Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

While riding in his Bentley with Young-Eun on the riverside road, Gun-Ho felt happy. He felt like if he married her, he would be able to focus way better on his business.

‘My goal in life is that I register all of my companies with KOSDAQ and save 1 trillion won in cash in my bank account. Also, I want to make my companies as a group.’

Once he accomplished his goal, Gun-Ho wanted to start a charity work by opening a facility to help people just like Chairman Lee from Cheongdam town was doing. He was planning to buy a 1,000 pyung large land in Namchon Town, Namdong District, Incheon City to build the facility. If Young-Eun wanted, he would support her financially for any medical volunteer work for Africa.

When he came back to his home at TowerPalace Condo in Dogok Town after dropping off Young-Eun at Seoul National University Hospital in Dongsung Town, it was already after 7 pm.

“Chan-Ho, you must feel tired today.”

“I’m good, sir.”

Gun-Ho took out an envelope from the inner pocket of his jacket and gave it to Chan-Ho.

“Have a nice dinner with this.”

“Thank you.”

Chan-Ho gave a deep bow to Gun-Ho before accepting the envelope. Chan-Ho’s shoes looked particularly shiny.

No one bothered Chan-Ho at the company. Everyone tried to be nice with him since Chan-Ho was the person who assisted Gun-Ho at a close distance all the time. He sometimes got a windfall like a gift certificate. He recently received one from Director Jong-Suk Park and another one from Dyeon Korea’s Director Kim.

Chan-Ho bought his shoes with the gift certificate that Director Jong-Suk Park gave to him, and he gave the other one from Director Kim to Tae-Young, which made Tae-Young extremely happy.

Gun-Ho went to work in GH Building in Sinsa Town that day. The first thing he did in his office was to check his email.

Three emails sent in the early January were there waiting for Gun-Ho. They were the year-end financial reports from GH Media, GH Development, and from Min-Hyeok Kim in China, which Gun-Ho asked them to send to him. These reports included audit documentation performed by an internal auditor. The ones that would be made by external auditors would be issued in early March, which wouldn’t be different from the one currently attached to the email since they would be made based on the documents prepared by the companies themselves.

Gun-Ho at first read the report sent by President Jeong-Sook Shin in GH Media.

“Their sales revenue last year was 1.9 billion won. Wow. It’s more than I expected.”

Gun-Ho smiled. The high sales revenue resulted from the successful sale of the Japanese book—’the person who wakes up in the morning’. Those people who wanted to become morning persons seemed to like this book a lot. GH Media also added the revenues from the book café in GH Building and GH Gallery to its total sales revenue. After subtracting the general and administrative expenses, GH Media’s profit was approximately 1.1 billion won.

At the end of the report, President Jeong-Sook Shin added her suggestion.

[I’d like to reinvest 300 million won into the company out of 1.1 billion won of profits, and distribute 800 million won as dividends.]

Gun-Ho quickly calculated the amounts of the dividends. If he distributed 800 million won, Gun-Ho would receive 760 million won for his share while President Jeong-Sook Shin would take 40 million won since she was supposed to receive a 5% stock option.

“A media business is interesting. It started with a 300 million investment fund with an additional 300 million won in purchasing Amazon’s cartoon series, so I invested 600 million won in it in total. The return of my investment is not bad at all. I would already make more than what I invested. Well, since I would take more than I put in, I will let President Shin run the business as she sees fit.”

Gun-Ho replied to President Jeong-Sook Shin in GH Media.

[Thank you for your hard work. After the external audit is completed and after paying necessary taxes, you can distribute the dividend. As to the pay raise this year, please make the determination according to the labor collective agreement and the pertinent government guideline.]

After replying to GH Media’s report, Gun-Ho opened the next email from Director Kang in GH Development.

Its sales revenue was 9.8 billion won, but the profit was only a few million won. The loan interest took up the most expenses, from the loan that they took out when they purchased GH Building. After applying the depreciation reserve, nothing much was left. There was a message from Director Kang at the end of the email.

[I’m sorry, sir, that we hadn’t generated much revenue last year. However, I’m positive that we will do much better this year. We have new income coming in from GH Gallery’s rent and the book café on the rooftop. Also, we are reviewing the possibility to raise the rents since our building has gained better image and reputation; thanks to GH Gallery for that.]

Gun-Ho replied.

[Thank you for your great work and effort last year. When you raise the rents, please check the office space market in the area and also read the trend. For the pay raise, please adjust our employees’ wages according to the minimum wage increase rate, and freeze my wage as the president’s wage for this year.]

GH Development’s low revenue last year didn’t concern Gun-Ho much because he would be benefitted by the real estate. The building’s price that GH Development was managing was on the rise.

Gun-Ho then opened the email from Min-Hyeok Kim in China.

GH Part Company’s sales revenue was 7.8 billion won.

“7.8 billion won? It’s not bad at all. I was actually expecting about 4 or 5 billion won. This is surprising.”

Gun-Ho looked at the breakdown of the sales revenue. As expected, a high portion of the sales revenue came from the sales of the new product—AM083—which S Group was the major buyer.

“I do appreciate the Japanese engineer—Mr. Sakata Ikuzo—who developed AM083 for us. When I had to pay him an additional incentive for successfully developing the product, I actually thought it was too much, but it was worth it. I think maybe I should pay him more even now.”

GH Auto Parts generated the profits of 1.1 billion won. At the end of the report, Min-Hyeok’s comment was found.

[Most of the sales revenue is coming from the new product sales. I haven’t contributed much to it by developing a new market. I’m thinking of distributing 1 billion won out of profit, and I won’t take my share of the stock option this time...]

Gun-Ho replied.

[What are you talking about? The products were manufactured under your supervision in China without any defect, and those products reached to our customers through you, President Min-Hyeok Kim. After the completion of the external audit and tax payment, distribute the dividend. Send my share of 950 million won to my bank account in the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, and take 50 million won for your stock option. As to the pay raise, you determine the wage for this year while taking account of the wage trend in the China labor market. Keep up the good work.]