The God of Coding, Becoming an IT Conglomerate

17. hijacking(1)

Jo Nam-shik walked in front of the frozen Ho-yeong.

With each step, Hoyoung’s heart fluttered.

Eventually, Jo Nam-sik came right in front of Ho-yeong…

I swiped and walked past Hoyeong.

“Konbanha. Ohisashiburidesu (Nice to meet you. Long time no see.)”

“I’m sorry. (It’s been a while.)”

Jo Nam-sik greeted the Japanese right behind Ho-young.

‘phew. Of course there’s no way I’ll recognize it.’

The pounding heart finally calmed down.

He looked young in his late 20s, but when he saw Jo Nam-shik, he almost lost control of his emotions.

‘It would be foolish to step out here now.’

Even in Korea, we had never met by chance, but to meet at a hotel in faraway Paris.

Looking back, the Japanese seemed familiar.

Hoyoung asked the hotel staff to bring the suitcase to the room and quickly searched for a Japanese face with Gaia in the corner.

[Isao Taki. General Manager, IBM Japan Branch]

Fortunately, he was a person registered in Gaia’s information.

‘Why is IBM general manager…?’

Jo Nam-sik and Isao went to a cafe on one side of the lobby on the first floor.

Hoyoung, who felt suspicious, acted naturally so as not to be caught and moved to the cafe together.

After ordering a simple Café Allongee (the French name for Americano), Hoyoung sat down at a table in the corner behind Jo Namsik and Isao, facing the wall.

Then, naturally, he took out a magazine from the table and obligingly pretended to turn the pages.

It was a magazine in French, but that didn’t matter. Because I didn’t intend to read it anyway.

The two were conversing in Japanese.

Jo Nam-shik, who graduated from university in Japan, was fluent in Japanese.

Unfortunately, Hoyoung, who had not studied Japanese, could not just listen to the conversation between the two.

“Gaia, can you hear the voices of those two people behind me?”

Hoyeong whispered to Gaia on her left wrist.

Jiing-

one vibration.

It was the meaning of positivity that Hoyoung taught when there were people around.

“Then can you translate and show the conversation between the two?”

Jiing-

The conversation between Cho Nam-shik and Isao began to project onto the back of his hand.

[It’s nice to meet you from such a distance.]

[I am really grateful that the managing director sent me a vacation to such a nice place.]

[Chuckling. no. I’m sorry that I couldn’t appoint IBM’s general manager to a better place.]

In his late 20s, Jo Nam-sik was already sitting in the executive director position at Myungsung Electronics.

At first, greetings followed.

Hoyoung intuitively felt that the two did not meet just to say hello, so he decided to wait a little longer with patience.

[As expected, it’s nice to come out to a place like this because I can talk about anything in Japanese. As expected, Mr. Sangmu’s Japanese skills are enough to believe that he is from the mainland.]

[It’s too much praise. Then… Shall we talk about it?]

[I see.]

When Ho-yeong heard that it was a work story, she was puzzled.

Why does the chairman of Myungsung Group have to come all the way to France to meet the head of IBM Japan?

Wouldn’t it be closer and easier to meet in Korea or Japan?

‘What special happened in 1988… Ah…! Olympic!’

Hoyoung drew one conclusion.

In September 1988, the Seoul Olympics were held.

At this time, the government made it semi-forced to publicize the Seoul Olympics by sending famous figures from the political and business world abroad to successfully host the Olympics.

In addition to fame, key personnel from large corporations such as Daehyeon and Hongseong had to go abroad in the name of economic missions.

On that schedule, he must have met the general manager of IBM Japan.

It was because they could kill two birds with one stone by fulfilling the government’s demands and not being noticed by anyone when they met.

It was also an idea like Jo Nam-sik, who openly said that practicality was the number one value.

[What size are you planning now?]

[The exact number and scale are all listed in the proposal sent…]

[Because I want to hear it directly from the mouth of the managing director.]

[We expect about 300,000 units for elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools nationwide in Korea.]

[300,000 units?]

Isao’s eyes widened in surprise.

And Jo Nam-sik’s eyes were very weakly frowned.

It was because Isao did not seem to have read the proposal and came.

However, Jo Nam-sik was already a pro.

The change in his expression was such that no one could notice.

[you’re right. Instead, you have to set the price per unit to around 500,000 won.]

[500,000 won for 300,000 units… 150 billion?]

Jo Nam-sik nodded without saying a word.

At the exchange rate at the time, one dollar was about 700 won.

150 billion won was equivalent to 200 million dollars.

Greed flashed in Isao’s eyes.

[What can we do, how can we do it?]

When it became clear that Isao hadn’t read the proposal, Jo Nam-shik became annoyed inside.

I even wondered if it wasn’t worth calling him to Paris, giving him a large sum of money as pocket money.

[Sooner or later, the Public Procurement Service will open bid for 300,000 educational PCs.]

[If it’s an open bid, isn’t it necessary to talk like this? All you have to do is to prepare the materials well and present the price well by the deadline… Besides, what do we do when we prepare the materials and submit them? Everything will go back to the company that wrote down the price lower than ours.]

[We will solve that problem.]

[How the heck does Open Bidding…?]

Jo Nam-sik finally said with a small smile on his lips.

[Myungsung Group is very friendly with the Korean government. Of course, there are many close friends among the public officials of the Public Procurement Service.]

[Are you going to manipulate the data?]

