Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

Chapter 599: Certificate of Inno-Biz (3) - Part 2

Gun-Ho continued to give a work instruction to the general affairs manager in his office.

"Also, Mr. General Affairs Manager, please send the notice to each department about the restructuring of our compound room. We are changing it into a technology research center."

"Yes, sir."

"The new chief offer of our research center would be Mr. Gil-Hoon Bang. Please indicate that his position is a temporary advisory position. You can mark this beside his name and new job title."

"Yes, sir."

"Manager Hee-Yeol Yoo will be placed to the deputy chief research officer position, and add it to his position that he is taking a dual position as a plant manager as well."

"Yes, sir."

"We also need to change the job titles of all of the current workers in the compound room. The position of a manager will be a lead researcher while the position of an assistant manager will be a senior researcher. Everyone else is given the position of staff researcher."

"Yes, sir."

Gun-Ho made a call to Director Yoon.

"Are you in the office right now?"

"Yes, sir. I can come to your office, sir."

"That won't be necessary. I need an office room set in the corner of the compound room with a window, where you don't smell chemicals. It will be used by the chief research officer. The office size should be about the same size of GH Mobile's director's office."

"No problem, sir."

"Also, please place a desk and an office chair that we use for executives."

"Yes, sir."

Gun-Ho then made a call to the overseas president—Mr. Lee—in India. He used to work as an interpreter for Vice President Adam Castler before he was sent to India.

"It's me, Gun-Ho Goo."

"Oh, sir. How have you been?"

"How are you? I hope you are doing fine there."

"I'm good, sir."

"I received the report that the monthly sales is now exceeding 70 tons."

"I'm sorry, sir. It's not much yet. I'm currently working on procuring business from several European companies here. If I succeed in it, the sales will increase to over 90 tons per month. Mr. Director Kim connected me to a few Korean companies here as well. He seems to know a lot of overseas presidents from Korea."

"Really? I don't worry much about the India market because I have you there, Mr. Manager Lee."

"Thank you, sir."

"The reason that I called you today is to ask you to make a phone call to Mr. Adam Castler."

"A phone call to Mr. Adam Castler, sir?"

"Yes. We had a meeting this morning for the executive officers, and the compound room will be restructured as a research center. We are aiming at obtaining the Inno-Biz certificate, and we will form a TFT accordingly. I want you to tell Mr. Adam Castler that this change is a strategic move of ours in order to get the certificate which is given only to a start-up company with technology. If we don't do anything but keep the company as it is, we will end up paying 22% of our profits for corporate tax."

"I didn't know the corporate tax was that high. A friend of mine told me that he is paying 10% for his company."

"You get a different tax rate depending on different taxable income. If a company's ordinary income is less than 200 million won, then it will fall into a tax bracket of 10%. However, with our current sales revenue, our company will be subject to 22%. Once our company gets certified as a start-up company with technology, we can enjoy a tax reduction benefit. I want you to explain this to Mr. Adam Castler. To sum it up, we had the executive meeting this morning in order to find a way to save tax, and as a result, we are going through a restructuring on the compound room."

"Yes, sir."

"We have a young interpreter for Mr. Adam Castler, but I want to process the new change quietly for now, and that's why I'm calling you in India to explain this to Mr. Adam Castler."

"I understand, sir. I will give him a call right away."

"Also, we are raising the management's salaries by 7%, and that includes you. I'm sorry that I couldn't raise it more this time."

"Thank you, sir."

When Gun-Ho came back from the restroom to his office and sat at his desk, Mr. Adam Castler entered his office.

"I just received a call from Manager Lee in India."

"Oh, really?"

"Sir, you are truly our boss."

Don't mention it."

Adam Castler extended his hand to Gun-Ho for a handshake.

Gun-Ho thought, 'I guess that building a system to obtain the Inno-Biz certificate will bring unexpected benefits—boosting the organizational power and strengthening teamwork, in addition to reducing our corporate tax.'

Gun-Ho had his lunch at the company cafeteria that day. Dyeon Korea recently hired more workers, and now the cafeteria was receiving more than 120 workers during the lunchtime. GH Mobile had a lot more workers—400—than Dyeon Korea, but 120 people having lunch at the same time made its cafeteria busy enough. Gun-Ho was in the line holding an empty plate just like everyone else. When one of the serving ladies, who was distributing a fish dish, recognized Gun-Ho, she looked frightened and put two pieces of fish on Gun-Ho's plate while everyone else was getting only one piece of fish.

While having his lunch, Gun-Ho made up his mind.

'I will increase the number of workers to more than 1,000 for both GH Mobile and Dyeon Korea!'

After lunch, Gun-Ho had his afternoon coffee in his office. He then started dozing off while sitting on the sofa. When his head was about to tilt to one side, somebody knocked on the door. Gun-Ho was startled and woke up to the sound. He then sat straight on the sofa. It was Director Kim. He was carrying a document.

"This is an implemented plan for the Inno-Biz certificate. Since you won't be here tomorrow but will go to the office at GH Development, we hastily prepared the plan just now, so you could review it today. We will keep it updated as it becomes necessary."

"Hmm, I'm impressed that you could come up with the plan so quickly."

Gun-Ho said while reviewing the document, "I see the organizational chart of TFT (Task Force Team), and its purpose and the schedule."

"Once you approve it, sir, I will send it out to each department. Also, I will place it on the notice board as well."

"Sounds good."

"We will need to clearly define several necessary systems and policies such as a proposal system, OJT (On the Job Training) system, and an internal delegation of authority policy, etc. We are particularly in need of OJT, especially in the production site. Also, we will need the researchers to share compounding technology. One shouldn't keep it to himself."

"Hmm, you are absolutely right, Mr. Director Kim."

Gun-Ho vigorously signed the TFT plan to obtain the Inno-Biz certificate that Director Kim brought to him for review.

Once Director Kim left the office, Director Yoon came into the office with another document to be signed.

"This is a notification on restructuring the compound room, along with the appointment letters for the researchers at the new research center."

When Gun-Ho looked at the document, he noticed that it was drafted by Assistant Manager Seon-Hong Park and reviewed by Director Yoon. The final approval was supposed to be done by Gun-Ho.

"Good work."

Gun-Ho firmly signed the paper. The approval system in Dyeon Korea for documents, which needed to be signed, was not implemented to get each manager's signature in the chain of command after being drafted, such as Team Lead - Assistant Manager - Manager - Senior Manager - Director. Dyeon Korea adapted GH Mobile's systems including their approval procedure, and it only required three people's signatures—drafter, reviewer, and the final approver. GH Mobile had a simple approval system intending to speed up the approval procedure that had revolved around the mandatory screening process including ISO14000, TS16909, and SQ (a quality management system).

The papers that Gun-Ho just signed would be distributed to each department and also be posted on the notice board. Once they were posted on the board, the workers gathered in front of the board to find out what they were about.

"Gil-Hoon Bang for the chief research officer? Who is Gil-Hoon Bang? Oh, is that the old man who used to work at GH Mobile as their research center's chief officer?"

"Manager Hee-Yeol Yoo has been assigned to the deputy chief research officer. Oh, you know what? He is actually working with two positions—deputy chief research officer and plant manager. Wow! He will gain a lot of power around here."

"TFT with the purpose of obtaining the Inno-Biz certificate? Assistant Manager Il-Gi Seong is leading the team. It seems like the ones who previously received the special training in the U.S. are being assigned to an important position. Let's make a request to get the training in the U.S. for ourselves too."

The workers noisily chatted while looking at the announcement.