New Employees With an Annual Salary of 1 Trillion Won - Chapter 183

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

Chapter 183. Starting Line (3)

President Gelsinger didn’t understand the power of money.

Perhaps because he was an engineer by background, he only thought about grinding himself to secure technology.

But that approach had its limits, and I needed to show him how to use financial power to secure technology.

“You said DRAM companies are going bankrupt?”

“That’s right. Major companies in the United States, Japan, and Taiwan are withdrawing from the DRAM business one after another.”

“Then there must be quite a lot of DRAM engineers released into the market.”

“Correct. Several engineers who were working in the United States have already contacted me about job opportunities.”

“Perfect. Recruit all of them. Isn’t this a golden opportunity to secure talented personnel on a large scale?”

President Gelsinger was momentarily speechless.

Still not understanding what I wanted, he only continued with realistic concerns.

“There are over thousands of DRAM engineers released into the market. Among them, talented personnel number at least in the hundreds.”

“Only hundreds? Recruit them all. If necessary, you can acquire entire development teams from bankrupt DRAM companies.”

“…Are you saying we can recruit engineers from all DRAM companies?”

Instead of answering, I nodded.

Then, as if confirming once more, he mentioned specific company names one by one.

“Should I understand that we can recruit all DRAM engineers from NEC, Mitsubishi, Hitachi, Elpida, and Motorola?”

“Not just the talent released into the market, but actively proceed with scouting as well.”

“Wouldn’t the development workforce become too massive?”

“It’s fine. Divide them into multiple teams and make them compete. There’s no structure that brings out results faster than competition.”

President Gelsinger glanced at me several times.

Only then did he seem to realize what kind of weapon he had in his hands.

“You’re saying that while everyone else is reducing DRAM production, we’ll invest aggressively instead.”

“That way, when the upward cycle comes, we can reap the greatest rewards.”

“But I’m worried whether all that personnel will function properly. If competition becomes excessive, information sharing might be blocked and efficiency could actually decrease.”

That was simply a matter of operational methodology.

The results would be completely different depending on how you design the competition structure.

If you make them compete only on results, it becomes a closed structure, but if you make the process itself part of the competition, collaboration is actually promoted.

“All research processes will be registered through Omnis. Each team will share Omnis data in real time.”

“You want to create a structure where even the entire process is included in the results. Certainly, if we do that, they’ll share information even more actively.”

“If their contributions are recognized and they even receive compensation when other teams create results based on data their team made, they’ll have no choice but to participate more actively.”

President Gelsinger now looked like he understood everything.

Then, as if something delighted him greatly, he smiled brightly, showing his teeth.

“I’ll bring all the talent. Right now, there should be plenty of engineers who want to come work in Korea.”

“I’ll guarantee the highest level from salary to benefits. Recruit them with confidence.”

“Now I understand. Why you told me not to be satisfied with just reducing the technology gap. With this level of support, rather than narrowing the gap, we might actually get ahead!”

Simply recruiting talent alone couldn’t reduce the technology gap.

But Tiger Fund already had everything in place.

We were making massive R&D investments more than any other company, and we had all the reliable partner companies too.

“I don’t care how much deficit we run. Who would criticize us for running a deficit in this kind of downturn cycle? But please make sure to secure the technology.”

“That’s exactly what I wanted to hear. Being in the president’s position, I found myself calculating company circumstances first. This time, I’ll do it properly!”

President Gelsinger’s eyes changed.

Now he seemed to completely understand what I wanted and where I was trying to go.

***

After finishing all my work, I returned to the Fund Office.

But even at the office, work was still piled up like a mountain, and Song Sang-yeon was waiting for me with a thick stack of reports.

“These are reports related to Nexcon and Daehyeon Semiconductor.”

“I visited the sites directly, and they’re running better than expected.”

“Daehyeon Semiconductor’s deficit is quite substantial, but they’re barely holding on thanks to Tiger Fund’s funding.”

“I heard this year’s projected deficit is around 1 trillion won. If it weren’t for Tiger Fund, they really couldn’t have survived.”

