New Employees With an Annual Salary of 1 Trillion Won - Chapter 89
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 89. To Korea (4)
Finally, the troublemakers were gone.
The Chairman who had stuck right next to me bombarding me with questions.
Steve Jobs who had suddenly come to Korea and demanded technical explanations of Nexpin and Rollbook for two whole days even after the negotiations ended – they had all returned to the United States.
Now I could finally live my company life according to routine.
I could work as planned – morning shifts at Nexpin, afternoon shifts at Rollbook, and after work at Tiger Fund.
“Employee Lee, you’re here? You must have had a hard time dealing with the Chairman.”
“You also had a hard time, General Manager. Not just the Chairman, but Steve Jobs was also an incredibly curious person.”
“That must mean he really liked the technology Employee Lee created.”
“Now that they’re all gone, I’m thinking of working on the tasks I’ve been planning.”
“What kind of tasks?”
I took out the materials I had prepared in advance.
They were lists and accounting data of companies facing bankruptcy crises or severe financial difficulties after the IMF crisis.
“Are you looking for companies to acquire?”
“It’s an opportunity to acquire companies with high growth potential at bargain prices.”
“That’s true. Many companies have been shaken up since the IMF crisis. I hear countless companies are going bankrupt these days.”
Lending regulations were still extremely severe.
Banks weren’t opening their wallets, and companies were reluctantly turning to high-interest Japanese lending companies.
“So I’m planning to acquire decent companies.”
“You’re not planning to acquire them using only the Nexpin employee account funds, are you?”
“I’m thinking of securing equity shares through a triple structure. 40% Tiger Fund capital, 30% my personal funds, and finally 30% employee funds.”
The purpose of corporate acquisition was to put shackles on the Nexpin employees.
That said, I couldn’t acquire just any company – I had to focus on acquiring companies with high growth potential.
If that happened, the corporate value would naturally increase.
If I invested using only employee accounts, Tiger Fund would inevitably raise questions.
And by creating this triple-structure equity acquisition system, I could also gain control over the companies I acquired.
“With Tiger Fund holding 40% and Employee Lee holding 30%, you’d be able to wield management rights.”
“Still, with employees holding 30% equity, they can work with sufficient ownership mindset.”
“It’s not a bad structure. But acquiring good companies is difficult work. When will you finish reviewing all this data? Even if you review it, there’s no guarantee good companies will emerge.”
Naturally, it was absolutely impossible to do alone.
However, I had accumulated expertise from investigating accounting manipulation materials, and Accountant Kim Do-yoon had newly joined as well.
It was also an opportunity to see the abilities of Accountant Kim Do-yoon, whose gears meshed perfectly with mine.
“If we work together with the Fund Employees, we should be able to find it quickly.”
“Take your time looking. There’s nothing urgent for the time being.”
The General Manager went into his Private Office.
I distributed the Materials to the Staff Members, including Accountant Kim Do-yoon.
“This Investment direction is Corporate Acquisition. Please check all Systems and find decent corporations.”
“Should we focus on corporations that are experiencing financial difficulties but have high profit models or growth potential?”
“Yes, please do that. I’m sorry there’s so much volume.”
“Not at all. I’m happy that there’s finally work I can do in Korea.”
Accountant Kim Do-yoon took out his Glasses from the Drawer and put them on.
Then he buried his face in the Documents and pounded the Calculator at tremendous speed.
The other Employees ran the Corporate Credit Scoring System I had created, and also rummaged through Media Materials to examine corporate situations.
I had no intention of leaving it all to the Employees.
While going through corporate Materials, a corporation that produces harmony might appear.
Of course, most corporations were producing discord, making it stressful to look at the Materials, but to find treasure, such effort had to be endured.
‘First, I should focus on searching Large Corporations.’
Small and Medium Enterprises or Venture Companies were easier to acquire.
But considering Technology and scale, it was better to acquire Affiliate Companies under Large Corporations for development.
The first Corporation that caught my eye was Daehyun Group.
