Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

Gun-Ho and Young-Eun watched a play at Arko Arts Theater in Daehakro. After the play, they exchanged opinions and views on the play. Young-Eun once dreamed of becoming an artist, and she was still highly interested in arts, and she was very knowledgeable in the field accordingly.

'If I married Seol-Bing or Mori Aikko, I wouldn't have felt a sense of comradery that I'm feeling right now with Young-Eun, even though they are beautiful women.'

Gun-Ho and Young-Eun walked out to the street.

"Aren't you hungry?"

"I am actually starving."

"What do you want to eat?"

"Umm… Pizza!"

When they saw an Italian restaurant— Porco Rosso — that specialized in wood-fired pizzas, they entered there without hesitation.

"I know you own several businesses, but you seem to be folksy, and I like that."

"I like the folksy side of you as well, Ms. Young-Eun Kim."

"I'm just an ordinary person. Haha."

Gun-Ho was having a great time that day with Young-Eun. He wished he had a day like this one every single day.

"Umm, where does your father live? Since your mother passed away, does your father live by himself?"

"Yes, he is still alone. He is living in Dongbu condo in Sillim Town."

"He must feel lonesome."

"Not really. He has his own busy life. He goes to a clubhouse and plays Korean chess with his friends. He often goes to a library as well. Also, he likes mountain climbing. His favorite activity is climbing Gwanak Mountain with his friends. He loves that place."

"I guess you often send him things to help him out like allowance money."

"Haha, not really. He doesn't accept my money. He is living on a pension."

"I heard your father used to work as a teacher in an elementary school before he retired."

"That's right. He had taught kids for 34 years."

"I'd like to meet him someday."

"Huh?"

Young-Eun just smiled while having a piece of pizza.

It was on December 15.

GH Mobile's year-end financial meeting would be held today. The meeting would address the year-end report and next year's business plan. President Jang-Hwan Song convened the meeting in the conference room. Every management personnel from the position of a manager and above gathered in the conference room. One of the labor union's leaders attended the meeting as well. There were 36 attendees in the conference room. Six of them were executive officers, and they sat in the front seats facing other attendees. Everyone carried their journals with them.

The meeting started with the general affairs manager's opening remarks followed by the year-end report. Once a Powerpoint presentation began, everyone turned around and looked at the Powerpoint screen.

The female accounting manager— Min-Hwa Kim started her presentation on the year-end report. She was holding a presentation pointer. Her pitch during the presentation was higher than her usual one.

"This year, we achieved 81.6 billion won for the annual sales revenue. This amount is 9% higher than the one when we were under court receivership. The product cost is 67.8 billion won with a sales profit of 13.8 billion won. The general and administrative expenses were 8.1 billion won. That makes our ROS (Return on Sales) 7% with the operating profit of 5.7 billion won. If we include the subtraction of the financing cost of 2.6 billion won and the taxes, the net profit for this year is 2.4 billion won. It's 2.9% of our sales revenue."

The accounting manager continued her presentation further.

"Now, I will go into more details on the product cost."

At that moment, President Jang-Hwan Song chipped in.

"Let's go over one thing before we move on to the next item."

Everyone looked at President Jang-Hwan Song's face.

"The paid-in capital of our company is 2.5 billion won. In order to pay the company's urgent and bad debt, President Gun-Ho Goo lent 3 billion won of his personal fund to the company. We are supposed to pay this amount of 3 billion won back to President Goo once we generate enough revenue. However, President Goo decided to capitalize on this 3 billion won. So, now our company has 5 billion won capital."

Silence filled the air. No one could hear even a slight cough.

"Also, President Goo decided not to take his dividend of 2.4 billion won this year but asked us to use the fund to pay for the company's debt. Therefore, we are anticipating seeing a lower debt ratio and fewer business expenses other than operating costs. We will all have to thank Mr. President Goo for his decision."

Once President Song finished the announcement, the accounting manager continued her presentation.

"So, our product cost is…"

President Song again chipped in.

"Ms. Accounting Manager, please give us big numbers only. You don't have to tell us every single one of the numbers that you see in the product cost."

"Yes, sir."

It still took a long time for the accounting manager to give the complete end-year report even though she left out small details.

Manager Chang-Hwan Seo from the sales team then started his presentation on the business plan for the coming year.

"The sales volume has steadily increased for our new product— AM083 Assembly — including S Group's product orders. The estimated profit for the upcoming year will be 12% higher than this year, and we set our sales goal to 91.4 billion won. We have also tried to lower our product costs… Therefore, we are aiming at 5 billion won as our net profit next year."

Once Manager Seo's presentation ended, the internal auditor added, "From the year after next year, our debt ratio will be significantly reduced, and I expect it to be about the industrial average debt ratio."

When all the presentations were done, Gun-Ho made a final comment for the meeting.

"Thank you for your hard work. I feel highly relieved as I see the company steadily growing with your great effort. Our sales goal next year is set to 91.4 billion won, and with your motivation and gusto, I have no doubt that we will achieve that goal.

In order for us to successfully register our company with KOSDAQ, our debt ratio must be 1.5 times lower than the industrial average debt ratio. We all want our company to go public, so we gain the public's trust, and also we will feel more proud of being a part of this community. You can expect to see more benefits that the company offers to our employees as well. Let's keep up the good work and do our best in our position. Each of you is an important asset to our company. Thank you all for being here today."

Everyone in the meeting room stood up and clapped.

That day, the company cafeteria prepared a special lunch for the employees. They added chicken and a variety of fruits to the menu. The workers assumed that the special menu was provided per President Goo's order as it was the day they announced the business plan of the upcoming year.

"I heard President Goo is very sensitive with numbers since he used to work in the accounting field before. He gets really mad if someone gives him an inaccurate number."

"The executive officers must be very nervous around him when they have to talk about numbers then."

Gun-Ho had lunch at the company cafeteria that day with the executive officers.

When Gun-Ho came back to his office after lunch, the secretary — Ms. Hee-Jeong Park brought a cup of coffee for him as she always had done. While he was enjoying his afternoon coffee, Gun-Ho received a call from Artist Choi.

"This is Artist Choi. I hope I picked the right time to call you. I thought you might not be very busy after lunchtime."

"Hi, how have you been?"

"I'm fine. I heard you and Young-Eun met several times. Why don't you propose to her? Since it's December now, I think March next year will be a perfect month for you to marry her."