Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

After spending the first night in Korea, Mr. Adam Castler came to work the following morning.

“Good morning.”

Gun-Ho could say only the morning greeting to Mr. Adam Castler without an interpreter. Gun-Ho regretted to let Secretary Yeon-Soo Oh go back to Seoul to GH Development. Gun-Ho needed an interpreter, and Mr. Lee crossed his mind, who once interpreted for Gun-Ho when Dyeon sent their investigators to visit Gun-Ho’s factory. Gun-Ho asked for the general affairs director.

“Do you remember Mr. Lee who did the interpretation work for us when Dyeon’s examiners were here?”

“Yes, sir. I remember him. He was a retiree from a big company, and he used to work as a branch manager overseas.”

“Do you have his contact number?”

“Yes, I have it.”

“Call him and ask him to come to our company as soon as he could if he doesn’t have any prior engagement. He can take KTX; it’s the fastest way to get here.”

“Yes, sir.”

Mr. Lee arrived at the factory in Jiksan Town before noon that day. He drove his Sonata instead of taking KTX.

“We need an interpreter for the next few days starting today.”

“Did you say a few days? Then, I guess I can stay in a motel just like I did last time.”

“That sounds good.”

Mr. Adam Castler was sitting at a desk in a small meeting room. It was his office for now, which was temporarily set for him. He looked happy when he saw an interpreter joining him.

In the afternoon, Gun-Ho took Mr. Adam Castler to the construction site in Asan City where the new factory for the joint venture was being built. Mr. Lee accompanied them, of course, to interpret for them. The factory was half-finished.

“Mr. Adam Castler, this is Director Yoon. He is in charge of the construction.”

Director Yoon could speak English; it might be because he used to work often abroad in overseeing construction. But he relied on the interpreter when he had to talk about important matters. Mr. Adam Castler seemed to have lots of things to point out.

“Once we receive a compressor, the electric switchboard needs to be placed here since the cooler box is long. We can’t place the compressor here. Place the compressor at the back and cover it to reduce the noise.”

Mr. Adam Caslter thoroughly examined the construction site while pointing out things that needed to be corrected.

While walking around the construction site with Mr. Adam Castler, Director Dong-Chan Kim decided to hire a worker who could speak English. Not just because of Mr. Adam Castler, but Dyeon would send three more workers who were Americans. He didn’t think that having an interpreter would be enough to work with them on a daily basis. He thought it would be better to have someone who could stay next to him all the time at work.

Director Dong-Chan Kim came to Gun-Ho and said,

“I’ve placed a job posting on WorkNet after you suggested hiring a worker now.”

“Good, but I’m not sure if we could find a good worker here in Asan City. Most competent workers prefer to work in Seoul.”

“We will close the job application submission the day after tomorrow. We will see then.”

Despite Gun-Ho’s concern, there were so many competent workers who were looking for a job. The position that Director Kim posted required only one-year work experience overseas, but thirty people applied for the job even though the job posting clearly stated the location of the work would be Asan City.

“Who’s going to interview them?”

“I was thinking that I would do the first interview, and you do the final interview, sir.”

“The new worker will be working with you, Director Kim, not me. So I don’t think I need to interview the candidates. You decide who to hire. You know what? Why don’t you bring Mr. Adam Castler to the interview? So you can test the candidates’ English ability as well.”

“Sounds good, sir.”

When Gun-Ho came to work in the morning, Mr. Adam Castler entered Gun-Ho’s office with the interpreter—Mr. Lee.

“Mr. Adam Castler wants to ask you something, sir.”

“Okay, I’m listening.”

Mr. Adam Castler started talking in English with colorful body gestures.

“What is he saying?”

“He wants to move his desk to the construction site in Asan City.”

“We don’t even have an enclosed office space there yet.”

“He said he would be fine working in a container office.”

“Hmm, sure, if that’s what he wants.”

After Mr. Adam Castler left Gun-Ho’s office, Director Kim came into the office.

“Sir, I want to move to the container office in Asan City.”

“Won’t you be uncomfortable there? It’s really small. You will feel cramped.”

“It’s okay. The building will be completed within a month. It shouldn’t be a problem working in a container office for only a month. I will feel more comfortable working in a container office in Asan City rather than staying here since I now work for Dyeon Korea. Allow me to move there, sir.”

“Okay, if you insist. But I am not sure if we have enough container office.”

“We don’t have to buy an additional container office. We can just rent one.”

“Okay. Do what you need to do, Director Kim. Oh, Mr. Adam Castler is moving to the location as well. Show him the villa with two rooms, which we talked about the other day.”

“Yes, sir. I was going to do that, anyway.”

Director Dong-Chan Kim and Mr. Adam Castler started packing their stuff. Once they loaded the 1-ton truck which belonged to GH Mobile’s logistics team with their belongings and desks, they headed to Jiksan Town.

It was the day when the former S Group’s vice president—Mr. Jang-Hwan Song—finally joined GH Mobile as a co-president.

Gun-Ho called for the managers and executives to his office in order to welcome President Jang-Hwan Song.

“As of today, President Jang-Hwan Song will join us at GH Mobile as our co-president. I don’t think I need to introduce him to you since you all know him already. As you all know, he was the vice president of our major customer company—S Group. Let’s welcome him on board.”

Everyone in the room clapped with a smile.

President Jang-Hwan Song stood up from his seat.

“I appreciate you all welcoming me into your team. It’s really good to be here. It’s my pleasure and honor to join GH Mobile that is steadily growing. I’ve been briefed on the general status of GH Mobile. Thanks to President Goo. It is true that GH Mobile’s sales revenue is low considering your motivation and drive to work hard. I want to focus on increasing the company’s sales revenue. We will spend a lot of time discussing the reasons and ways to improve our situation. Starting this afternoon, I will visit each department and hear a report on the current status of each department. Thank you for your cooperation.”

After the meeting was over, President Song and Gun-Ho went to the worksite to meet with other employees. There, President Song was introduced to the assistant managers, supervisors, team leaders, and etc.

The workers kept glancing at Gun-Ho and the new president while working.

They whispered,

“The man over there, he is the new co-president of our company.”

“Are we having a second mother-in-law now?”

“Well, he will be mostly nagging the executives, not us.”

“Do you think that President Gun-Ho Goo wants to take a step back from the front lines? He has several companies, so maybe he wants to take a chairman position and let the president of each company handle the everyday work.”

“You think so? He is way too young to be a chairman. I can’t imagine a 30 something years old taking a step back from the daily operations of his companies and let others run them.”

The employees in the worksite talked and wondered about what was really going on with their company.