The Famous Millionaire

Aurum distributed a similar press release before, and thanks to that, the stock price of Aurum rose briefly. Later, when its rival Art Hill sent out a release that degraded the quality of N&C products, Aurum’s stock price went down to its original price, but this kind of press release certainly had an effect.

This time the main topic of the release was the dream team who developed the new casters. The release was more stimulating than the previous one. Reviewing it, Park was satisfied with it.

“Great! Let me report to the president.”

The press release was sent to the PR team with the president’s approval with Hyunwoo as the named author.

This time, Deputy Manager Sunyoung Do was in charge of finalizing it, but she was not as picky as before. After a few modifications, the press release was sent out to the media outlets.

The press release was published not only in major dailies but also broadcast on the prime newshour of TV networks. Much of the credit went to Youngsu’s excellent lobbying efforts, but the contents of the release were meant to grab the media’s attention.

There was something strange, though. Hyunwoo knew Sunyoung modified the original release, but what was actually reported was much different from the original. They reported as if the Korean dream team in Vietnam was making the world’s best products.

Confused, Hyunwoo called Sunyoung, but she was not responsible for it, “What happened?”

“Looks like they modified the press release on their own. Anyway, the reporters change it as they want it,” said Sunyoung.

Hyunwoo could understand the reporters’ position. They modified it to be sensational enough to attract the people’s attention. Even though he felt rather uncomfortable about it, the results of the reports were good because it helped the business activities of not only Aurum but also N&C Korea as soon as it was published.

Sungwoo Paek remained silent for a while but called Hyunwoo almost every week after the reports.

“I just signed a contract with Amantis. The size of their order is very big,” said Sungwoo.

Hyunwoo knew a lot about Amantis. It was one of the two largest producers of children’s products. Their main products were strollers and baby walkers. Soon, Amantis’ rival company also asked for price estimates.

Thanks to the reports, N&C Vietnam accelerated the expansion of the production lines and increased the production of the new products.

Then, more encouraging news came from Unhye Kim.

After following Sungwoo for on-the-job training for two months, she seemed to have gained confidence. As N&C products were given lots of publicity, she judged it to be the right time to make her request.

“Let me fly to Japan in early March.”

“I can feel from your voice that you’re confident. I feel you’ll have great success,” said Hyunwoo.

“Of course, I should. I have singled out several companies. After researching them, I found that these company receive wheel supplies from Castor. I’m going to pull off a deal with them first.”

“You already did market research? You’re really a copycat of your father. You have business in your blood. If you need anything, please let me know anytime. I’ll support you.”

After the call, Hyunwoo was full of hope.

If Unhye succeeded in making a deal in Japan, that would serve as another springboard for N&C Korea. Hyunwoo had already a great plan in mind once that happened.

“Success, please! Please!”

One month later…

“Really? Are you sure? Did you sign the contract?” asked Hyunwoo.

“Yes, I just emailed it to you. Please confirm it,” said Unhye.

Hyunwoo quickly checked his email to confirm Unhye’s email along with an attachment sent by Unhye’s N&C Japan.

Hyunwoo opened the attached file. It was a contract between N&C Japan and Oda Trading Co. The contract detailed the quantity, unit price as well as the payment method, and there were the signatured of the two corporations on the lower end of the contract.

Unhye really executed a deal in Japan in just a month.

What’s more surprising was the company’s brand strength. Oda Trading was a company that specialized in expensive baggage and used only quality-guaranteed casters made by Castor. Supplying casters to Oda Trading meant that N&C parts were replacing Castor’s.

Aside from that, the fact that N&C products passed Oda’s quality standard meant N&C’s technology was excellent.

Though the contract was only worth $30,000 per year, it was more valuable to Hyunwoo than $3,000,000.

“You’re wonderful, Unhye! What’s your secret?”

“The president of Oda Trading is a Japanese-Korean, and he knew a friend of my father. I approached him through my father’s friend and executed the deal easier than I expected.”

It was the first time that Hyunwoo heard that, and he felt that there would be a risk associated with it. Although the contract was important, it meant something different if the contract was made through such a special relationship and could be an excuse for the public to downgrade the quality of N&C products.

“You have to keep it secret. Never tell anybody Oda’s president is a Japanese-Korean or that you approached him through an acquaintance,” said Hyunwoo.

“Of course. I’m not a baby, and this contract was not signed because of my network. Our products passed the strict quality standards of Oda, and they found there was little difference between our products and Castor’s.”

“That’s good news! Nice job! Just let me know if you have any other good news, too.”

After the call, Hyunwoo immediately called Sungji in Vietnam.

Sungji’s tone was very excited. He said he planned a party today to celebrate N&C’s contract with Oda Trading.

“Thanks so much. I owe it all to you, Mr. Jang. I just don’t know how I can repay you…”

“What I want is for N&C to prosper all the more.”

“Well, N&C is in a position to prosper all the more now. The Vietnamese government is supporting us a lot.”

Hearing Sungji’s explanation, N&C’s situation was much better than Hyunwoo thought.

