Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

Chapter 851: Isehara Machines (1) - Part 2

Gun-Ho was sitting in the president's office at GH Machines while waiting for Jong-Suk Park. At that moment, a lady worker, whom Gun-Ho hadn't seen before, came into the office and served a cup of tea. She looked like she was in her 20s, and she looked sophisticated.

'Did Jong-Suk hire a secretary already? He doesn't need a secretary yet. Did he really hire a secretary?'

When Gun-Ho was spending time with his smartphone while having his tea, Jong-Suk came back from the bank.

"Oh, bro. I'm sorry for having kept you waiting. I had to visit a bank."

"I was told that you went to Hana Bank."

"Yeah. One of our new client companies is using their service. The amount that we receive from them is not so high, but that company insists that they are using B2B payment."

"You seem to have a lot of workers here."

"Oh, that's right. I guess that you haven't met them. We have now 3 Japanese engineers from Miura Machines. Its former plant manager— Mr. Yanagi Masatoshi— and two other Japanese engineers who are in their early 60s are here."

"You have the machines from them as well, huh?"

"You haven't seen them yet? They are all in place in the production site. We can go there now to see them."

"Let's do that later. And, did you hire a new secretary already?"

"A secretary? No, I didn't."

"A young lady brought me a cup of tea earlier."

"Ohh, that must be Ms. Mi-Ran Yang. She is not my secretary, but she is an interpreter for the Japanese engineers."

"An interpreter for Japanese?"

"We have three Japanese engineers here. Of course, we need an interpreter to communicate with them. I initially expected Assistant Manager Seo's little brother to handle the interpretation since he did some business with Japanese companies before. You know that I hired him to take care of our trading work, right? It turns out that he speaks English fine, but his Japanese is not so good. So I decided to hire a worker who can do the interpretation work and also handle general affairs here. I hired her through WorkNet."

"Hmm, really? How many workers do you have now?"

"We started with 12, and one worker was sent to India, so we were 11. And, now we have 23."

"23 workers? You have that many now?"

"When those 3 Japanese engineers joined us, we hired 6 additional engineers who can assist them. The Japanese engineers told me that I would need that many additional workers in order to handle the amount of the work necessary in providing Isehara Machines with products. I think we need that many workers anyway in order to learn skills and technology from the Japanese engineers. So, I hired two workers per each Japanese engineer."

"I see."

"So, that was how I have 9 more workers. And, I hired Assistant Manager Seo's little brother, the interpreter lady, and a cooking lady as well. That made 12 new hires. If I add them to our existing 11 workers, we now have 23 workers in total."

"Hmm, I see."

"I need to hire a security guard as well, but it would cost me too much, especially if I consider those additional labor costs for the recent new hires. So, I'm thinking about installing some locks instead, from a security company."

"Hmm."

"The papers related to trading are not written in Japanese but written in English. So, the paperwork is being handled by Assistant Manager Seo's little brother now. He is also taking care of ISO 14001 and TS 16949. Because of his heavy workload, he often works till late at night these days."

"Hmm, really?"

"As we have more and more work, I will probably need one more worker later, who can handle the production quality. But, I'm not sure if I can handle the labor cost."

Gun-Ho grinned as he saw Jong-Suk Park worrying about labor cost.

At that moment, Jong-Suk Park stood up from his seat and opened the office door, and shouted loudly, "You two over there, please come to the office."

A man, who looked like he was in his mid-30s, and the lady, who had brought a cup of tea to Gun-Ho earlier, entered the office.

Jong-Suk introduced Gun-Ho to them, "This is Mr. President Gun-Ho Goo. He is our company's major shareholder."

"Hello, sir."

The two workers gave a bow to Gun-Ho simultaneously. They were two good-looking young workers, and the office seemed to look pleasant with their presence.

Jong-Suk introduced them to Gun-Ho, "He is taking care of our trading matters and production quality, and the lady here handles interpretation for our Japanese engineers and also general affairs around here."

Jong-Suk was being very formal when he talked to Gun-Ho since other people were present. Gun-Ho stood up from his seat and extended his hand to them for a handshake.

"It's very nice to meet you two. You are a very handsome young man and a pretty young lady. This company just opened its business, but it will grow as large as GH Mobile in Jiksan Town. I hope you enjoy working with us here."

The two young workers felt so grateful, and they bowed deeply to Gun-Ho while shaking his hand. At that moment, Jong-Suk Park, who was standing next to Gun-Ho, explained further about Gun-Ho, "Mr. President Gun-Ho Goo is the president of GH Mobile in Jiksan Town as well. Also, he owns Dyeon Korea in Asan City, which is a public company proudly registered with KOSDAQ."

Gun-Ho smiled while his hands together behind his back.

Gun-Ho turned his gaze to Jong-Suk and said, "Let's take a walk around the production site."

Gun-Ho and Jong-Suk headed to the production site, and the interpreter— Ms. Mi-Ran Yang— followed them holding her diary.

When they arrived at the production site, Gun-Ho could notice the machines from Miura Machines. They were all installed nicely.

"We received all of the 30 machines shown in the list. Two of them were damaged during the shipping, but we successfully repaired them."

At that moment, Mr. Yanagi Masatoshi from Miura Machines, who was working, came quickly to Gun-Ho when he spotted him. He was delighted to see Gun-Ho again.

"Sir, you came."

"How are you, Mr. Yanagi Masatoshi?"

Gun-Ho and the former plant manager of Miura Machines exchanged handshakes.

The former plant manager— Mr. Yanagi Masatoshi— introduced the other two Japanese engineers to Gun-Ho, who were standing next to him.

Gun-Ho said to the two Japanese engineers, "It's very nice meeting you. How is your stay in Korea? Is there anything that I can do to make your stay more comfortable?"

"Mr. President Jong-Suk Park has been helping us a lot to make our stay pleasant. We are doing very good here."

Jong-Suk Park said, "I rented a large condo for them, so they can stay together."

"Is that right?"

"The condo is not far from here at all. It's within a walking distance. It's inside the Byeoksan Blooming Condo Complex across the street from our agricultural and industrial park."

"Really? That's nice."

"It's a 30 pyung large condo. We are paying 600,000 won per month with a security deposit of 20 million won."

Jong-Suk Park then introduced the 6 additional engineers to Gun-Ho.

"I want you all to meet Mr. President Gun-Ho Goo here. He is the major shareholder of our company."

The 6 workers gave a deep bow to Gun-Ho at the same time. One of the 6 workers, who looked like the oldest among them, said, "I saw a Bentley parked outside, and I was wondering who would be the visitor riding the Bentley. It's a pleasure meeting you, sir."

Gun-Ho had a handshake with each of the 6 engineers.

Gun-Ho then asked President Jong-Suk Park, "Are we already manufacturing the products that go to Isehara Machines?"

"Not yet. We actually just installed the machines here. We are producing some samples at this time."

"Hmm, really?"

"I received a call from Miura Machines' President Tsuyoshi-shi Miura yesterday. He suggested that maybe I want to visit Isehara Machines to introduce myself to its president. So, I'm planning to go on a trip to Japan with the plant manager here."

"Of course, you should."

"I asked GH Media's Mr. Yoshitaka Matsui to come with me for the trip, so he can interpret for me. He seems to be busy with his work there. He said he had to finish editing the costume play magazine stuff, and it would be done either tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. I have an interpreter here— Ms. Mi-Ran Yang— but, I think I'd better be accompanied by a male interpreter."

"I think you can go with Manager Assistant Seo's little brother. He is handling trading work here anyway."

"Do you think that would be better?"