Golden Spoon Investment Portfolio - Chapter 341

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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341. Merely increasing supply won’t be nearly enough.

While the Japanese stock market was gripped by terror and panic following the shock to Japan’s Big Four Securities Firms, the Fund Management Department Office at Daeheung Venture Capital erupted in cheers as stock prices plummeted.

[Nomura Securities: 967.2 (
171.6)]
[Daiwa Securities: 491.6 (
76.3)]
[Nikko Securities: 479.8 (
98.1)]
[Yamaichi Securities: 384.9 (
98.4)]

“Woooo!”
“That’s it! This is exactly what we needed.”
“Excellent!”

Even Manager Choi Ho-geun, who had maintained his composure throughout the short selling, clenched his fists and shot up from his seat as he watched the stock prices plummet sharply.

“All four stocks have lost half their value from where we first shorted them—isn’t this an incredible windfall?”

Jung Hwan-yeop, beaming with a broad smile, approached Manager Choi Ho-geun and spoke.

“I believed this bet would succeed since it came from the chairman, but I never expected we’d make such substantial profits.”

Yu Seok-hyun also rejoiced, his face flushed with excitement.

“I was worried when I saw the stock price rebound from the recent wave of bargain buying—I was nervous it might continue climbing. I never anticipated such a reversal.”
“Hmm. Doubting the chairman like that shows a lack of faith, doesn’t it?”
“Weren’t you the one who was most anxious about needing to close your position immediately?”
“Ahem. When did I ever say that?”

Jung Hwan-yeop, who had been teasing Hong Jae-hee, let out an awkward cough and averted his gaze.
Seeing this, Manager Choi Ho-geun let out a quiet chuckle.

“He called me at night whining about how uneasy he felt, begging me to short cover immediately. Now I see he’s been crying about it all over the place.”
“Ah, Manager!”

Short covering referred to liquidating a position by repurchasing shorted stocks.
As the team members snickered, Jung Hwan-yeop flushed red and protested.

“Whining? I was just expressing my opinion seriously. Why are you making the team misunderstand?”
“That’s exactly what whining is.”

Jung Hwan-yeop’s face reddened as he shot back.

“And Manager, you knew Japan’s Big Four Securities Firms suffered massive option losses but kept your mouth shut. That’s really disappointing.”
“Ah. That’s…”

Manager Choi scratched the back of his head and looked around at his team.

“I trust you all, but the president ordered me to stay silent until he breaks the story. I had no choice. Sorry.”

Contrary to his concern, the team’s expressions were remarkably bright.

“I’m fine with it. The fewer people who know about these things, the better anyway.”

Hong Jae-hee shrugged dismissively, and Yu Seok-hyun chimed in agreement.

“Exactly. If information leaked outside by mistake, that would be problematic.”

Everyone seemed to share the sentiment. Even Noh Hee-won, who stood among the team members clutching a stack of documents, nodded in agreement.
Only Jung Hwan-yeop maintained a sullen expression.

“Still, I’m not over being upset.”

Seeing him act like a stubborn child, Manager Choi finally sighed and patted his shoulder.

“Fine. Once this is all over, I’ll buy you a drink at that braised beef bone place you like. Deal?”
“Hmm. Well, if you’re going to show such sincerity, I suppose I’ll let it slide this once.”
“Good grief. Yes, yes.”

Just then, the telephone on the desk rang, and Manager Choi immediately picked up the receiver.

“Yes. This is Choi Ho-geun.”
[It’s me. You’re continuing to monitor the short-sale stock prices, correct?]

At Seok-won’s voice, Manager Choi adjusted the receiver in his hand and responded immediately.

“Of course.”
[For now, let’s leave things as they are today and watch the market conditions. Manager Choi, go ahead and adjust your positions as you see fit.]
“I’ll do that.”

Manager Choi continued speaking while gazing at the Nikkei index displayed on the large price board installed across from him.

“What should we do about the positions we’ve placed on the Nikkei and Malaysia KLCI index futures?”
[Both will fall further. For now, let’s just hold them and watch.]

While he wasn’t sure about the Nikkei, the Malaysia KLCI index had already lost more than half its value, and he believed it was approaching bottom.
When told it would fall further, he felt slightly taken aback, but since it was Seok-won speaking, he harbored no doubts.

“Understood. I’ll continue holding the futures as you’ve instructed.”
[If any significant changes occur, contact me immediately.]
“Yes.”

