Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

Manager Hong came into Gun-Ho’s office.

“Sir, we have received the profit and loss statements from each GH company.”

“Good”

“I’ve organized the statements in Excel, so you can easily see them all at once.”

“Good job.”

Gun-Ho looked at the document. It contained each GH company’s sales, product costs, general administrative expenses, operating profit, net profit before tax, and other expenses. Some of the numbers were marked with percentages that were placed between parentheses, such as product costs and operating profits.

“I will take a look at the document. Thank you. You did a good job.”

“I will bring it to you quicker next time, sir.”

“You don’t have to rush it. It’s okay to take your time.”

“Also, when I sent out the information about each GH company’s bank account and the person who is in charge of accounting, to each GH company, GH Mobile’s accounting director— Ms. Director Min-Hwa Kim— suggested having a meeting between each GH company’s worker who is in charge of accounting.”

“That sounds good.”

“Having a female executive officer in a large company like GH Mobile gives the other GH companies’ workers a good impact. The workers believe that they can have a fair competition in GH companies.”

“Of course. We don’t discriminate against workers based on gender. They will be recognized and promoted to a higher position if they are competent and work hard.”

“Thank you, sir. I will get back to work.”

Once Manager Hong left Gun-Ho’s office, Gun-Ho looked closely at each GH company’s loss and profit status.

‘Last month— in September— GH mobile generated 9.5 billion won, Dyeon Korea 4.8 billion won, GH Logistics 120 million won, GH Media 250 million won, GH Parts Company in China made 800 million won, and GH Development made 820 million won. Dyeon Korea made a significant growth. GH Media is also doing well; I didn’t have to make any additional investment in machines or real estate to make it happen.

GH Mobile and GH Development have a substantial amount of debts. And they both incur a significant amount of expenses on a regular basis, that were not directly related to sales, as expected. I will have to reduce the debts for these two companies. Look at Dyeon Korea. It has no debt, and it generated 4.8 billion won of net profit before tax.’

Gun-Ho called for Manager Hong again, and he came to Gun-Ho’s office after a moment. He was carrying a note.

“Dyeon Korea’s sales include the sales in the market abroad, right?”

“That’s correct, sir. It includes the sales in China and India.”

“Next time when you make this chart with those profit and loss statements from all GH companies, please make one more column for a note and write down things like that.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Okay. Good job. You can go back to your work.”

Manager Hong gave a bow to Gun-Ho and left the office.

It was the day when Gun-Ho went to work in GH Mobile in Jiksan Town.

On the way to Jiksan Town, Gun-Ho’s Bentley stopped at Giheung Rest Area.

“Chan-Ho, you didn’t have your breakfast this morning, did you?”

“No, sir.”

“I’m going to have a bowl of Udong. Would you like to join me?”

“Sure, sir. I will have Udong too.”

After eating a bowl of Udong, Gun-Ho had a cup of coffee. And then he stretched himself before getting into the car.

Since he was the owner president of his companies, Gun-Ho didn’t have an obligation to arrive at work by a certain time. He could go to work whenever he wanted to go. It could be 9 am or 10 am. No one would complain about it. Moreover, because he had several companies that he was running, even if he stayed at one company for only a brief moment, people understood.

In addition, Gun-Ho had a good reputation among his workers. He was relatively quiet and didn’t enjoy nagging anybody. He was not a second or third-generation rich kid who often didn’t understand how others would feel if he acted in a certain way. Gun-Ho understood well how his workers would feel.

When Gun-Ho arrived at GH Mobile in Jiksan Town, the additional gate was already completed and being in use. One was for the trucks that were going out of the factory, and the other one was for the trucks that were coming in. The line in front of the incoming gate was short, maybe about half of what they used to have before.

Chan-Ho Eum said when he noticed the second gate, “There was a gorgeous pine tree on the place where we have now the second gate. It’s a shame that the tree had to be removed.”

“I know, but that’s how it is.”

Chan-Ho stopped the Bentley in front of the front entrance to drop off Gun-Ho. The workers at GH Mobile knew Gun-Ho’s presence at work by checking the front entrance if his Bentley was parked in front of the entrance or not. Gun-Ho’s Bentley at the entrance was the proof that Gun-Ho was at his office.

Gun-Ho went to the production site. The team leads and supervisors who were at the site gave a bow to Gun-Ho when they saw him. At that moment, Jong-Suk ran toward Gun-Ho.

“Were you in the office?”

“Yeah, I don’t have any schedule at a client site today.”

“You seem to lose some weight. You looked better last time. Is something going on?”

“I think I’m just stressed a lot lately.”

“Stress? Something is going on in the company?”

“No, I’ve been just so busy with the process of transferring to a four-year college.”

“Oh, you are transferring to Korea University of Technology and Education, huh? I thought you will have to take the exam to transfer after you graduate from your current college.”

“Yeah, I have to submit the application by the end of next January, but I have to take the TOEIC test.”

“TOEIC? Did you take the test?”

Jong-Suk Park let out a deep sigh.

“What’s wrong?”

“I took the TOEIC test twice. I made some progress on the second one, but my score is still 700 something.”

“700 is low? What is their requirement? It’s not like you are trying to take classes overseas, and the classes would be offered in English. Why do they want a high score on an English test?”

“The minimum TOEIC score that they require is a bit over 600.”

“That’s good then, right? Yours is over 700.”

“The thing is that the university will accept only two of three transferee students. I have to compete with other transfer applicants. If other applicants score 800 or 900 in TOEIC, the college will select that person over me.”

“That’s why you’ve been under a lot of stress? It was stressful enough to lose weight, huh? What are you going to do? You can try next year after improving your TOEIC score.”

“I will get a high score at the interview.”

“Hmm, really? Well, I think the interview will work favorably for you since you have extensive work experience, and you are currently working as a plant manager of a factory.”

“That’s one of the factors that they consider in evaluating the applicants. I also have many certificates related to the field.”

“That’s right. You do have a lot of certificates including welding. How many certificates do you have?”

“I have six in total.”

“That should be more than enough.”

“I’m worried that maybe I have to compete with someone who has seven or eight certificates.”

“Look. Usually, a young man in their early or mid-20s would apply to transfer to a four-year college. I don’t think those boys have that many certificates at their age. In my opinion, you will get admitted this time. Don’t worry about it.”

“I’m having a hard time sleeping these days. Maybe the professors who would interview the candidates will reject my application because of my age. Maybe I’m too old for a college student.”

“If the college rejects you, who has extensive hands-on work experience, just because of your age, you don’t want to study in a college like that. Don’t get stressed, and ease your tension. Worrying about something that is not under your control won’t help anything. Just focus on what you want to do.”

“Thank you, bro.”

Gun-Ho tapped Jong-Suk’s back before leaving the production site. Jong-Suk looked indeed anxious, and Gun-Ho wanted to cheer him up.