Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

Professor Jien Wang came to Korea to participate in a symposium. After he completed his schedule, he came straight to GH Mobile in Jiksan Town with Attorney Young-Jin Kim from Kim & Jeong Law Firm. They didn’t even stop by a rest area on the way.

“I like this factory. It looks very well built.”

After they looked around at the factory yard, they walked up to the second floor where the president’s office was located. Gun-Ho was so happy to see them.

“Hey, Jien Wang!”

“Gun-Ho Goo! It’s really good to see you, friend.”

“Long time no see, Attorney Kim. Have a seat.”

After having a handshake, the three men finally sat on chairs.

“So, you are done with the symposium?”

“Yes, I came straight here to see you, Gun-Ho, after the symposium.”

“I know Attorney Kim came here once when we had the building dedication ceremony, but this must be your first time here, right, Jien Wang?”

“I took a quick glance of the factory on the way up to your office. I know I came here before, but the factory looks different somehow.”

“You haven’t been to the production field yet, have you?”

“No, I haven’t yet.”

“Maybe you can have a tour of the factory first before we leave to play golf.”

Gun-Ho made a call to Jong-Suk Park and asked him to come to his office.

Jong-Suk Park soon came to Gun-Ho’s office. He was wearing the GH Mobile uniform.

“This is our plant manager.”

“Oh, Chang Zhang (factory manager)!”

Jien Wang extended his hand to Jong-Suk for a handshake.

“I think I have seen this person before.”

“Probably so, since he is a very good friend of mine. He is like a brother to me. Jong-Suk, please give my two friends here on a tour of our factory.”

Jong-Suk took Professor Jien Wang and Attorney Young-Jin Kim to his daily workplace—the production field.

When the workers in the production field saw two men in a business suit coming to the worksite while following their plant manager, they thought Professor Wang and Attorney Kim were the investigators from a buyer company to check their factory. And they got busy cleaning the worksite by organizing incomplete products and moving the defective products somewhere that wasn’t so obvious.

After observing the products pouring out of extruding machines and molding machines, Jien Wang nodded his head.

“Gun-Ho Goo is indeed an incredible man.”

The machines in the factory were being maintained extremely clean; thanks to My Machine program. The machines were placed in a very well organized way, and the factory overall was neat and clean.

“I can’t believe this factory maintains the cleanliness to this level. I haven’t seen a factory this clean in China.”

Attorney Young-Jin Kim was interpreting for Professor Jien Wang. Whenever Jong-Suk Park explained about the production system, Attorney Kim interpreted it into Chinese for Professor Wang. The production workers, who were paying attention to the visitors, were wondering as they saw them speaking in English.

“They are speaking in English. They are not the investigators from our customer companies then. Are they Korean Americans?”

“It seems like.”

The workers were interested in the visitors to their worksite.

Jien Wang took out his smartphone to take some pictures of the factory when Jong-Suk stopped him.

“Taking a picture is not allowed in our factory. I am sorry about it. If you really need to do so, you need to get permission from President Goo first.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know that.”

Professor Jien Wang put his smartphone back to his pocket.

After taking a tour of the production field, they went back to the second floor to Gun-Ho’s office.

“How was it?”

“Wow. I couldn’t believe what I saw. It was so clean. I think I need to send some of the Chinese factory owners here to learn.”

“I am sure Chinese factories are clean enough too.”

“I’m serious. I was very impressed. The business owners in China should learn from you.”

“Shall we head to the country club now?”

“Sounds good.”

Gun-Ho took Jien Wang and Young-Jin Kim to Sangrok Country Club. It was located very close to his GH Mobile factory in Jiksan Town.

“So, this is the country club that is operated by the National Pension Service of Korea, huh?”

When Jien Wang recalled what he heard from Gun-Ho about Sangrok Country Club, Attorney Young-Jin Kim was surprised.

“Jien Wang! You seem to know more about things in Korea than me.”

“Nah. Gun-Ho Goo told me the other day.”

While Gun-Ho and Young-Jin brought their own golf clubs, Jien Wang had to borrow a full set of golf gear including golf gloves and golf shoes. Gun-Ho paid for everything with a credit card, including a golf cart and golf caddies.

“Gun-Ho Goo, you are spending money again for us.”

“That’s okay. I’m using my company credit card.”

Gun-Ho waved the credit card as he said so.

“This is what I like about a businessman. Many professors are not so cool when it comes to payment for anything.”

The golf course was not busy at all since it was a weekday.

Attorney Young-Jin Kim was very good at golfing as expected while Gun-Ho Goo and Jien-Wang made frequent mistakes in hitting the golf ball. They often made over par.

“Let’s take a break. It has been a while since the last time I played golf. I feel tired already. Why don’t we take a rest at the Shade House over there?”

“Sure.”

The Shade House in the forest had a great view of the golf course. The three men had fruit beverages while looking at the view.

“Attorney Kim, are you playing golf like everyday? You can’t be this good otherwise.”

“Haha. I just started playing golf at an early age when I was in school. I used to play golf with my dad when I was little.”

“I see. No wonder why people from a wealthy family usually play golf very well.”

“Aren’t you from a wealthy family too, Jien Wang? You studied in the U.S. at Yale University. It must cost a lot to travel from China to the U.S. and study there. I thought you could do so because of your family’s stable financial support.”

“Not necessarily. My father is a college professor just like me. I could study abroad because the Zhejiang government granted me a scholarship. We shouldn’t talk about who has more money in front of Gun-Ho Goo. He is the richest among us. The god of wealth seems to be attached to Gun-Ho only.”

Gun-Ho was thinking while having his beverage.

‘That’s right. I am the man with ShinWangJaeWang fate.’

“I wish Seukang Li is here with us today.”

“Yeah. Oh, Seukang Li asked me how you are doing. He said he wants to meet you, Gun-Ho.”

“Me? Why?”

“As you know, Seukang Li is in charge of the bureau of cultural affairs and media. His office is hosting a book exhibition in Shanghai, and he said a lot of publishing companies from other countries participated in it, and that helped his work a lot. He heard that you, President Goo, have a publishing company called GH Media. He wants you to come and join him in the book exhibition.”

“GH Media usually publishes American or Japanese books after translating into the Korean language. I don’t think we have any books we can participate in the book exhibition in Shanghai with.”

“What about you publishing Chinese books?”

“President Jeong-Sook Park of GH Media said she doesn’t do Chinese books because they are not very popular.”

“I see. That makes sense. I was told that they stopped printing out my book after the second edition. Chinese books are not very fun to read, even for me. But I want to help Seukang Li in some way…”

Gun-Ho recalled the fact that Seukang Li helped GH Parts Company’s business by introducing a window manufacturing company to Min-Hyeok Kim. And that increased the company’s sales revenue. Gun-Ho wanted to help Seukang Li as well.

“Well, I guess I can still participate in his book exhibition.”

“Seukang Li will be very happy if you can just participate.”