[Unfortunately, that’s impossible. For contracts of this size, the bidding results are also made public. Ordinary citizens do not care or need to know who entered into such a bid or who was decided, but it is an important issue for the bidder.]

[If the amount you wrote is lower, but the other side wins the bid, of course, you will go around making a fuss here and there.]

Jo Nam-sik looked around and sat closer to Isao.

[So I will use this method. On September 17, 1988, the opening day of the Olympic Games, we will open the tender notice. However, the deadline for that bid would be September 18, 1988.]

[When all eyes are on the Olympics, will you finish it quickly?]

[Exactly. In addition, we will make the level of the required data extremely difficult to eliminate any potential risks.]

[Required documents?]

[In the pretext that 300,000 units is not a small amount, we will ask for last year’s sales distribution table, production guarantee of the current production plant, and financial guarantee from the bank where the headquarters is located.]

Isao claps! sighed and said

[These documents are documents that take a week to prepare even if you prepare them as soon as possible.]

[you’re right. So, the general manager will have to prepare the materials in advance.]

After hearing this explanation, Isao was a little puzzled.

Give-and-take, in the world of business, is a very natural thing to say.

[There must be a reason for passing this good information to us. What do you want from us?]

[yes. I want two things.]

[two?]

Jo Nam-sik moistened his mouth with coffee and continued.

[First, rather than entering Korea under the name of IBM, Myung Myung Electronics would like to take charge of import distribution and supply products.]

[Hmm… do you want to get a commission?]

[ha ha ha. Distributor commission is usually around 10%. 10% is 15 billion won in Korean Won. In fact, the money is there, but it is the same.]

[then…?]

[As a general judge, the logo of fame will be embedded next to IBM’s logo. Users will be able to remember the name of our reputation.]

[okay. Then what is the second requirement?]

[Requires technology transfer of PC manufacturing.]

[Hmm…]

Myungsung Electronics entered the PC business belatedly and was struggling.

The pie in the PC market is getting bigger and bigger, but we couldn’t share the pie at all.

Through this incident, Cho Nam-shik was trying to solidify his position in the Myungsung Group and gain recognition from Cho Hee-chang, the current chairman of the Myungsung Group.

Jo Nam-shik’s words deepened the gap between Isao’s eyebrows.

Because technology transfer is not as easy as it sounds.

But Isao quickly shook his head.

[Please give me a moment to think.]

[As much as you like.]

Isao thought that if he received 100% of the winning bid from Korea and raised sales of 200 million dollars, his promotion would be confirmed.

If that happened, I might have had the opportunity to get out of Japan and work in the US.

The transfer of technology was something that the successor who would replace him would have to deal with anyway.

Having reached a conclusion, Isao said to Jo Nam-shik.

[If you would like to accept no commission at all, I will accept your request.]

[Can I decide right here?]

[I am in charge. My decision is IBM’s decision in Japan.]

[All right. Relevant details will be sent by official letter from us.]

After that, the two smiled and chatted a few more words before parting.

And the back corner of the cafe where they were sitting.

There was Hoyeong, who was smiling brightly.

.

.

.

Hoyoung looked for an article in 1989 through Gaia.

Articles were easy to find because the keywords were clear.

[Educational PC supply project scheduled for 1989. IBM wins the final bid.]

IBM, an American computer company, won the final bid for the government’s 1989 educational PC supply project. It is a large-scale project with a huge budget of 150 billion won, 500,000 won per unit, as a plan to supply 300,000 units to elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools nationwide. In this project, only IBM-JAPAN bid and contracted the PC supply business…

When Ho-young learned that there was such a secret agreement behind the national PC distribution project, Ho-young felt bitter.

After receiving technology transfer, Myungsung Computer launched ‘Green Computer’ in 1993, turned into a surplus, and took the first place in computer sales by driving the momentum.

And with this incident as an opportunity, Jo Nam-shik starts to win at Myeongseong Electronics.

“Cho Nam-sik. I’ll feed you a shot.”

Hoyeong made a plan with a smile on her face.

Gaia saved all the conversation records from earlier.

Ho-young, who came up with a perfect plan by reviewing the conversation several times, went down to the hotel lobby.

I kept looking around as I went down, but I didn’t see Jo Nam-shik or Isao.

“How do I make an international call?”

“Use the phone over there. Set the timer to calculate the bill and pay when you check out.”

“thank you.”

Hoyoung walked over to the phone and picked up the receiver.

It was only natural to double or triple check to make sure no one was within earshot of the surroundings.

Current time is 9 PM. It must be peak business hours now, as Hoyeong’s call is 7 hours later than here.

Hoyeong dialed the phone number, several signals went through, and eventually someone answered.

– Hello? This is Dell speaking.

The person Hoyoung called was none other than Dell.

“Dell? It’s me. Hoyeong. Aren’t you busy?”

– Oh, Hoyoung. I had just returned from lunch. What are you calling for?

“As Dell’s largest shareholder and business partner, I have very good information to offer you.”

– Information? What information do you mean?”

“Do you have any plans to enter the Korean market?”

It is difficult for Ho-young alone to scatter ashes in the collaboration between fame and IBM.

However, Hoyoung had a friend named Dell who was growing up.

And Hoyoung was the largest shareholder with a 49.9% stake in the Dell.

As Dell grows, it goes without saying that the value of Hoyoung’s stake also rises.

“It’s a whopping $200 million worth of information.”

– Holly Shh.

At the sound of 200 million dollars, Dell spat out a sigh.

Hoyoung and Del continued to share until late into the night.