Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

No one said a thing. After a moment or two, Director Kim finally broke the silence by saying, “Noida is a good area for our next manufacturing facility. As you just mentioned, sir, we already have our man— Manager Jong-Geun Lee— there. It should be enough. The current company that Manager Lee is running in the Delhi area can be merged into the new company in Noida. I fully agree with the plan.”

Everyone agreed to Gun-Ho’s suggestion, and Mr. Adam Castler even said that they should have done this earlier.

Gun-Ho continued, “As to the new manufacturing facility in Beijing area, Dingding in Shanghai will take care of it. She has good connections in China including friends and government officers. Moreover, President Min-Hyeok Kim can help us in China as well. I will let them find a good factory in the Beijing area for our next manufacturing facility.”

Director Kim added, “There are a lot of Korean companies in the Beijing area. Once the new factory is established, I will go there and support their sales.”

“Hmm.”

“Shunyi District of Beijing would be good too. Hyundai Motor Company has their office in Shunyi District as well.”

“Where is Shunyi District situated around Beijing?”

“It’s northwest of Beijing. Beijing Hyundai Motor is headquartered there. In addition to Beijing, I think we should consider the area called Tianjin City as well.”

“Tianjin City?”

“Tianjin City is close to Beijing City as well. Moreover, because it is a major port city, a lot of well-established industrial complexes are found there, especially in Tianjin Economic-Technology Development Area.”

“Tianjin City sounds good too.”

“There is a Korean industrial complex in Tianjin City, which was developed by Korea Land & Housing Corporation. Additionally, there are Typhoon Industrial park and Germany Industrial Park there as well. So, it wouldn’t be difficult to find a factory there.”

“I see. I will ask Dingding and President Min-Hyeok Kim to find a factory in those areas in China, and also I will talk to Manager Jong-Geun Lee for the factory in India as well.”

“Sounds good, sir.”

“Okay then. If you don’t have anything else to talk about, we will end the meeting now. You all have a good day.”

Once the executive officers left the office, Secretary Seon-Hye Yee came into the office to clean the table. Empty teacups were scattered all over the table.

Gun-Ho said to the secretary, “Please have Accounting Manager Myeong-Sook Jo come to my office now.”

“Yes, sir.”

After a moment, Manager Myeong-Sook Jo entered Gun-Ho’s office.

“I want you to give me a report on the current status of our cash flows and bank transactions, as of today.”

“I bought the relevant documents with me, sir.”

“Oh, you did? But, I didn’t even ask you what I wanted to know.”

“Today is the day you come to the office, sir. I knew that you would wonder about the status of cash flow, and Mr. Internal Auditor told me to prepare these documents as well.”

“Hmm, really? Thank you. Please leave the documents on the table, and you can go back to your work.”

After Manager Myeong-Sook Jo left the office, Gun-Ho sat on the chair crossing his legs, and started reviewing the documents slowly.

“Hmm, the numbers are the same as I thought.”

Gun-Ho put the documents back on the table and made a call to Manager Jong-Geun Lee in India right away.

“Mr. Manager Lee?”

“Oh, sir. How are you?”

“How are things going in India?”

“I’m doing my best here, sir. And, I’m sorry that I couldn’t make the sales as much as you expected, sir.”

“Don’t say that. You are doing great. I’m calling you to let you know one thing that we discussed during the executive meeting today.”

“Oh, sure, sir. I’m listening, sir.”

“We want you to find and purchase a factory in the Delhi or Noida area. About the size of our factory in Chennai would be enough.”

Manager Jong-Geun Lee seemed to be surprised.

“What’s going to happen to me then, sir?”

“What do you mean? You will run the new factory as overseas president.”

“Huh? Overseas president, sir?”

Manager Jong-Geun Lee seemed to be truly surprised.

“Yes, sir. I will get to work on it right away.”

“You are aware that Dyeon Korea is now a public company, right?”

“Yes, sir. I was informed about it.”

“We have enough funds now earned from the initial public offering of our stock. So, if you find a nice factory that is a bit larger than the one in Chennai, that should be okay too. I want you to focus on the accessibility and convenience of the new factory’s location. We don’t want constant heavy traffic around the factory, and we need to be able to easily find workers as well. Also, don’t forget to check the power capacity.”

“Understood, sir. How many days do I have, sir?”

“There is no due date for it, but sooner would be better. Well, I’m relying on yon on this, okay?”

“Don’t worry about it, sir. I will get back to you as soon as I find a good one.”

Gun-Ho then made a call to Min-Hyeok Kim in China.

“It’s me, Gun-Ho Goo.”

“Oh, President Goo. How’s it going?”

“I’m in Dyeon Korea right now. We had an executive meeting this morning, and I was told that Dingding’s company is doing great with increased sales.”

“It seems that she no longer imports products from Korea, but her factory is producing enough products to sell to the market here.”

“Right, I’m aware of it. Ever since Dyeon Korea became a public company, Dyeon China has been selling about 120 tons per month. Dingding is indeed doing great.”

“Is that right?”

“And, we concluded our meeting today with the decision to establish one more factory either in Beijing City or Tianjin City.”

“Beijing or Tianjin City?”

“China is huge in geographical size, and we determined that we need one more manufacturing facility in Beijing area. We have enough funds from offering our stock to the public. So, you don’t have to worry about funds.”

“Is that right?”

“Please tell Dingding to find one more factory in either of those two cities.”

“Who’s going to run the new factory? Do you have someone in mind already?”

“I was hoping that Dingding would recommend someone good. She has connections there, and she knows better than any of us here about the business environment in China. She is the president of Dyeon China after all.”

“Okay. I will discuss it with Dinging and let you know.”

Gun-Ho was about to check the stock market with his smartphone when the internal auditor entered his office.

“Sir, you received the report on our current cash flow from Manager Myeong-Sook Jo, didn’t you?”

“Yes, I did.”

“As you then know, we have more than 30 billion won in cash in our reserve, and I think it’s a waste to keep that much cash in the reserve without doing anything. I came to you to suggest that maybe we want to invest 20 billion out of them in short-term bonds.”

“Investing in short-term bonds is not risk-free. We could lose our money.”

“That’s true, but I just think that we should do something with the funds in the reserve rather than letting them just sit there.”

“Give me some time. I will think about it.”

“Yes, sir.”

After the internal auditor left the office, Gun-Ho checked Dyeon Korea’s stock price.

“The stock market closed with 22,500 won. This is perfect. I don’t want the price to go up substantially in a short period of time anyway.”

Gun-Ho smiled as he closed his smartphone.