Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

Gun-Ho went to Dyeon Korea and had a meeting with Mr. Adam Castler. As a matter of fact, Mr. Adam Castler didn't really have a chance to take any critical role in the sales work targeting the national market. Director Kim was the major player in handling the Korean market. However, ever since he started receiving sales reports in English from the companies in China and India, he looked vibrant, and he worked vigorously.

"Hahaha. Mr. President Goo, I have good news for you. Ms. Dingding made a big deal."

"What do you mean?"

"She succeeded in procuring a new client in Yancheng City."

"I thought we have already been selling our products there even though it was not a lot."

"This is a huge one."

"How big is it?"

"We will be selling 20 tons of our raw materials to them. We are currently selling 70 tons per month in China, so with the new deal, we will be selling 90 tons on a monthly basis."

"The annual sales revenue will exceed 4 billion won then. President Min-Hyeok Kim must be very happy with it too."

"4 billion won, no problem. We will make more than that."

"I believe so. We are selling it for 4.5 million won per ton, so if we sell 90 tons, that would make the sales revenue 450 million won; the annual sales revenue would be 4.86 billion won."

Mr. Adam Castler and his interpreter—Myeon-Joon Chae—who were listening to Gun-Ho doing his math, were amazed by Gun-Ho's ability to do a mental calculation. As they verified Gun-Ho's number with an electronic calculator, they were frightened by his accuracy.

'I saw him doing his mental calculation before. I'm amazed every time I see it.'

Mr. Adam Castler said to Gun-Ho with a smile, "I think we should compensate Ms. Dingding for her effort and the ensued desirable outcome, sir."

"Do you have any suggestions about what kind of compensation would be good?"

"Well…"

Gun-Ho couldn't think of a better compensation than a stock option, but since she was now an employee of Dyeon Korea, that wouldn't be a plausible option.

"Let's do this."

"What do you have in mind, sir?"

Mr. Adam Castler looked at Gun-Ho's face with his widened eyes.

"If she succeeds in selling more than 100 tons per month, we will provide her a certain amount of aid to be used toward her accommodation. I think it's fair since you—Mr. Adam Caster—also live in a place which is paid for by the company."

After listening attentively to his interpreter's interpretation of what Gun-Ho just said, Mr. Adam Castler smiled broadly, and said, "Thank you, boss!"

"What about India? How are they doing?"

"It seems that they will be able to sell at least 50 tons per month without any difficulty. Ever since Director Kim visited India, we started supplying our products to S Group, Mandong Company, and Egnopak. Manager Lee is still working on procuring a new client among European companies."

"Hmm, I see."

"We shipped 100 tons of raw materials to India yesterday."

"You just said that they are currently selling 50 tons per month, didn't you?"

"In order to save the shipping cost, we send them more than one-month sales volume of products at once."

"Are they for the next two months?"

"That's correct."

"Please pay attention to the Indian market. Both the Chinese and Indian markets are huge. Our number of sales in those two markets will soon exceed the number of products that we sell in the national market. I want you to really keep an eye on those two markets."

"Of course, sir. However, I'm still amazed by the Korean market. I think Korea has great potential and is an amazing country."

"Why is that so?"

"We are currently selling 600 tons of our raw materials to the Korean market on a monthly basis. I can't believe that this small country uses that much."

"That's not enough. I'm still not satisfied with that volume. We should be able to sell more than that. If I aimed at the sales of only 600 tons of products, I wouldn't have started a joint venture with Lymondell Dyeon in the first place."

"I do admire your scale of desire and decision making, sir."

"Thank you."

Once Mr. Adam Castler and his interpreter left the office, Gun-Ho made a call to Min-Hyeok Kim.

"I'm at Dyeon Korea in Asan City right now. I just received the report that your wife successfully made the sales contract with the company in Yancheng. Congratulations."

"It's only 20 tons of raw materials which are not much. You are embarrassing me. Director Kim is selling 600 tons of them in Korea."

"You shouldn't compare your wife's ability with his. Director Kim has been in this business for more than 20 years, but your wife is new to this field. I think she is doing great."

"She will keep trying to do a better job."

"I just asked Mr. Adam Castler to come up with a good incentive that we can give to your wife."

"I don't think that she was expecting any incentive when she tried to procure that new client, but thank you."

"That's part of my job as the president. I'm supposed to give kudos to people who did well and give a penalty to those who failed their work. You do that to your workers, right?"

"That's true…"

"By the way, I talked with Jae-Sik Moon on the phone earlier. A preparatory committee has been organized for the new joint venture there."

"You haven't sent the investment funds to Antang City yet, have you?"

"No, I haven't yet. I'm planning to send the first part of the investment funds of 50,000 dollars to them tomorrow."

"As you know well, President Goo, before receiving the investment funds, the Chinese partners wouldn't do anything."

"I know that. We only trust money, not people, especially in the international business field."

"Oh, you know what? Suk-Ho Lee contacted me the other day."

"You mean that Suk-Ho Lee in Shenyang City? Is he doing okay?"

"He wanted to borrow some money from me."

"He has three stores there, right? Why does he need money then?"

"He said that a very good store just came on the market for sale around the area near Xita Church in Shenyang City. He can't afford to acquire it by himself because he spent most of his funds in buying his current three stores already. So, he suggested getting it together like each person invests 100 million won and shares the profits half and half."

"What kind of store is it?"

"It's an accessory shop."

"Accessories?"

"According to him, if we sell not only Chinese accessories but also Korean accessories along with some beauty products like facial mask sheets, they will sell very quickly. He kept calling me trying to convince me for the past several days."

"Did you tell him that you will do it?"

"To be honest with you, even if I can make a fortune, I don't want to work with a jerk like him, not to mention that I don't have money to invest."

"Really?"

"With your help, I could buy a condo in Incheon City, but I still have a small amount of loan attached to that condo. Also, I have a mortgage for the condo in Suzhou City, where I'm living right now. I don't have money to do any investment at all. So, I firmly turned down his offer the last time when I talked to him."

"What did he say?"

"He poured curses on me like I'm not a businessman type. He said that I'm a sh*tty idiot who doesn't even know how to grab a good chance when it is simply given to me."

"Did you give a sh*tty word back to him?"

"I admitted to him that I'm an idiot. Do you know what he said? He said that he has no idea why Gun-Ho Goo is working with stupid people like me, haha."

"Haha, I see. So, Suk-Ho Lee sometimes just loses it, huh?"

"I think his mental age stopped when he was in high school. He has the same maturity as he had in those old days."

"Haha, I suppose so."