After giving a brief reply and setting down the receiver, Manager Choi clapped his hands lightly to gather the attention of his somewhat restless team members.

“Alright. Enough chitchat! Manager Jung, keep watch on the short-sale stock price movements. Hong and Yu, monitor the futures side.”

Then Manager Choi’s gaze turned toward Noh Hee-won, who stood off to one side.

“To maintain focus until the market closes, we’ll need caffeine’s assistance. Miss Noh, brew some strong coffee and make the rounds with a cup for each of us.”
“Yes, Manager!”

Noh Hee-won nodded slightly and answered with vigor.
Though she was still inexperienced and lacking in many ways as a newcomer, everyone cast approving glances at her earnest efforts to contribute to the team.

“Yes.”
“Understood.”

As the team members returned to their stations after acknowledging the orders, Manager Choi placed his hands on his hips and fixed his gaze on the monitors.
A deep smile played across Manager Choi’s lips as he watched the stock prices of Japan’s Big Four Securities Firms continue their downward spiral.

* * *

“A decline this steep tells me the shock to investors is far greater than anticipated.”

Seok-won gazed at the monitor displaying the stock price charts of Japan’s Big Four Securities Firms with an unhurried expression, lifted his teacup, took a sip of coffee, and set it back down.

“At this rate, even when I liquidate my short positions later, the stock won’t rebound significantly.”

When repurchasing shorted stocks, a smaller rebound meant proportionally greater profits—a favorable outcome.
Just then, Na Seong-mi knocked and entered, dressed in a neat navy skirt suit.

“Yun Ki-hun has arrived.”
“Show him in.”
“Yes.”

After Na Seong-mi left, Yun Ki-hun and Ahn Byung-seok, the president of Digital Wave, entered together shortly after.
Seok-won rose with a smile playing at his lips, came around the desk, and extended his hand first.

“President Ahn, it’s been quite a while.”

Ahn Byung-seok quickly bowed, then straightened and clasped his hand.

“Since we last met at the end of last year and are meeting again today, it feels like only four months have passed.”
“Time really does fly. I apologize for asking you to come all the way to the office.”
“Not at all. You must be incredibly busy—I should be the one coming.”

Seok-won watched Ahn Byung-seok, who kept bowing deferentially, with a slight smile and gestured toward the sofa.

“Please, have a seat here.”
“Yes.”

As Seok-won settled into the center seat, Ahn Byung-seok and Yun Ki-hun took positions on the flanking sofas, facing each other.

“What would you like to drink?”

At Na Seong-mi’s question, Seok-won looked at the two men as if something had just occurred to him.

“Right. I received some ginseng tea made from six-year-old ginseng recently, and it’s excellent for recovering from fatigue. Why don’t you try some?”

At Seok-won’s suggestion, President Ahn Byung-seok nodded readily.

“Yes, that sounds wonderful.”
“If the president recommends it, I absolutely must try it.”

At Yun Ki-hun’s words, I let out a light laugh.

“Ha ha. It’s not quite worthy of such high expectations, but still. Secretary, bring us three cups of ginseng tea.”
“Understood.”

Na Seong-mi turned and left with a brief acknowledgment, and I watched President Ahn Byung-seok with an eager expression.

“So the mass production MP3 player is ready.”
“Yes.”
“Let’s have a look at it then.”

President Ahn Byung-seok retrieved a paper box the size of a book from the document bag beside him.
He opened the box and carefully placed the mass production sample MP3 player, wrapped in bubble wrap, before me.

“Here it is.”

The mass production sample that President Ahn Byung-seok presented was smaller than the palm of a hand, featuring a black-and-white LCD display with two lines at the top and six physical buttons arranged neatly in the center.
As I examined the sample carefully from every angle, President Ahn Byung-seok provided a brief explanation of the product specifications.

“It’s equipped with 64 megabytes of flash memory capable of storing twelve songs and reproducing audio quality comparable to CDs. Additionally, beyond MP3 music files, it can store various computer files, making it usable like a floppy diskette.”
“While the capacity isn’t large, the ability to store other files could be an excellent sales point.”

I nodded with interest.
Encouraged by my positive response, President Ahn Byung-seok’s eyes brightened as he continued.

“Exactly. With an MP3 player, users can easily carry and transfer document files and such.”

