Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

Gun-Ho received an email from President Jeong-Sook Shin of GH Media.

She sent a list of five books to be published. She included in the list—the book titles, the number of pages of each book—the name of authors, etc. She also mentioned that two translators were working on translating these books into the Korean language because the work would be too much for one translator to handle.

At the end of her email, she added,

“There is a series of cartoons about world history which is very popular in amazon.com in the U.S. It is composed of thirty books. I’d like to publish this series in Korea, and I’d like to know what you think.

We are using the initial investment funds of 300 million won in publishing our first five books and another five books that we will publish, and also in operating our publishing company.

If we decide to publish the series of world history cartoons that I just mentioned, we will need an additional 300 million won. We will have to use over 3-degree color for these cartoon books and there are thirty of them. Of course, it’s not like we have to publish this series, but I believe it is a good series of books.

I want to start working on this cartoon series as soon as possible before another publishing company takes it. Since this is cartoon books, it’s hard to fail and to sell. I’m sure it will succeed.

From President Jeong-Sook Shin of GH Media.”

Gun-Ho replied to the email,

“Dear President Jeong-Sook Shin, I will send you an additional investment fund of 300 million won as you requested. However, I will not increase capital. Instead, record it as I am working at your publishing company as a managing director. You can determine my salary in the range between your salary and the chief editor’s salary. Once Four Major Public Insurance is filed for me, I will send 300 million won. You can record the money as you received it from GH Media’s Managing Director, Gun-Ho Goo.”

Gun-Ho was receiving his salary from three different companies. He was receiving 3 million won from GH Media, 15 million won from GH Development, and another 15 million won from GH Mobile. His monthly salary in total was 33 million won. Gun-Ho was subject to the aggregate income tax. But, since he was the sole owner of all three companies, as long as those companies were doing good, he was getting his dividends for 100%.

Gun-Ho sent 300 million won to GH Media, and President Jeong-Sook Shin made a contract with a publishing company in the U.S. for the cartoon series. The news traveled fast among the people in the publishing industry, and people started talking about GH Media.

“I heard there is a huge company behind, which is supporting President Jeong-Sook Shin.”

“We shouldn’t compete with President Jeong-Sook Shin. We can’t win because we can’t find that much investment funds.”

“How did she get connected with that kind of big company?”

“That’s why she was known as the hand of Midas in the publishing industry.”

The architect office in the U.S. sent the design drawing to GH Mobile’s office, along with the aerial view of the new factory. Gun-Ho was not an expert in this area, but the aerial view of his new factory that he would build looked so great.

“Director Yoon, can you make a clean copy of this?”

“Of course.”

“Can you then make a copy of this and send it to the vice president of Lymondell Dyeon—Mr. Brandon Burke?”

“Oh, this? Sure. I will do that.”

“We will have to include a letter with a copy of the design drawing and aerial view. Do you remember the interpreter who worked for us when Mr. Brandon Burke visited us last time?”

“Oh, yes, I remember him. The one who used to work as a branch manager in the U.S. Mr. Lee, I believe.”

“Contact him and have him write a letter to Mr. Brandon Burke, saying that we are sending a copy of our new factory’s design drawings and its aerial view, and we are ready to build a factory. Also, tell him that we’d like to make an official contract in the near future.”

“Yes, sir. I will contact the interpreter immediately.”

Director Yoon who was in charge of construction in GH Mobile sent a letter along with a copy of the factory’s design drawings and aerial view to Mr. Brandon Burke who was the vice president of Lymondell Dyeon in Seattle, via EMS.

Gun-Ho received a phone call from Manager Seong-il Kang at GH Development. He said that they narrowed down to three final candidates for each position of a secretary and accounting staff, so they were ready for Gun-Ho to conduct the final interview.

“Sir, will you be available next Tuesday for the final interview?”

“Tuesday is not good. I have a meeting with the vendors and customers held in S Group. What about Wednesday?”

“I will set up the interview on Wednesday at 11 am then.”

“Sounds good.”

S Group hosted a meeting with vendors and customers in their headquarters in Samsung Town, Seoul. Many first vendor companies attended the meeting and many of them were big companies. Gun-Ho was one of them. When the meeting was almost over, someone came to the S Group’s president and whispered into his ear,

“What? Our chairman is here?”

There were about 20 presidents of the vendor companies in the meeting, and the S Group’s president said to them,

“Our chairman is here and he wants to talk with you all. Please stand up and clap when our chairman enters the meeting room, to welcome him.”

The chairman of S Group was the owner of the S Group and he was an extremely wealthy man. Gun-Ho had never met him before.

“Our chairman is coming.”

A man who seemed to be a secretary announced with a loud voice and the S Group’s president quickly stood up. All of the 20 vendor companies’ presidents stood up along with him.

The S Group’s chairman entered the meeting room. He looked like he was in his 70s. He looked much younger in a picture on a newspaper though, Gun-Ho thought. But in person, he looked really old with a lot of age spots on his face. He certainly looked like a 70-something years old man.

“I am pleased to meet you all. As a matter of fact, without you all, our S Group will have to close our business. Don’t you think? Mr. President?”

The S Group’s chairman said to S Group’s president. The president responded quickly and with a loud voice,

“Of course, sir.”

“All we need from you is manufacturing good products. You just need to manufacture better products than the ones made in Japan or in the U.S. People say in Japan that they do ‘Isshokenmei.’”

Gun-Ho was surprised by hearing it again because that’s what the Japanese Engineer Mr. Sakata Ikuzo said before.

‘Mr. Sakata Ikuzo even chewed a piece of plastic in order to taste the product that he was developing. The plastic contains carbon and sulfur, and he still put it into his mouth knowing the fact.’

The S Group’s chairman seemed to be amused for some reason; he was smiling.

“Anyone of you knows what ‘Isshokenmei’ means?”

No one responded, and the Gun-Ho answered,

“That means a person risks his life to do something.”

“That’s correct. Let me see… You seem to be very young. Which company are you representing?”

“It’s GH Mobile.”

“Oh, I see. So, as the president of GH Mobile just said, I want you all to work so hard in developing good products to the extent that you risk your life. I believe that GH Mobile’s president is doing so in developing their own products.”