Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

Gun-Ho said to President Jeong-Sook Shin, “You will need to make a trip to China in the near future anyway. The investment will be made with GH Media’s name, so since you are its president, you will have to sign the contract.”

“Oh, is that right?”

“This will be a good opportunity to meet with new people, especially the Chinese people in the drama production field, such as the director and staff.”

“Haha, it sounds exciting.”

It was Thursday.

Gun-Ho went to work at GH Mobile in Jiksan Town. Before heading to his office on the second floor, he stopped by the new production site. The assistant manager, who was working on the site, recognized Gun-Ho and quickly came to him. He was the one who Gun-Ho gave a compliment last time.

“Is Director Park around?”

“I will find him for you, sir.”

Director Park was looking at a computer screen when he was informed that Gun-Ho was at the new production site. He quickly ran toward Gun-Ho. When he saw him, he almost called him bro but managed not to.

“Sir, you are here.”

“Did we install the machines at the production site B already?”

After making sure that no one was around except Gun-Ho and himself, Director Park talked to Gun-Ho in an informal way as usual.

“No. We actually switched the places. We installed the additional machines in the area where the assembly team used to work, and the new production site B is being used by the assembly team now.”

“Why did you do that?”

“We are getting more and more assembly work, and we need enough space to expand the team. The new site that was previously intended to be used as the additional production site is spacious, and we can easily make it a two-story building.”

Gun-Ho went to the site. The building was already built two-story. The first floor was being used as an auto parts assembly area, and the second floor was being used to assemble the parts for electronic appliances. The new production site B for the assembling work looked actually enormous. A significant number of assembly workers were standing in a line doing welding and assembling work.

“Wow, I didn’t know we have this many workers already.”

“President Song visited A Electronics’ factory in Dangjin City the other day and showed them Chrysler’s product that our company assembled for them. Now, we are doing the assembling work for A Electronics as well. Egnopak’s products and Mandong Company’s products that used to go to A Electronics are now being rerouted to our factory, so we can assemble them before the final shipment to A Electronics.”

“Really?”

“Did you see the trucks parked along the wall, on the way here?”

“I did. There were so many of them.”

“Those trucks are from Egnopak, Mandong Company, and others, and they are now supplying us with the components that we will assemble before we send more complete products to A Electronics.”

“Hmm, I see.”

“You haven’t seen President Song yet, right?”

“I came here first before going to my office.”

“He is probably not in his office. I was told that he would visit H Group’s factory today carrying two of our assembled products.”

“Really?”

“President Song personally knows the people at the H Group’s purchasing team. He has known them since he worked for S Group as a vice president.”

“Well, that doesn’t surprise me. He has been in the industry for a long time.”

“If President Song succeeds in procuring the business with H Group, our new production site B wouldn’t be enough with the space on the first floor. That’s why I already added the second floor to it. Since the assembling work doesn’t require using a lot of heat, we don’t need a high ceiling anyway.”

“Hmm, I see. How many new hires do we have at the assembly department?”

“It’s about a little bit over 100.”

“We now have more than 450 workers in total.”

“So, in order to have a quick glance at our company’s structure, I made our organizational structure. I was actually working on it with a computer when you came to the new production site earlier.”

“We will have a work performance assessment this December to promote some of our workers, so just hang in there until then, okay?”

“I know that. It’s September now. Two more months to go. Bro, you have to send a manager to the production site B. Don’t forget that.”

“I will talk to President Song about it because I only get involved in the promotion for executive officers.”

“No problem. Thank you, bro.”

Gun-Ho went to his office. The secretary—Ms. Hee-Jeong Park—brought a cup of tea for Gun-Ho, and she informed him, “Mr. President Song went out to visit H Group earlier, sir.”

“Hmm, I’m aware of it. Can you ask the accounting director to come to my office?”

“Yes, sir.”

A moment later, the accounting director—Min-Hwa Kim—entered Gun-Ho’s office. She seemed to gain some weight.

“Did you want to see me, sir?”

“You look healthier, Ms. Director Kim.”

“Hahaha. You are teasing me, sir, right? I know I’ve gained some weight recently. I’m still single, but my weight seems to keep increasing as I am now in my 50s. It’s one of the big problems that I have these days.”

“Is that the chart showing our current financial status in your hand? Let me take a look at it.”

“We exceeded 9 billion won for our monthly revenue. According to Mr. President Song, we will reach 10 billion won next month as we are now receiving assembly work from A Electronics.”

“Hmm, really?”

“The labor cost is increasing along with it. As our sales is increasing, the labor cost is on the rise as well.”

“What’s our current labor cost?”

“With the bonus of 400%, it’s almost 2 billion won, sir.”

“Hmm, it sounds like the labor costs account for more than 20% of our total business costs…”

“President Song said earlier that we will have to seriously consider replacing workers with robots at the assembly line.”

“Hmm…”

There were two ways to save labor costs: replacing the workers with robots or moving the factory to a country where the labor costs were low. If they decided to replace their workers with robots, they would have to lay off all of the new hires that they recently hired for the assembly department. If they moved the factory to Southeast Asia where they could get low-cost labor, they would soon face the same problem, sooner or later. Gun-Ho thought that he would have to talk with President Song about it. He wanted to tell him not to rush in finding a solution to save labor costs.

“We are not doing any B2B discount practice these days, right?”

“No, sir. During the Mulpasaneop era, we used to apply B2B discount right after we received the payments from our clients. We no longer do that, and the work at the accounting department became a lot easier.”

“During the court receivership of Mulpasaneop, you had a hard time working by yourself at the accounting department as the accounting manager, right?”

“Don’t get me started, sir. I didn’t even have time to go to the bathroom at that time. My work became easier after you joined Mulpasaneop as a directing manager, sir.”

“I didn’t do much at that time. I just hoped that I didn’t impose anyone.”

“Not at all, sir. I initially assumed that you were just a second-generation rich kid. So I thought that you just joined the company during the court receivership to learn about the work before you actually acquired the company. But, I was totally wrong. I was amazed when I realized that you were highly knowledgeable about the accounting field and the production as well. You seemed to be very familiar with the settings.”

“Haha, you did? Well, thank you. You can go back to your work now, Ms. Director Kim.”

“Yes, sir.”

The accounting director’s compliments didn’t bother Gun-Ho at all. He actually liked it.