Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

Artist Choi was rushing Gun-Ho into marrying Young-Eun.

"I think this coming March would be perfect, after the Lunar New Year's Day."

"Umm, sounds good."

"Usually, the groom's family picks the month of the wedding, and then the bride's family determines the specific wedding date within that month. We will have to finish all the family gatherings and stuff before March then. Have you met Young-Eun's father?"

"Umm… Not yet…"

"Oh, my gosh. How come both of you and Young-Eun are so sluggish? You two are so alike. I had asked Young-Eun several times to measure your ring finger, and I received the measurement just now. Please go and see Young-Eun's father. Bring a bottle of liquor to him; he will like it."

"Haha. Okay, I will do that."

"I will tell Young-Eun that the groom picked March for the wedding. I will let Young-Eun pick the specific date."

"Thank you."

"Her father is so worried about her, especially because she doesn't have her mother now. He wants her to marry as soon as she can. But that crazy girl went to Africa for volunteer work and stayed there for several years. She is now even older."

"Thank you for everything."

Gun-Ho headed to Dyeon Korea. Gun-Ho would have another year-end meeting in Dyeon Korea in the afternoon.

Gun-Ho had to skip his usual afternoon nap that day and headed out to Dyeon Korea right after finishing his cup of coffee. When he arrived at Dyeon Korea, he still had about twenty minutes left before the meeting started. Gun-Ho turned on his computer in the president's office. There was a new email waiting for him. It was from Manager Hee-Yeol Yoo in the production department of Dyeon Korea.

[I've been trying to document Dyeon's chemical compound recipes and formulas along with other important data. There were so many of them, and I finally managed to organize them all. I've attached the file to this email. I'm sorry that I couldn't have done this earlier. I haven't shown the data to anyone but you, sir.

I feel so grateful for every opportunity that you gave to me including the training in the U.S. I wanted to document this as soon as I could in order to show my gratitude to you, sir, but if you would hear my excuse, we've been very busy with new machines and new testing in the production site. I'm sorry again, sir.

From Manager Hee-Yeol Yoo.]

Gun-Ho opened the file that was attached to the email sent from Manager Hee-Yeol Yoo. The file was huge in size, and there were a lot of numbers and chemical symbols in Excel.

"Shoot. I can't even read these. Let's just remember that I have this file on my computer."

Gun-Ho sent a brief reply to Manager Hee-Yeol Yoo.

[Thank you for the file and thank you for your hard work, Manager Yoo. Let's do our best in doing our part to make our company great. Thank you.]

Dyeon Korea's year-end financial meeting started. Ms. Myeong-Sook Jo — the accounting manager — made the presentation in the meeting.

"Dyeon Korea opened its door early this year. We have been in the business for nine months now which is less than a year yet.

Our sales revenue this year is 21 billion won, and our product cost is 15.75 billion won. Our sales profit is 5.25 billion won. Our general and administrative cost is 2 billion won, and that would make our ROS 9.5% with our operating profit of 3.2 billion won. We haven't incurred any other expenses other than operating costs…"

Since Dyeon Korea was a joint venture company with an American company, everything had to be interpreted by the interpreter — Mr. Lee.

Assistant Manager Il - Gi Seong's presentation on the upcoming year's business plan ensued.

"Our anticipated sales revenue for the next year is 36.4 billion won. The sales revenue in our national market takes up 33.6 billion won out of it, and the other 3 billion won is from the market overseas…"

With the interpretation of every word, the meeting took a lot longer than the one in other companies, and it felt boring. Gun-Ho felt tired since this was the second year-end meeting that he attended that day. It was Gun-Ho's turn to make a final statement.

"Dyeon Korea made outstanding achievement even in its first year of business. Thanks for your great work. This joint venture company started the business without any financial debt, so we could generate profits. However, as we expand our sales market to other countries, it is very possible that we might have to borrow funds from a bank which will cause a debt. That will reduce our profits accordingly. But, even though we incur some debt in developing our market, if we increase our sales and make more revenue, we can even make more profits."

Mr. Adam Castler nodded his head as Mr. Lee interpreted what Gun-Ho said.

"We need to develop our markets overseas in the upcoming year. Also, I'm hoping that we can bring more machines up to no. 16 by the first half-year. Thank you all for attending the meeting today."

After the year-end financial meeting, Gun-Ho came back to his office. He was having his cup of tea when he received a call from President Song in GH Mobile.

"Sir, it's President Song. Is Dyeon Korea's meeting over?"

"Yes."

"I heard Dyeon Korea generated 21 billion won of sales revenue with 25% of profits."

"That's correct."

"Dyeon Korea seems to be doing great. I guess handling raw materials is a highly lucrative business. I think you can expect to see more revenues coming from overseas markets starting next year."

"They set a goal of 3 billion won."

"There seems to be lots of potential in the overseas market. I've noticed that the year-end report for GH Mobile and Dyeon Korea was prepared and presented by the sales team, but it should be actually handled by a business planning department which neither company doesn't have yet. The department can develop, research, and analyze the company's long-term goals and investment, and it will produce a strategic plan as well. I think we need to form the department."

"Hmm."

"Well, I guess you must be very tired today since you attended two meetings."

"I'm okay. With my young age, I can handle this much."

Even if he said so, Gun-Ho felt extremely exhausted after getting off the phone with President Song.

Gun-Ho started thinking while having his tea.

'I guess each of my companies will need a business planning department once it hits the sales revenue of 100 billion won. I will need a department that can research and analyze new investments and implement an efficient business plan. The department should report directly to me though.'

Gun-Ho sat at his desk and opened his email, and wrote an email to Director Kang in GH Development, President Jeong-Sook Shin in GH Media, and President Min-Hyeok Kim in China.

[We had a year-end financial meeting in GH Mobile and Dyeon Korea today and discussed this year's profits and losses along with the upcoming year's business plan. Since we won't have the meeting for GH Development, GH Media, and GH Parts Company, I'd like to receive a report about the same for each company. Please send me the report via email by the end of this month. I prefer to receive the report on a one-page A4 paper. I appreciate your great work this year.]