A deficit of 1 trillion won alone.

No matter how large a corporation, it wasn’t easy to handle losses of this magnitude.

I was no exception either.

If I hadn’t reaped massive profits from the Iraq War, I might have had to give up on Daehyeon Semiconductor.

“Actually, the deficit became larger because we aggressively proceeded with factory expansion, facility investment, and R&D investment. If we hadn’t made new investments, the deficit would have been much smaller.”

“There’s no need to reduce investment just to make the numbers look pretty right now. To increase corporate value, we ultimately need to raise technology through investment.”

In fact, Daehyeon Semiconductor’s deficit was also an intended result.

We were forcibly expanding factories to enter the foundry business and bringing in large quantities of cutting-edge equipment.

If the creditors were still operating Daehyeon Semiconductor.

They wouldn’t have dared attempt such new investments.

They likely would have reduced the deficit to half, or even less, through austerity management like asset sales or workforce reductions.

In a way, it was the typical private equity fund approach.

But I didn’t want to follow that method.

I wasn’t viewing Daehyeon Semiconductor simply as a product for sale.

“Actually, including myself, Headquarters doesn’t evaluate Daehyeon Semiconductor favorably either. Since it’s a business you’re directly managing, Branch Manager, we’re just trusting and waiting.”

“The deficit will continue for several more years. But after that, I’m confident it will definitely become a solid pillar of Tiger Fund.”

Song Sang-yeon quietly nodded.

He trusted me that much and believed I would somehow solve it.

“Nexcon’s sales are increasing significantly every year. Thanks to the explosive growth in iPod sales.”

“There are predictions that the next generation iPod will sell over 2 million units. Nexcon’s sales will continue to rise.”

“Since we’re now producing everything from the original model to the new models at Nexcon, we’ve taken on the role of Apple’s core production base.”

We weren’t simply handling just production.

If Nexcon was in charge of production, Nexpin participated deeply from the development stage.

Numerous Nexpin patents were embedded throughout Apple products.

It was a perfect symbiotic relationship.

We handled every process from development to production.

We created a structure where the fruits naturally came to us as Apple grew.

“It’s still not enough. We need to expand the scale further.”

“Actually, additional permits for new factory expansion have been approved.”

“You got them easier than expected.”

“Various local governments sent us love calls first. Because factories help the local economy as they grow, the permit process is actually getting faster.”

Few industries were as closely connected to politics as manufacturing.

The more employment we created, the more local governments had to want us.

Of course, there weren’t zero disadvantages, but they were still within a range I could control.

“I’m glad the factory expansion issue was resolved well too.”

Thanks to securing the land in advance. Real estate prices started rising, so if we’d been a little later, we would have had to buy at much higher prices.”

“The real estate price uptrend seems serious.”

“Not just Korea, but the US real estate market is showing similar trends. But from our perspective, there’s nothing bad about it. Rather, our asset values have grown that much.”

We already owned various forms of real estate.

Especially for assets with large sites like Rollbook Mart or large factories.

As real estate prices rose, our asset scale naturally grew without any movement.

“Real estate prices will continue to rise. It’s not even at a level we could call a bubble yet.”

“Major US banks are literally churning out mortgage products. If this trend continues for just a few more years, the real estate bubble you mentioned, Branch Manager, might actually burst.”

The bubble bursting was still far off.

Now was the time when the bubble was slowly building up, and we just needed to quietly wait for the right moment.

“We just need to move according to plan.”

“Headquarters has started purchasing mortgage CDS.”

“Thanks to the Chairman personally stepping in, CDS regulations were quickly relaxed. Now we just need to buy and accumulate them well.”

Everything was flowing according to plan.

It might look precarious to Song Sang-yeon and others.

I could see all the gears meshing together perfectly without a single error.

“I’ll continue monitoring the situation with headquarters.”

“It’s getting late, so please head home now.”

“Aren’t you leaving, Branch Manager?”

“I have something to take care of briefly.”

I sent the Deputy Branch Manager home first.