Meanwhile, Yun Ki-hun, though looking at the device with curiosity, still harbored doubts about whether this small product was truly worth the considerable investment and my particular interest.

“The craftsmanship is certainly much improved compared to the prototype we saw last time.”
“Functionality is important, but you did say that to win over consumers, the product must look beautiful. So we commissioned a design firm to create a new case.”
“That was a good call. It definitely looks better than before.”
“When we mass produce, we plan to release it in red and blue colors in addition to this ivory shade you see now.”
“That’s better than a single color. Variety will naturally draw more consumer interest.”

Seok-won inserted the earbuds into both ears and pressed the button to play the music.
Then the upbeat song of the famous pop star Michael Jackson began to flow out.
Since it was fundamentally a product designed for listening to music, sound quality was the most important factor.
Ahn Byung-seok watched Seok-won with tension as he listened to the music with his eyes gently closed.
Just then, Na Seong-mi entered through the door, and upon seeing Seok-won wearing the earbuds, she quietly set down a cup of ginseng tea on the table and left again.

“Hmm.”
“Yes. How is it?”

After listening to an entire song, Seok-won removed the earbuds from his ears and spoke.

“The sound quality seems to have improved compared to before.”

Ahn Byung-seok let out an inward sigh of relief at his satisfied expression.

“I’m glad you’re pleased with it.”
“What kind of price are you thinking?”
“It’s not finalized yet, but I think we need to aim for around 300,000 to 350,000 won to secure our margins.”

Then Yun Ki-hun, the executive director, interjected with a frown.

“If this is meant to replace the Walkman, the main buyers would be young teenagers and people in their twenties, so 300,000 won seems too expensive.”

Seok-won tilted his head slightly to the side.

“How much do Walkmen typically cost in the market?”
“Japanese ones are a bit more expensive, but I believe domestically made cassette tape players are in the 100,000 won range.”

Considering that a new employee at a large corporation earned around 1 million won a month at that time, it was certainly not an easily affordable price.

“However, the component costs for manufacturing are expensive, so it’s difficult to lower the price below 300,000 won.”

Ahn Byung-seok expressed his difficulty reluctantly.
He touched the MP3 player sample in his hand and thought for a moment before looking up again.

“Is there any way to bring the price down to the 200,000 won range?”
“We’re already working with minimal margins as it is, and if we do as you suggest, we’ll lose money the more we sell.”

Ahn Byung-seok responded skeptically.

“Then there’s absolutely no way to lower the price?”

Ahn Byung-seok let out a groan as he deliberated, then reluctantly opened his mouth with a reluctant expression.

“If we adjust the product specifications, we might be able to reduce the unit cost a bit more.”

For Ahn Byung-seok, who was practically an engineer at heart, it was a choice he didn’t want to make at all.
He felt it was absurd to compromise product quality for the sake of price, but since Seok-won held the purse strings, he had no choice.

“The problem is that it’s over-spec beyond what’s necessary, but if the product performance drops too much, consumers will turn away from it.”
“Then there’s no other way.”

Ahn Byung-seok’s expression grew troubled.
As both men struggled to think of a suitable solution, Seok-won stroked his cleanly shaved chin and spoke.

“What if we do it this way?”

Ahn Byung-seok and Yun Ki-hun turned to look at him simultaneously.

“Even with the same components, if the order volume is large enough, we can get them supplied at a lower price. We place a large bulk order all at once to reduce production costs.”

At that, Ahn Byung-seok’s expression dimmed slightly as he spoke cautiously.

“You’re not wrong, but to reduce the delivery price to a meaningful level, we’d need to increase the volume considerably—it won’t work otherwise.”

It was impossible to ask for the delivery price to be cut in half just by increasing an order from 100 units to 130 units.

“How much are you thinking for the initial production volume?”

Ahn Byung-seok answered immediately.

“We’re planning to manufacture around 50,000 units initially, then proceed with additional production based on market response.”

At a selling price of 300,000 won, that amounted to a staggering 15 billion won worth of inventory—hardly a small quantity.
Having heard this, Seok-won leaned back against the sofa cushion and replied with ease.

“If we increase the initial volume to 300,000 units, wouldn’t we be able to reduce the production unit cost as much as we want?”
“!”

At Seok-won’s words, not only President Ahn Byung-seok but even Executive Director Yun Ki-hun widened their eyes in startled surprise.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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