Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

Mr. Sakata Ikuzo said,

“My true enemy is that extruding machine. When Miyamoto Musashi pulled out his sword, he attained a state of perfect self-effacement. I will pull my sword and attack that extruding machine.”

Mr. Sakata Ikuzo stood up slowly.

His mouth was shut tight and something flared in his eyes. He had the eyes of a Samurai for a moment.

“I will check the temperature of the extruding machine’s cylinder and the rotating screw, along with the temperature during pressing and the expansion. Manager Park, why don’t you look inside of the hopper and check the carbon black and the vulcanization accelerator again? And see if the exact amount of the zinc oxide is there according to the recipe and also check the quality of the oil. Attack! I press the switch!”

The extruding machine started moving with a loud noise. The coolant came out in order to make the product cool.”

“It’s coming out!”

The new sample products started coming out. Mr. Sakata Ikuzo took a piece of the new product that just came out and put it into his mouth. It was a plastic piece and looked like a jelly. Mr. Sakata Ikuzo then said while chewing the piece,

“Wow, this is aromatic.”

Mr. Sakata Ikuzo kept chewing the piece of the plastic with his eyes closed.

Jong-Suk was staring at Mr. Sakata Ikuzo. He looked nervous.

“He is not going to swallow it, isn’t he?”

The way Mr. Sakata Ikuzo handled his work looked very strange to Jong-Suk, but he was in awe of Mr. Sakata Ikuzo at the same time.

“Even though he doesn’t swallow the piece, some portion of plastic and oil or carbon will get into his body through his throat.”

Jong-Suk now felt scared of Mr. Sakata Ikuzo.

“Japanese people… I certainly admit their high craftsmanship.”

Jong-Suk collected the new sample products in order to measure their hardness and tensile strength.

Mr. Sakata Ikuzo was still chewing the plastic.

“Good. I see my enemy is slowly collapsing while bleeding.”

Mr. Sakata Ikuzo smiled.

Mr. Sakata Ikuzo, the plant manager, Jong-Suk and the interpreter headed to Gun-Ho’s office with the new sample product.

“President Goo, please take a look at the new product.”

Gun-Ho examined the product. The product would be used as part of a car or an electronic device. It was extruded twice, and that made one part of the product hard and another part soft, which was folded. The degree of clearness was excellent. It seemed that they added some perfume to the product; it smelled really good.

“Good job all of you. Before we could celebrate our new product, we will have to pass the S Group’s test.”

“Of course, sir.”

Gun-Ho asked for the sales director—Director Kim.

“Why don’t you take the sample product and visit S Group? And meet with the vice president and tell him that we have successfully developed this new product.”

“Yes, sir. You need to keep in mind though that there are tons of researchers at the S Group’s research center and most of them have Ph.D. Their testing will be extremely thorough and really hard to pass. I will take our testing result and 20 sample products with me. I will also take Manager Jong-Suk Park as well in case they ask some technical questions.”

“Sure. Manager Jong-Suk Park! Go with the sales director to S Group.”

“Yes, sir.”

Jong-Suk answered in a very respectful way.

Gun-Ho was looking at his smartphone when he received a call from the vice president of S Group.

“President Goo? I received the new sample product. Is this really made by your company?”

“Yes, we developed it.”

“Where did you get the raw materials for this product?”

“The raw materials are from Dyeon Japan.”

“Did they sell them to you without raising any issues?”

“They just sent us a few bags of the materials since we just need them to do some tests and make sample products.”

“It would be nice to use the raw materials provided by Dyeon America from the U.S.; however, it will cost shipping. Anyway, we are in the process of testing the product.”

“Okay, sir.”

“The product looks good, but we will have to analyze to be sure. It will take about one week to complete our test. We say, ‘small head, big ideas.’ I guess that is true. I can’t believe your company developed that product.”

“Thank you.”

Gun-Ho felt great.

S Group was one of the biggest companies in Korea. The company had been in the position for a long time. People must have an academic degree from the top universities in Korea in order to get a job in that company. The company also required a personality test to all job applicants in addition to the right education and work experience. After the job candidates passed all those tests, they then would be invited for an interview. It was extremely hard to get into that company; however, the salary was really good.

Gun-Ho felt great because his company developed the product which those researchers who had the proven best education, personality and experience couldn’t.

It was the end of the day; Gun-Ho was ready to go home when Jae-Sik Moon in a security guard uniform came into his office.

“Hello, sir.”

Jae-Sik gave a military salute to Gun-Ho to show his respect toward his employer. Gun-Ho smiled.

“What is it under your arm?”

“It’s our high school alumni directory book.”

“Really?”

Jae-Sik placed the directory book on Gun-Ho’s desk. It was about 250 pages thick.

Gun-Ho smelled the book.

“It smells really good; I can smell the new book.”

Gun-Ho opened the cover of the book and looked at the table of contents. The contents were divided into three sections. The first part was about the email addresses, phone numbers and current jobs of the alumni. The second part of the book was about how each of the alumni was doing these days. The part that talked about Gun-Ho drew Gun-Ho’s attention. It said,

“Gun-Ho Goo: Acquired GH Mobile located in Asan City, Chungnam Province. Its sales revenue is 70 billion won, and it has 250 employees. He also invested in GH Parts Company in Suzhou City, China, which is currently being run by Min-Hyeok Kim. He also owns a real estate development company called GH Development in Seoul. He contributed to the fund for the entire printing expenses to have this alumni directory book completed.”

Jae-Sik originally wrote that Gun-Ho contributed the fund for the entire expenses to make the alumni directory book, but Gun-Ho asked him to limit it to the entire printing expenses.

The third part of the alumni book was about the high school they all went together. It included news of their teachers, some of whom have already passed away.

“Thank you, President Goo.”

“Stop saying that!”

“I will send this alumni book to all of our high school friends tomorrow. They won’t talk about me like I swindled them anymore. It’s because of you, Gun-Ho. I do truly appreciate it.”

When the alumni book arrived at each of their high school friends, they were surprised.

“Wow. Gun-Ho Goo is the president of a huge company. It’s a big company if they have 250 employees, right?”

“Gun-Ho Goo? That small guy who used to wear shabby sweatshirt all the time? How could this happen? Did he win a lottery or something?”

“You can’t acquire that kind of company even though you win the lottery ten times.”

“You can never know about someone’s life or future.”

The members of WestFacing Club, where Won-Chul Jo was actively involved as the president of the club, were astonished as well.

“I heard that Gun-Ho Goo made some good money, but I didn’t know he made this much. We can’t compete with him anymore.”

The members felt half envy and half jealousy.