The Famous Millionaire - Chapter 69
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Chapter 69

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, Aurums 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 presidents 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 Youngsus excellent lobbying efforts, but the contents of the release were meant to grab the medias 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 worlds 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 peoples 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 childrens 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 j.a.pan in early March . I can feel from your voice that youre confident . I feel youll 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 . Im going to pull off a deal with them first . You already did market research? Youre really a copycat of your father . You have business in your blood . If you need anything, please let me know anytime . Ill support you . After the call, Hyunwoo was full of hope . If Unhye succeeded in making a deal in j.a.pan, 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 Unhyes email along with an attachment sent by Unhyes N&C j.a.pan . Hyunwoo opened the attached file . It was a contract between N&C j.a.pan and Oda Trading Co . The contract detailed the quant.i.ty, 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 j.a.pan in just a month . Whats more surprising was the companys 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 Castors . Aside from that, the fact that N&C products pa.s.sed Odas quality standard meant N&Cs technology was excellent . Though the contract was only worth $30,000 per year, it was more valuable to Hyunwoo than $3,000,000 . Youre wonderful, Unhye! Whats your secret? The president of Oda Trading is a j.a.panese-Korean, and he knew a friend of my father . I approached him through my fathers 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 a.s.sociated with it . Although the contract was important, it meant something different if the contract was made through such a special relations.h.i.+p 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 Odas president is a j.a.panese-Korean or that you approached him through an acquaintance, said Hyunwoo . Of course . Im not a baby, and this contract was not signed because of my network . Our products pa.s.sed the strict quality standards of Oda, and they found there was little difference between our products and Castors . Thats 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 . Sungjis tone was very excited . He said he planned a party today to celebrate N&Cs contract with Oda Trading . Thanks so much . I owe it all to you, Mr . Jang . I just dont 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 Sungjis explanation, N&Cs 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&Cs 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&Cs 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&Cs exports to Korea that made the Vietnamese government rank the company highly . Since j.a.pan 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&Cs 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 j.a.pan thanks to their support . After hearing Sungjis explanation, Hyunwoo was speechless . He called Sungji to discuss promotion . He wanted to promote N&Cs 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 havent talked in ages, man! It was Kw.a.n.gsu 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, its really tough to make ends meet . Weve had a lot of work but small money . How about you? How is your job at the woodworking shop? I quit there, and Im 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 apt.i.tude . 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 teams development of new casters . The a.s.signment 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 finis.h.i.+ng stroke of the feature would be N&Cs new contract with Oda Trading in j.a.pan . In short, the features message was that the dream team composed of Koreas best technicians created technology as good as Castor who boasted of the worlds best technology in the field . Hummm . Its 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 cant make it immediately . Were fully booked until the end of this month . If there is any vacant slot next month, lets resume our conversation on this . Got it . By the way, you have to have one slot available, okay? Of course, will do . its 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 . Whats 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, Kw.a.n.gsu 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&Cs dream team . They asked me how to connect you . What can I do? said Sungwoo . Hyunwoos eyes widened . A broadcasting company got wind of it and planned the coverage first . If that was the case, Hyunwoo didnt have to depend on Real Film for the special coverage . If Real Film couldnt 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 .