Chapter 296: Top Star—Seol-Bing (3) – Part 1

As soon as Gun-Ho came back to his office in Jiksan Town, the executives followed him to the office to make a report about the matters happened during his absence.

After the executives left Gun-Ho’s office once the reporting was completed, President Jang-Hwan Song entered Gun-Ho’s office.

“I met with Mr. Sakata Ikuzo in Japan, and he gave this to me to convey it to you.”

“Oh, this is a samurai statue made of metal.”

“That’s right. He asked me to say hi to you, sir.”

“I guess he carved this himself. This is very well made.”

“Mr. Sakata Ikuzo said he made it out of boredom.”

“He is indeed the best craftsman in the metal carving field.”

“He is an incredible engineer.”

“How is he doing? Is he well?”

“Yes. He looked healthy and well.”

“Is he living downtown in Tokyo?”

“No, he is living in Motomachi, Yokohama City. He has a small storage attached to his house, where he does carving work with all his equipment. It seems that he is running his own business there like taking an order and sell his carved product.”

“So, he is still working at his age. Does he have any apprentice of his own?”

“He said he wants to have an apprentice so he could pass on his skills, but young people in Japan these days, they don’t want to learn that sort of hands-on skills. He complained a lot about it.”

“Hmm. That’s a shame. His skills are amazing.”

“He said it will take about a week for him to make the mold we requested, and he will mail it to us. I think it was a good idea that I went to Japan to talk with him in person, rather than communicating with him through an email. I could understand better his explanation about the product.”

“You went there with the research center’s chief officer, right? What did he say?”

“He said there is an engineer just like Mr. Sakata Ikuzo in Germany. He is an old man too.”

“Really?”

“He also said, Mr. Sakata Ikuzo’s product is so pretty even though he wasn’t exactly following the design drawing in carving the product.”

“I see.”

“Mr. Sakata Ikuzo has a calligraphy wall hanging in his storage workshop and it says, ‘Isshokenmei’ (a person risks his life).”

“He used that wording a lot when he was here working with us. So he has a calligraphy wall hanging with the same wording. That’s interesting.”

“He said he applies that mindset every time he makes a product.”

“Well, he is really an eccentric old man. I hope he makes a great product for us.”

When the secretary— Ms. Hee-Jeong Park noticed that President Song would stay in Gun-Ho’s office for a while to talk with Gun-Ho, she prepared warm green tea and brought it to the office.

“Please have some tea.”

“Thank you.”

“How are you doing here, President Song? Are you feeling comfortable working here?”

“Yes. Everyone here is so kind and I appreciate it. I’m just concerned that since I had been with one company—S Group— for a long time, it might take time for me to make a business with other companies.”

“That’s okay. Take your time as you need.”

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“Thank you for understanding. We will have to press harder on growing and stabilizing our company in order to go public.”

“Hmm.”

“We will have to strengthen the company fundamentals before applying for KOSDAQ registration.”

“Are you saying that we need to lower our debt ratio?”

“At first, we need to focus on generating continuous ordinary income. This company incurred a substantial extraordinary loss while paying off the debts caused by Mulpasaneop’s failed investment in China. The internal auditor did a great job in doing so. Because the company removed the loss inherited from Mulpasaneop early, it could start generating income starting this year.”

“So, are we now qualified to apply for the KOSDAQ registration?”

“No. We will need to generate ordinary income at least for three years, so we could knock the door to the Korea Securities Dealers Association. We still have debt, and once we generate income constantly, we can gradually lower the debt. One of the requirements to apply for the KOSDAQ registration is that the debt ratio must be at least 1.5 times lower than the average debt ratio of the companies in the same industry.”

“Hmm.”

“What we can do right now is to increase the sales. As you are well aware, networking is critical in increasing the sales in this particular industry in addition to the ability to produce good products. So every employee needs to act as a salesperson to some extent. Of course, we will need technology, skills, and equipment to manufacture quality products. And then, we will need to adopt an efficient and effective management system.”

“Management?”

“Through the effective management, we will need to block any area that is leaking. Especially, we have to focus on the production site.”

“We will have to give a special education to Director Jong-Suk Park then.”

“I’ve pointed out several things that he had to correct, but he is doing fine. He works hard. It was an excellent decision to place him in the production site, especially because he is so close to you like a real brother, and everyone knows it. Director Park, who is in a close relationship with the company president, works so hard, and that gives other workers some sort of tacit pressure to work hard along with him. It’s not uncommon to see many plant managers or directors spending their time at work without really working. Director Park is not that type at all, so I do highly value him.”

“I see.”

“The CEO of the Hyundai Motor Group—Mong-Koo Chung once fired a plant manager of his manufacturing factory during his visit there, when he saw the plant manager not even being able to open a bonnet of a car.”

“Really? I haven’t heard that story. It’s interesting.”

“Well, I should take off now. I have an appointment with a customer company. Thank you for the tea.”

When it was lunchtime, Gun-Ho went to the company cafeteria. There was a long line already. When the workers saw Gun-Ho in line, they gave a bow to him. Gun-Ho was thinking of standing in line with other workers for a second, and then he decided to eat somewhere else. He didn’t want the employees to feel uncomfortable standing in line with their company’s president.

When he was walking out of the cafeteria, he ran into the general affairs director.

“Sir, do you have already had your lunch?”

“No, I just decided to eat somewhere else. The line is too long. If you haven’t had your lunch yet, why don’t you join me?”

“Sure, sir. I will bring my car.”

Gun-Ho and the general affairs director headed to Seonggeo Town around a reservoir. There was a Korean restaurant that specialized in soft tofu stew. While having lunch, Director Choi made a report.

“We’ve sent out the invitation letters for the Dyeon Korea’s building dedication ceremony. We sent it to the local government officials in Asan City as well.”

“But we are not sure how many of them will actually come, right? If we don’t see any local official in our ceremony, that could be a problem, but if we have so many of them, that could also be a problem.”

“Even though they don’t want to come, we still have to send the invitation to them. Otherwise, they would consider that we ignored them.”

“Haha. Really?”

“It’s true. People say that government officials cannot help your business, but they can certainly ruin your business.”

“Haha. You are so funny, Director Choi.”

“I’m serious.”

“The soft tofu stew is really good here.”

“That’s why I brought you here, sir.”