I had met Chairman Wang of Daehyun Group in person, and knowing that Daehyun Group was experiencing serious financial difficulties, I checked Daehyun Group’s Materials first.
-‘This is completely the worst.’
Chairman Wang hadn’t asked to borrow money for nothing.
When I examined Daehyun Group’s Accounting Data, hives broke out all over my body.
Especially, the situation of Daehyun Electronics and Construction, which the second son inherited, looked the worst.
But there weren’t only bad Affiliate Companies.
In the case of Daehyun Delivery, although operating profit was only around 10 billion won, it still had a stable profit structure.
As I investigated Daehyun Delivery’s Materials a bit more.
Click, click, whirr, thunk—!
The Cogwheel began to roll.
‘Even though the rotation speed is slow, if combined well, it seems like it could become a useful structure.’
A structure that would be difficult to grow alone.
So I investigated various companies to find gears that would mesh well together.
As I fitted the puzzle pieces together one by one, the complete picture gradually emerged.
“Accountant Kim Do-yoon, could you come here for a moment?”
“What’s the matter?”
“What do you think of these companies?”
“A delivery company, department store, mart, and home shopping service provider. Are you focusing on distribution and logistics?”
“I’m thinking of combining these companies well to create one corporation.”
There was a specific reason I called Accountant Kim Do-yoon.
He was someone who had studied accounting data from various companies in the United States for over 15 years.
He could fully anticipate what would happen if these were combined.
“These are definitely companies that are deeply related to each other. It seems possible to create a system where products can be promoted through home shopping, and goods from department stores and marts can be delivered to customers through the delivery company.”
“If we add the PG Company we own to that, we can create a platform that combines logistics, distribution, and payment. Finally, if we add Rollbook’s point shop system, an e-commerce platform would be complete.”
This was the massive structure I had envisioned.
Starting with Amazon in the United States, various types of e-commerce companies existed in Korea as well.
However, there wasn’t a single company yet that could control logistics, distribution, and payment all together.
“If completed, it would create tremendous synergy. But the intermediate process would be too difficult. Even with simple calculations, it could record losses for at least 10 years or more.”
“Any business is bound to record losses during its growth period.”
“The scale of losses could be quite large. We’d have to endure losses of hundreds of billions of won or more every year. Amazon in the United States also continued to record losses for a while even while outsourcing logistics, and recently, as they’re even attempting to handle logistics directly, the cost burden is actually getting bigger.”
I was well aware of Amazon too.
It was one of Tiger Fund’s IT bubble short selling targets.
After the bubble collapse, it had already fallen by over 50%, and there were even forecasts that it would fall by over 90% by next year.
“Amazon’s losses exceed hundreds of billions of won, right?”
“The scale of losses increased astronomically when they started investing in logistics centers.”
“If that’s the scale of losses in the United States with its vast land, the loss scale in Korea would still be somewhat smaller.”
“Still, it would be at least hundreds of billions in scale.”
Accountant Kim Do-yoon anticipated even the scale of losses with his excellent analytical skills.
I too was expecting that an e-commerce platform would see large losses initially, so I accepted his advice as it was.
“But once the system and network are established, it could quickly turn profitable.”
“It looks like we’d need to dominate over 50% of the Korean market and fully establish logistics center investment and distribution systems to turn profitable. It would take at least 10 years.”
“10 years. That’s perfect.”
“What’s so good about it?”
There was no other meaning.
If I acquire all these companies and turn them into a platform.
I’ll be able to put shackles on my Nexpin colleagues for 10 years.
“Let’s start with one at a time. Please begin with investigating Daehyun Delivery.”
“Are you really planning to create an e-commerce platform?”
“Now is the right time. We need to acquire companies at bargain prices to minimize losses even a little.”
“I’ll investigate everything about Daehyun Delivery.”
Daehyun Delivery was fiercely competing for the industry’s second place.
Since Daehyun Group also expected it to be a future cash cow, the acquisition would never be easy.
That’s why more thorough investigation was needed, and Accountant Kim Do-yoon’s role became important.
