The Famous Millionaire

“It looks like Minhye Park is interested in you. I wonder if you are interested in her…” said Yonggu.

Yonggu stopped for a moment, but Hyunwoo could figure out what he would say next, but kept silent.

Yonggu asked in a hesitant tone, “Are you interested in her at all?”

Hyunwoo giggled at that, for he now knew that Yonggu was only asking because of what happened at the picnic. In fact, Hyunwoo felt Minhye got unusually friendly to him.

At that time Hyunwoo was not conscious of Yonggu or Sangho at all as he was totally focused on the kids at the picnic. Looking back now, however, he felt both of them must have felt uneasy.

Shaking his head, Hyunwoo said calmly, “Obviously, she is a good and attractive woman, but she is not my type. She may be interested in me, but I’m not interested in her at all. You don’t have to worry about that.”

When Hyunwoo said so firmly, Yonggu’s face brightened, “Are you sure?”

“Of course. How can I intervene when I know too well that you have your eye on her? I might have done so as an immature school boy, but I’m not immature any longer, so rest assured, dude. By the way, snatch her up right now before anybody else does. Prove your ability properly and win her heart!”

“I’d love to, but I can’t find any occasion.”

“I hear an important buyer is coming from Japan soon. I think if you can pull off a contract with him, you will impress her with that.”

Yonggu’s face was distorted as if that was not the proper case.

“As you know, we are working here at the purchasing department. How can I interfere with the sales team’s business?”

Hyunwoo was aware of that. It was impossible for the purchasing team to try to interfere with the business of sales department, but Yonggu said something that stunned Hyunwoo.

“I hear the sales team is in alert mode at the moment. According to Team Manager Younghwan Koh, the Japanese buyer has his heart set on Art Hill, so the chance of us getting the contract is less than 1%. Looks like the sales team has already given up.”

That’s true. Actually, the chances of success would be less than 0.1%, practically impossible.

That meant that the purchasing team might get a chance. Though it was the job of the sales team, any other team had a chance if they gave it up.

Hyunwoo said, with his eyes shining, “If the sales team fails, can any other team volunteer to do it?”

“Well, I guess so. Do you think we can pull it off when the sales team can’t? And sales is not my speciality,” said Yonggu.

Anyway, Hyunwoo felt he had to prepare in advance for such an occasion, I think I have to ask Unhye Kim in Japan to gather some tips on the Japanese buyer.

“By the way, do you happen to know the name of the Japanese buyer?”

“I hear there are two, Yoshimoto and Oda. I have no idea which of them is coming to meet us.”

“Yoshimoto and Oda?”

Parting with Yonggu, Hyunwoo immediately called Unhye and asked her to gather some detailed information on Yoshimoto and Oda.

**

Jaegyong Kang and Sungrak Soh grew accustomed to their new jobs much faster than expected.

Sungwoo Paek expected that it would take at least two months to teach them, but they were already handling it on their own without his help.

As it took fifteen days to renovate and sort the import parts from Vietnam, they only had that much time for them to understand their job, yet their sales performance was not poor.

Hyunwoo decided to give them at least 2 million won for their monthly salary. He was planning to do so until they could make 2 million won through sales. He expected that would last about six months. However, in less than a month, the monthly sales passed 100 million won.

Given that he didn’t advertise it, the sales performance was quite encouraging. Sungwoo’s word that there were many retailers who wanted to buy the parts was not an exaggeration.

Jaegyong and Sungrak’s active attitude contributed greatly to the growth in sales. They were not just content with their given assignments but worked creatively to generate more sales. For example, they presented an idea on publicity. They did not rely on the internet cafe of N&C Korea but made active use of the open market on the internet.

Thanks to their efforts the growth in sales picked up greatly after they created a sales category on the open market on the internet. In particular, a small order of less than 1,000 increased every day as evidence that N&C was gaining recognition among consumers.

If this trend continued, it would overtake Castor Inc. as the top producer of castor products in a flash. Then, all the sales network would be incorporated into N&C’s internet cafe meaning that Hyunwoo wouldn’t need to pay the fee on the open market.

Jaegyong and Sungrak’s take of 3% of monthly profits amounted to over 3 million per month.

Hyunwoo and Sungwoo got 8% of the profits, which was 8 million. Out of that, Sungwoo got only 1%, and Hyunwoo took the remaining 7% as he paid the overhead as the owner of the warehouse. Sungwoo didn’t complain about the distribution of the profits.

In fact, what Sungwoo did up to now was play the role of the manageress briefly. In that respect, even 1% was too much for him. However, Hyunwoo decided to pay him that much because he was his business partner.

Hyunwoo readjusted their salary, given the sharp increase in sales. He thought they deserved more because the sales increased thanks to their hard work.