Looking at my watch, there was still time before quitting hours, so I headed to the Nexpin office instead of home.

When I opened the office door, all the employees were absorbed in their respective work.

Not wanting to break my colleagues’ concentration, I was quietly trying to enter my private office when.

Manager Kim spotted me and quickly followed me in, tapping my shoulder.

“What’s wrong?”

“Just checking if you’re human. You were moving around like a ghost.”

“Everyone was concentrating, so I moved quietly. But aren’t you busy, Manager Kim?”

The current situation was slightly annoying.

I had planned to use the remaining time before leaving work to finish the patent draft I had prepared in advance.

But Manager Kim was blocking my path and kept talking to me.

“Of course I’m busy. But a nice gift arrived from Apple. I thought you’d want to see it too, so I brought it over.”

“What kind of gift?”

“The next generation prototype arrived. Or should I say the generation after next? It’s the 4th generation iPod. It’s an internal testing product so it’s not perfect yet, but they say it works well.”

4th generation iPod.

It was a product that still had over a year left until release.

Any iPod user would be curious about it.

But I already knew all its forms and functions.

I had directly participated in development from the concept stage and had even suggested various ideas myself.

However, seeing the actual product was a different emotion altogether.

I wanted to directly confirm how the ideas and technology I had conceived were implemented through Apple’s hands.

“The exterior doesn’t look much different from the previous generation.”

“It seems like they made gradual modifications, but there’s nothing you could call an innovative change.”

Actually, the exterior wasn’t very important at this point.

Due to the prototype’s nature, the design completion level was bound to be low.

So I immediately pressed the power button to check the functions first.

And the moment it powered on, a strange thrill washed over me.

“Finally, a color LCD has been applied.”

“The resolution isn’t that high, but they did put in a color screen! Wow, having a color LCD definitely makes it look different.”

It was definitely different.

Just changing the screen from monochrome LCD to color made the gears in my head start spinning rapidly.

“But it really is just a color LCD added, literally. There are no other functions at all.”

“It’s meant for viewing album covers or photos. Video playback functionality is completely missing.”

“It seems intended to focus only on music.”

“The iPod was originally made for music listening anyway.”

Apple’s philosophy was simple.

A tool for music.

But it seemed too wasteful to use just for listening to music, and users would definitely demand more things.

“If video playback were possible, we could watch Rollbook short-form videos through the iPod too.”

“For that to be possible, you’d have to download the videos first. That would require connecting to a laptop, and you might as well just watch on the laptop.”

“If we install Wi-Fi, you could watch videos with just the iPod without connecting to a laptop.”

I already held patents related to Wi-Fi installation.

Not only the technology for embedding Wi-Fi in home appliances.

Some equipment currently operating in our factory also had Wi-Fi applied for real-time data exchange.

“We did create such patents. But actual application would be difficult, wouldn’t it? Wi-Fi is just starting to be put into laptops, so how would you put that into such a small device?”

“It’s entirely possible if we just proceed with more miniaturization. Of course, that would require redesigning everything from dedicated chips to internal structure, but it’s not impossible.”

“It might be possible if made by hand. But making it that way would easily cost over ten million won per iPod, wouldn’t it?”

Price wasn’t important at all.

If we just created the technology, the price issue could be resolved somehow.

“I’m not trying to commercialize it right now. I just want to try making a new form of iPod.”

“…You’d need quite a lot of new technology to make it the way you’re thinking, wouldn’t you?”

“At least dozens of new technologies would be needed. Existing technology would also have to be applied in completely different forms.”

“Then hundreds of patents could come out of it?”

I nodded.

At that moment, Manager Kim snatched the iPod from my hands so fast it was barely visible.

“Don’t do it. There’s already a mountain of work. Just rest a bit. Lots of interesting videos have been uploaded to Rollbook. Watch those and cool your head.”

“Give it to me.”

“I’m telling you to rest a bit.”

An intense physical struggle ensued.

In the end, I achieved victory and grasped the iPod in my hands.

And then I immediately began sketching out the new form of iPod that came to mind.

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