. Why don’t you come to Japan?”

“Okay. I will come to Japan soon.”

After getting off the phone with the restaurant owner, Gun-Ho said to himself.

“Wow, putting her hair up will cost me a fortune. I guess I will have to spend about 1 billion won.”

Gun-Ho was about to spend 1 billion won. However, Mori Aikko who was the most famous geisha in Japan would help him make tens of billions of won in the future. They both couldn’t even imagine that kind of things would happen to them.

Min-Hyeok called Gun-Ho from China. He said he found a new customer.

“Wow, you are good, Min-Hyeok. How did you get the customer?”

“It’s all about network, I guess. One of my friends who was a senior to me when we were in college, took a position in a Chinese branch office. He is working for a big company.”

“Oh, your friend from college?”

“Yes, from Myongji University. We had a different major but I met him in an activity club in college.”

“I see. Did you also get a product drawing from him?”

“Yes, I did.”

“Then make a mould for them first. Did they say they would pay for the mould?”

“Yeah, he said once we complete the mould, send the invoice to them.”

“That’s good. A big company is usually a gentleman. How much order would they place?”

“50 million won per month.”

“Then, it would be 600 million won per year.”

“I want to send the product drawing to GH Mobile though.”

“Why here?”

“I don’t think I can rely on the workers here. I don’t want to make a defective product. So I want to ask the research center in GH Mobile to make the mould for us.”

“Hmm.”

“I’m sorry to ask you this, but can you make a call to the chief officer of the research center? And tell him to make a mould for GH Parts Company in China referring to the product drawing they would send, and also ask them to find out what kind of raw materials needed to be used for the product.”

“Hmm, it’s not difficult to ask him. I will make a phone call. You can talk to Jong-Suk for details though.”

“How is Jong-Suk doing there?”

“He is building a firm presence in this factory. He is very social and he gets along with everyone here. Moreover, he is very good at what he does.”

“Haha. I knew he would be fine there. When he first started working there, he complained a lot about his work there to me.”

“Oh, he did? Like what?”

“He said people in the production department were ignoring him just because he joined the company because you let him in.”

“Really? I didn’t know about it. He didn’t mention anything about it to me.”

“So, I told him to stay there for just three months since there is no place he cannot be adapted to. You will see. He will be ruling the factory soon. He is social and royal. He will soon earn a lot of followers.”

Gun-Ho felt proud of Jong-Suk like his real brother.

After getting off the phone with Min-Hyeok, Gun-Ho thought of Min-Hyeok.

“He went to a good college in Seoul, and that is helping the business. I made a right decision to give him a stock option. That’s why he is trying so hard to get more business for the company.”

Gun-Ho didn’t even graduate a low-ranked college in a province, but graduated a cyber college. And he couldn’t find an office job with his college degree. Many companies didn’t recognize the degree from a cyber college as a bachelor’s degree. So, he had to work in a production field as a factory worker. However, Min-Hyeok Kim had a different path from Gun-Ho.

“Min-Hyeok was good when we were in high school. He was in a high rank in my class.”

When they were in high school, Min-Hyeok did well. He wasn’t in the highest rank like Won-Chul Jo who graduated from KAIST or Byung-Chul Hwang who went to one of the top universities, but Min-Hyeok was a smart kid with a good grade. He could have been admitted to a better university than Myongji University that he graduated from, if it was not for his father. When he was a senior in high school, his father had a car accident. His father was a bus driver then. Min-Hyeok at that time couldn’t fully focus on studying for SAT because his family had a hard time then. So he applied for Myongji University to be safely admitted to.

After graduating college, Min-Hyeok tried to get a job in a big company for a while. When he couldn’t find any office job in a big company, he took a position in a quality assurance at a factory located in a province. He then spent about a year there before he quit the job; he said he didn’t have the right aptitude for the job. Once he quit his job in a quality assurance department, he started studying for the government job exam. He was getting old already by that time, and he continuously failed the exam multiple times, he then joined Gun-Ho’s company.