One month after the retail sales Hyunwoo gave each of them an envelope, “Thanks, guys. Take this.”

“What’s this?”

“Your monthly salary. I originally planned to give you 2 million won until our sales operation began to make profits,” Jaegyung and Sungrak were stunned. “However, we’re already taking 1.5 million won in profits of the sales.”

“That’s enough for us.”

“Take it, man. Do you think 1.5 million is enough as you work your finger to the bone? If you don’t want to take this, try harder, so the sales can go over 200 million per month,” said Hyunwoo.

They took the envelopes politely, “Thank you, sir.”

When they opened the envelope and checked the money, it was more than they expected.

Hyuwoo grinned at them, saying, “Originally I planned to give you 2 million per month, but I gave you a little more as our sales recorded more than 100 million won in one month since opening the sales office. Leave for the day as soon as you’re done. Treat your wife to some nice food, Jaegyong.”

“Yes, brother!”

Both of the smiled at each other in satisfaction, as if they were determined to work harder.

Hyunwoo smiled before he knew it.

Looks like I let them take care of the work here completely.

Erasing N&C Korea’s business from his memories for now, Hyunwoo focused on his main job at Aurum. Actually he tried, but he could not do so because Aurum was in a tricky situation.

“What are you talking about?”

President of Arum Daebong Park’s thunderous voice came out of his office.

The new sales team manager Suchol Yang was at a loss what to do since he had just assumed his current position after Youngsu Park transferred to the purchasing team as its manager.

“That’s a groundless rumor, sir. How could it be?”

“Hey, how is such a rumor getting around? Isn’t it because you guys on the sales team are not that enthusiastic about it?”

“No way, sir. We’re doing our best now.”

“How? Specifically what and how are you doing now?”

Daebong was browbeating him as if he was ready to fire him if he could not produce any good results, but Suchol could not do so.

Suchol and his team didn’t slack off as the rumor had it, nor had he given up. They were doing their best to successfully pull off the contract with the Japanese buyers. However, no matter how many good ideas they came up with, they couldn’t capture the Japanese buyers’ minds.

The only thing they could offer as an enticement was cheap price, but the Japanese buyers were more concerned about quality than the price. Moreover, they have already been doing business with Art Hill for several years. Under the equal conditions, the chances of Aurum’s beating Art Hill in this contract war was less than 10%. Winning the contract meant Aurum would take away Art Hill’s customer. At best, the winning rate was less than 1%.

However, Daebong was full of enthusiasm as if he would bet the success or failure of his business on the contract.

“I don’t want to hear your excuses. You’re a professional, right, Manager Yang? Professionals produce good results, not words. Don’t you know why I assigned Younghwan Koh, your deputy, to that position? If you can’t pull off the contract this time, that means you’re wanting in ability.”

Yang Suchol had nothing to say. He knew Younghwan’s ability well. He was very competent in sales with a native command of Japanese. In some respects, he was hired because of Aurum’s goal of expanding its business to Japan.

Back to the office, Suchol was all over his team members to put together the deal. In particular, he went after Younghwan. He was the very guy Suchol could trust most, and naturally, he was the target of Suchol’s nagging.

“Hey, Mr. Koh, you have such a great ability, right? And did you give up on Minhye Park? Are you going to yield her to Mr. Yonggu Kim or Sangho Oh? You can beat them by pulling off the deal this time. Don’t say ‘mission impossible’ to me. Just risk your life on it, okay?”

Several days later the representative of Oda and two technicians, arrived at Aurum.

Aurum was on ultra alert to the point that anyone who messed up would be fired on the spot. The sales team treated them as if they were treating the Japanese emperor, but the technicians didn’t even bat an eyelash. From start to finish, they appraised Aurum’s products in a calm manner. The technicians accompanying the representative looked as if they were looking for the bad, not the good side of the products, and shook their heads.

“I don’t think your products are better than Art HIll’s.”

“Please take a look at the quality versus the price. We’ve improved the quality recently, so there is no big difference in the quality of the two companies’ products.”

“Well, it’s not so attractive as to change our existing supplier.”

“Why are you making such a rash decision? Today, we’ve had a long talk, so please review it once more tomorrow, and we’d love to treat you to a nice dinner.”

Younghwan Koh was subservient to them, but they became even icier in their attitude.

“What are you trying to do now? Don’t even think you can curry favor with us with such a treat. Don’t you know we hate that kind of staff?”

Younghwan was nervous. In fact, he had expected something different when he found out that Oda, not Yoshimoto, visited this time. Unlike Yoshimoto, who was so inflexible as to earn his nickname ‘Iceman’, Oda loved to drink and woman, but the result was the same. As Oda visited as the chief of the contract team, he was even stricter than Yoshimoto. There was no way Younghwan could persuade him.