And he definitely had a good eye.
He quickly grasped what I was thinking and accurately pinpointed the direction I wanted.
Gear teeth that meshed perfectly, which is why I could trust him with the work.
***
I finished work and returned home.
My parents had just gotten off work too, sitting at the dining table organizing sales figures.
“Business went well today too?”
“Store No. 24 that opened this time is also showing quite stable sales. And the newly launched Grapefruit Black Tea is also popular.”
“New menu items keep coming out.”
Menu Development Specialists recruited from the United States.
Not only that, but Max Coffee was also recruiting Korean experts to continuously launch new menu items.
“Store #1 and Store #2 have cheap rent and good locations, so they can generate sales with just coffee, but other stores aren’t like that. So we need to keep developing and selling profitable menu items.”
“You think about things like that now?”
“Do you think I’d do it because I want to? These are Store Owners who went through all that hardship at Hanyang Dairy, so how could I be careless?”
Coffee alone wasn’t profitable.
1,000 Won Coffee was close to a loss leader product, and sweet beverages costing over 2,000 won became the main revenue source.
“I’m a bit worried that Store Owners will struggle as the menu expands.”
“It’s increasing one by one, so it’s not too difficult. And your company’s employees came out to connect us with logistics companies so we could buy raw materials cheaper, which also increased sales a bit.”
Tiger Fund employees helped with Max Coffee’s accounting and logistics.
This structure was possible because we sold 10% of Max Coffee’s equity shares to Tiger Fund to establish a partnership relationship between Max Coffee and Tiger Fund.
Of course, receiving this kind of help with just 10% equity shares was practically impossible.
This structure was possible because I was the Deputy Branch Manager, and the fund employees were also paying more attention because of that.
“Are there any other problems?”
“Speed is the issue. Store No. 24 just opened. There are over 50 people who applied. At this rate, I don’t know if we can open them all within this year.”
“We can’t just open stores anywhere. If you enter a bad location, you’ll suffer for years. It’s much better to wait a few months now than that. And they’re also learning the work in advance while working as interns.”
During the Hanyang Dairy incident, there were well over 100 applicants.
But when companies from the same industry started recruiting, many people left, and only 50 remained.
Since the numbers decreased, we also changed our strategy.
Previously, we were just going to open Max Coffee where Hanyang Dairy franchises used to be.
But from a long-term perspective, location ultimately has a big impact on sales, so we decided to take our time with location selection first.
“Well, those who were going to give up already left long ago.”
“They’re staying because Max Coffee sales are coming out pretty well.”
“There are differences between stores, but most are earning as much as large company employees.”
“I heard that headquarters’ operating profit will be quite substantial too.”
I had also received reports about Max Coffee from fund employees.
They said this year’s headquarters operating profit could exceed hundreds of millions, and I heard that the operating profit margin could rise to 20% within a few years.
“We don’t intend to make that much money.”
“Still, we need operating profit left over so headquarters can hold events and such. And we can increase investment in menu development, and pay attention to education and other areas.”
“You handle that stuff, I’ll just focus on managing the stores.”
Father threw down the account books and lay down on the sofa.
He looked very tired, but he was smiling more happily than ever before.
Father initially said he didn’t want to do it, but now he’s satisfied.
The employees wouldn’t be any different.
They say no at first, but once they start managing a corporation, they’ll smile with satisfaction like Father.
Annual Salary 1 Trillion New Employee Chapter 89
E-book Publication Date | 2025.11.27
Author | Seo Oh
Publishers | Heo Heung-beom, Park Geon-won
Published by | Poten
Address | [04783] 10th Floor, 8 Yeonmujang 11-gil, Seongdong-gu, Seoul
Phone | 02-6320-8500
Fax | 02-6320-8585
ISBN | 9791175305892
Price | 100 won
ⓒ Seo Oh 2025
This e-book is a copyrighted work protected by copyright law.
This e-book is published under the author’s contract, so unauthorized reproduction, copying, distribution, and sharing are prohibited without written consent from both parties.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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