Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

After the general affairs director left the office, Gun-Ho read a newspaper with his legs crossed on the sofa. At the moment, someone knocked on the door and entered the office. It was a neat-looking young man. He looked two or three years younger than Gun-Ho.

“Hello sir, I’m the manager at the general affairs department.”

The general affairs manager was carrying two shopping bags.

“What are those?”

“We prepared gifts for our employees for Korean Thanksgiving. These are for you and your chauffeur, sir.”

“Oh, really? You saved one for me too, huh?”

Gun-Ho smiled and said, “Please find my chauffeur—Chan-Ho Eum—and tell him to come to my office to pick these up, so he could put them in the car trunk.”

“Yes, sir.”

After a while, Chan-Ho Eum entered Gun-Ho’s office and took the two shopping bags out to the car.

A moment later, the general affairs manager entered Gun-Ho’s office again. This time, he was with several other workers from the same department. They brought a lot of wrapped gift boxes and shopping bags to Gun-Ho.

“What are they?”

“These are presents for you from our vendor companies.”

Gun-Ho frowned and yelled, “Take them out of my office!”

“Sir?”

“I’m not going to take them. If they are fruits or some food, share them with other workers; otherwise, just give them to someone else like the cleaning crew or security guards.”

“But, sir…”

When the general affairs manager hesitated to leave the office with the gifts from the vendor companies, Gun-Ho yelled at them again, “I said to take them out of the office!”

“Yes, sir.”

The general affairs manager and other workers blushed and left the office. A moment later, the general affairs director quickly entered Gun-Ho’s office.

“Sir, I don’t mean to be presumptuous, but, the vendor companies sent these gifts with heart for you.”

“Mr. General Affairs Director, when you receive any presents addressed to me, please send them back selectively.”

“I’ve returned some of the gifts that we received for you, but these presents are from the people…”

“I’m not sending them back to the senders, but I will share them with our cleaning crew or security guards or whoever wants it. I will consider that I’ve accepted those gifts.”

“Here is the list of the names who sent the gifts to you, sir.”

Gun-Ho didn’t even lay his eyes on the list.

“Please keep the list with you. And, distribute the gifts to others.”

“I will then give out these gifts primarily to the non-professional employees who receive a relatively low salary.”

“Sounds good to me.”

The general affairs director left the office with a blushed face.

In the afternoon, Gun-Ho went to Dyeon Korea. Mr. Adam Castler came into Gun-Ho’s office with a smile. His interpreter—Mr. Myeong-Joon Chae—was following him to Gun-Ho’s office while carrying a note.

“The head office is suggesting to have our second board meeting by paper.”

“Well, that would be okay since there seems to be nothing really to talk about. Our business is doing fine as it is.”

“The head office sent the document about increasing the capital that we talked about verbally last time.”

“Let me take a look at it.”

Gun-Ho read the document that was drafted by Dyeon’s head office.

[This Agreement is entered by the Korean company and the American company that invested in Dyeon Korea.

1. The profits after the tax, which are generated in the first year, shall be distributed to each party in cash according to their investment ratio.

2. Each party shall contribute 5 million dollars in increasing the capital stock. However, the Korean company has an option to make an investment in-kind by contributing the factory building that is being used as Dyeon Korea’s production facility. If the building’s value is less than 5 million dollars, it shall contribute to the difference in cash.

3. The appraisal on the factory building shall be submitted, showing its current fair market value, and the appraisal must be conducted by a reliable appraisal and assessment institute that earned public confidence. The appraisal shall be translated into English and also notarized.

4. The board of directors, who were selected to serve the first year, shall continue to serve the following year.

5. In the event that one party wants to establish a subsidiary company or a branch office abroad, it must seek an agreement from the other party.

October 12th, 20xx

Lymondell Dyeon Corporation GH Mobile Corporation

Brandon Burke Gun-Ho Goo]

Gun-Ho didn’t see any anomaly in the agreement, so he signed it.

Once Gun-Ho handed the signed agreement about the capital increase over to Mr. Adam Castler, he kissed on the paper and said, “Thank you very much, boss!”

After Mr. Adam Castler left the office, Gun-Ho called for Director Yoon.

“Did you want to see me, sir?”

“I wanted to ask you about the construction of our factory building since you were in charge of it at the time. How much did it cost us to complete it?”

“It took 2.5 billion won, sir, but I always tell others that it cost us 3 billion won. You are the only person who knows the exact amount.”

“We are increasing our capital. The land is already under Dyeon Korea’s name, but this building was not part of the investment at the time. I will include this in increasing the capital. If you know a good appraisal organization, get the appraisal for the building, please.”

“Yes, sir.”

“You have to keep in mind that we want the appraisal as high as we could get. Talk to the appraisers quietly and tell them that we are trying to get a loan using the building as collateral, and tell them to get us the value as high as they could. Don’t let Mr. Adam Castler find out about it though.”

“I understand, sir.”

“Once you get the appraisal, take it to Mr. Interpreter Myeong-Joon Chae to translate it into English.”

“Yes, sir.”

“The translated version needs to be notarized as well. There is a notary office in front of the court. Finally, give the notarized translated appraisal to Mr. Vice President Adam Castler.”

“Yes, sir.”

Gun-Ho headed back to Seoul after signing the accounting document that was brought by the accounting manager—Ms. Myeong Sook Jo.

On the way to Seoul in the car, Chan-Ho Eum said, “Sir, there are two more gifts in the trunk. Dyeon Korea’s general affairs manager brought them to me earlier.”

“Really? Unless someone gives you the present officially, we shouldn’t accept any gifts, especially those that are given individually. You have to keep that in mind, okay?”

“Yes, sir. The employees seemed to already understand your policy clearly.”

“My policy?”

“Yes, sir, the policy that they should be very careful in giving you a present.”

“Is that so?”

“They said that they haven’t seen you being so upset before, but when they brought those gifts to you today, you seemed to be really mad.”

“Hmm, that’s what they said?”

“A few executive officers asked me about it too.”

“About what?”

“They asked if you always get upset when someone brings you a gift.”

“What did you tell them?”

“I told them that they have to think again when they want to bring you a gift because you can get extremely upset.”

“Good.”

“When I told them that, they were like ‘of course, he would since he must have everything he needs already.’”

“Hmm, really?”

As the Korean Thanksgiving Day was getting closer, the traffic on the road became heavier. Gun-Ho decided to stay in Seoul for a while without going to work at GH Mobile in Jiksan Town and to Dyeon Korea in Asan City because of the heavy traffic.

“They should be doing well without me. I will just stay in Seoul until after the Korean Thanksgiving Day.”

Gun-Ho’s companies in Seoul—GH Development and GH Media—also both prepared presents for their employees celebrating Korean Thanksgiving. GH Development’s Director Kang and GH Media’s President Shin knew that they shouldn’t bring the gifts to Gun-Ho directly, by their extensive experience. They just asked Chan-Ho Eum quietly to load the car with the gifts.