Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

Gun-Ho gave a call to Jae-Sik Moon to ask about Onbid.

“It’s me, Gun-Ho.”

“Yeah, President Goo. What’s up?”

“I guess you and I talk a lot on the phone today.”

“Haha. I guess so.”

“I’ve verified the funds in my bank account, and I sent 200 million won back to the GH Logistics’ business account.”

“You did? Okay. Thank you.”

“And, I was wondering if you have applied for bidding on Onbid.”

“You mean for the rental property in Siheung City, right? The one without restriction on the use, huh? I did.”

“You will have a visitor tomorrow. He is the one who will take over the company. He will be there around noon.”

“Oh, really?”

“He is my brother-in-law.”

“Yeah, I think you told me about him. You said that he has been in the transportation industry for quite a while, huh? Actually, we need someone like him in GH Logistics.”

It was Tuesday.

Gun-Ho went to work at Dyeon Korea that morning.

When he arrived in his office, Director Kim brought him the expense approval form for the initial investment funds for India. Gun-Ho signed the approval form to send out 100,000 dollars to India. He then called for the internal auditor while Director Kim was still in the office.

“This is the signed approval form for the initial investment funds for India. Please have Manager Myeong-Sook Jo in the accounting team transfer the funds to India by the end of today.”

“Okay, sir.”

“How much funds do we have in our Dyeon Korea’s reserve right now?”

“We have around 6.5 billion won, sir. We had 7.2 billion won before we sent out 700 million won to China to acquire the sales company there.”

“Do you think we can make 10 billion won by the end of this year?”

“I can’t tell for sure. The funds in our reserve have been accumulated not just for this year but starting from last year.”

“I remember that as of December last year, we had 4.2 billion won. I can assume that we added an additional 3 billion won during the first half of this year. And, I guess we can add another 3 billion won by the end of this year. That means that I don’t think we can expect to see 10 billion won at the end of this year. Mr. Director Kim, please do something about it.”

When Gun-Ho looked at Director Kim and said that, Director Kim responded while laughing, “Okay, sir. I will have all of the machines including machine no. 16 working during the second half of this year. I believe we can make enough profits to fill up our reserve with 10 billion won that way. Also, since we are expanding our business to India, I guess we can increase our profits. I’m sure we won’t lose any this year.”

“I feel good that we have Manager Lee in India. Since he has experience working overseas before, it seems that he is establishing and settling the business quickly.”

“We have to watch out the transportation fees though. It won’t be a small amount of money. Also, since shipping raw materials to India will take a long time, I’m concerned whether it could spoil the materials on the way there.”

“Hmm. Once you come back from your trip to India, I think we’d better ship a small amount of raw materials there to see if it’s safe to send that way, maybe we will send just 5 tons of raw materials for an experimental purpose.”

“That sounds good.”

“Well, if you don’t have anything else to talk to me about, I will leave for GH Mobile now.”

When Gun-Ho arrived at GH Mobile, he called for the general affairs director via the interphone.

“You wanted to see me, sir?”

“We are not hiring workers in the production site right now, are we?”

“No, we are not. We usually hire production workers twice per year— Spring and Fall. However, since we have a very low turnover rate, we didn’t hire anyone last Spring.”

“We need to hire two production workers.”

“Two workers? Do you already have people in mind?”

“GH Logistics is moving to another area. Once it moves, we will need to take two workers from there.”

“I see. We can add two more workers in the production site, but we can’t do that for the management positions.”

“They are currently doing management work with GH Logistics, but I understand that they will have work in the production site here.”

“Sir, do you have, by any chance, their resumes with you?”

“No, I don’t. I will ask them to send their resumes here. Please review them.”

“Okay, sir.”

Gun-Ho felt like he was contradicting himself by bringing two workers for the production site after he had previously claimed that he wouldn’t get involved in hiring workers except for executive officers. He felt obligated that he should inform President Song about it in person. He made a call to President Song who was working outside the office that day.

“Mr. President Song?”

“Yes, sir. This is him speaking.”

“We are moving GH Logistics to another location after selling its land.”

“Oh, I see.”

“Once we move its location, I think we need to relocate their two workers to GH Mobile. They are the residents in this area, and they can’t move with GH Logistics.”

“If they are willing to work in the production site, there shouldn’t be any problem.”

“Okay. I will talk with the general affairs director.”

“I’m in a client site in Changwon City. I might not be able to get back to the office today.”

“No problem. I will talk to you later.”

Gun-Ho made a call to the general affairs director.

“I will ask GH Logistics to send the two workers’ resumes to you. Please review them and let me know what you think.”

“Okay, sir.”

Gun-Ho visited GH Logistics in Seonghwan City. The two employees there were working with computers, and Jae-Sik Moon was talking with truck drivers.

“President Moon!”

“Oh, you are here already.”

“You seem to be busy there. Please don’t mind me. I will use the bathroom now.”

“Okay.”

When Gun-Ho walked out of the office to go to the bathroom, he saw a black Sonata coming into the company yard. He watched to see who would come out of the car. It was his brother-in-law. Surprisingly, his brother-in-law was with his sister.

“You both came. That’s nice. You didn’t have any trouble finding the location?”

“Nah, it was easy enough.”

There were three freight trucks and one heavy construction equipment parked in the company yard. Gun-Ho’s brother-in-law made a comment about it while looking at them.

“It’s not good to have vehicles parked here during the daytime. They are supposed to be somewhere working while leaving the company yard vacant.”

“It seems the truck drivers stopped by the office for business.”

“This location looks expensive with direct access to the public road. Are you making enough profits while using this expensive land? The land looks like at least 1,000 pyung large.”

“It’s actually way larger than 1,000 pyung. Do you see plastic drums over there? All of the land up to that point belongs to the company.”

“Is that right? Whoa, it’s huge. How large is it?”

“It’s 5,000 pyung large.”

“Did you say 5,000 pyung? The land itself should be very expensive.”

“It’s more than 6 billion won worth.”

“6 billion won?”

Gun-Ho’s sister and her husband couldn’t close their mouths in surprise.

“I guess running a company is just a pretext for you. Your real business is investment in real estate, I think.”

“No. I do run my companies too.”

At that moment, Jae-Sik Moon came out of the office. It seemed that he had done talking with the truck drivers.

“Hey, President Moon. Please come here and meet my brother-in-law.”

“Hello?”

“Hi.”

Jae-Sik Moon and Gun-Ho’s brother-in-law had a handshake. While doing so, Jae-Sik Moon kept glancing at Gun-Ho’s sister. When Gun-Ho was about to introduce his sister to Jae-Sik, Jae-Sik started talking. “Umm… Are you Gun-Ho’s sister— Gun-Sook?”

“Huh? Do I… know you?”

“You don’t recognize me, sister? It’s me, Jae-Sik— Jae-Sik Moon.”

“Oh, the basement boy!”

When Gun-Ho’s sister blurted the word— basement— Gun-Ho couldn’t help but laugh.

“Hahahaha. Jae-Sik, I guess you can’t get away from your old nickname— basement!”