The Vietnamese government was offering enormous management support benefits to attract foreign investment, and N&C was the prime foreign company to receive such benefits.

The reason was a hike in N&C’s exports, helped by quality improvement. As N&C succeeded in signing supply contracts with Korean companies starting with Aurum, it received enormous benefits such as tax exemptions and low interest rates.

In addition to that, N&C’s situation would get much better now that it had signed a contract with Oda.

All government officials like to make performances of their own, regardless of the country. During their performances, they boasted their support of companies. They attribute whatever growth any company achieved to their support efforts, and the most best side of the growth of a company was its increase in exports, of course.

The value of the exports varied according to the destination of the exports. N&C’s exports to Korea that made the Vietnamese government rank the company highly.

Since Japan was known for it superior technology, it was a really big deal that they were set to export there. As soon as the news about N&C’s contract with Oda was published, the Vietnamese government officials involved went crazy spreading the news and claiming their own credit by saying that N&C climbed the high wall of Japan thanks to their support.

After hearing Sungji’s explanation, Hyunwoo was speechless. He called Sungji to discuss promotion. He wanted to promote N&C’s contract with Oda through the Vietnamese press and then make use of it in Korea, but N&C already had a great deal of publicity. It looked as if Hyunwoo could move on to the next project.

“I look forward to more good news,” said Hyunwoo.

As soon as he was done with the call, he searched his contact list and called someone he knew. A smile was on his lips because the person he was calling was his close acquaintance.

The person shouted in a joy, “Hey, Hyunwoo. We haven’t talked in ages, man!”

It was Kwangsu Han , president of Real Film. Hyunwoo had worked with him for about a year. Rather than the president, Han was like an elder brother to him in his neighborhood.

“Brother Han, how have you been?”

“Well, it’s really tough to make ends meet. We’ve had a lot of work but small money. How about you? How is your job at the woodworking shop?”

“I quit there, and I’m currently work at a furniture company. Have you heard about Aurum?”

“Oh, you should have come to me for a new job. How much do they pay you? Quit immediately and come to me. Let me pay you more,” shouted Han.

Hyunwoo wanted to go back to work at Real Film. It paid more, and above all, it was a good fit for his aptitude. The problem was that he had to travel too often if he worked there.

Real Film was a TV production company. It sometimes produced TV commercials and did special features. Accordingly, he had to travel across the country almost everyday.

Though he found the job interesting, his problem was his parents. He had to keep an eye on their health every day as something bad might happen not only to his father but to his mother because of that he got a job with a company near his house to take care of his parents.

“Brother Han, can you do me a favor?”

“Of course. I can do you any favor. What is it?”

“Just make do one special coverage in Vietnam.”

“Vietnam? Special feature? What is it?”

Hyunwoo told him about the dream team’s development of new casters.

The assignment was for Real Film to make a special feature about the success story of the dream team in a colorful way. It was supposed to emphasize how skilled each member of the dream team was and what a great masterpiece of work they could produce when they united as one. The finishing stroke of the feature would be N&C’s new contract with Oda Trading in Japan.

In short, the feature’s message was that the dream team composed of Korea’s best technicians created technology as good as Castor who boasted of the world’s best technology in the field.

“Hummm…It’s not something we can make quickly. I think the production cost will be high as we have to travel to Vietnam to make it.”

Hyunwoo was already ready to pay a large sum of money for it because he felt that he would get the money back. Real Film guaranteed the quality of the feature and would sell it to a broadcasting company for more than 80% of the production cost.

“Anyway, I can’t make it immediately. We’re fully booked until the end of this month. If there is any vacant slot next month, let’s resume our conversation on this.”

“Got it. By the way, you have to have one slot available, okay?”

“Of course, will do. it’s your request!”

Hyunwoo felt good about it, and it looked like everything was working out smoothly.

One week later, while he was sorting the raw material at the warehouse, Hyunwoo recieved a call from Sungwoo Paek.

Hyunwoo giggled.

These days Sunwoo reported to Hyunwoo almost every fifteen days about finding a new deal.

He had already signed five new deals after Aurum sent out the press release, and one of them was a big deal. Thanks to that, Sungwoo made more than 4.5 million won per month. If Sungwoo made consistent efforts like this, he could make more than 10 million won per month without doing anything.

“What’s up, Sungwoo?”

“I had a call from a broadcasting company.”

It was not about a new deal but a broadcasting company out of the blue?

Suddenly, Kwangsu Han of Real Film came to his mind, but it was not Han.

“Which broadcasting company? What did they call about?”

“They say they want to cover N&C’s dream team. They asked me how to connect you. What can I do?” said Sungwoo.

Hyunwoo’s eyes widened. A broadcasting company got wind of it and planned the coverage first.

If that was the case, Hyunwoo didn’t have to depend on Real Film for the special coverage. If Real Film couldn’t make it because of their busy schedule, it would be good to give the broadcasting company the job.

If a large broadcasting company covered it, they would make their special program more marketable than Hyunwoo intended.

Suddenly, Hyunwoo raised his tone, “Which broadcasting company?”

“Korea Broadcasting.”