The Return of the Ruined Chaebol's Third-Generation Heir - Chapter 115

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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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The Regression of a Fallen Chaebol’s Third Generation, Chapter 115
“Oh, yeah. Come on in.”
The next day, Seonjin Logistics CEO Office.
I’d come up with Lim Do-hyeon, the Management Planning Division director, to meet with CEO Oh Jin-su. He looked up from the documents he’d been reviewing and greeted us warmly as we entered.
“Have a seat for a moment.”
At Oh Jin-su’s word, Lim Do-hyeon and I sat at a table in the corner of the office to wait. After a while, Oh Jin-su approached and sat down with us, having washed his hands.
“Sorry about that. I thought things would get easier once I took this seat, but honestly, there’s more work now than when I was in the Planning Division.”
It had been over two months since Oh Jin-su became CEO, and he still seemed to be adjusting to the role. Especially since his predecessor had been the type to shirk work rather than handle it, he looked even more worn out.
“How are you managing, Kang? Can you handle it?”
Oh Jin-su asked, looking at me.
“As for Lim here—he’s the kind of person who does his job no matter where you put him, so there’s nothing to say. But you, Kang—you moved into that position pretty quickly after joining, didn’t you?”
“My predecessor handled the handover perfectly, so I’m working comfortably.”
At my words, Oh Jin-su chuckled.
“Ah, I should’ve answered like that back when I was a team leader. Lim, you’re lucky. You work well and have a successor who knows how to flatter you.”
Oh Jin-su continued with his casual banter, then his expression hardened as he turned to me with a question.
“The reason I asked you to come today—I heard about yesterday. Seonjin Motors is switching to a competitive bidding process?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“I got a report on it, but I wanted to hear directly from someone who was there.”
I pulled out the Bidding Guide I’d prepared and placed it on the desk.
“I’ll brief you on the meeting. Seonjin Motors called us in under the guise of discussing conditions, but the actual conclusion was a switch to Turnkey Competitive Bidding.”
“I figured as much.”
Oh Jin-su picked up the guide.
“To be honest, I felt something off when they asked to meet. Before that, we’d only exchanged documents.”
It was essentially the form of business allocation among blood-related subsidiaries that had always been the case.
“They invited five companies and the evaluation method is Qualitative Evaluation.”
Oh Jin-su’s brow furrowed.
“Qualitative?”
“Yes.”
“That’s unexpected.”
In corporate logistics, Turnkey methods weren’t entirely nonexistent. The group, as the central control tower, managed all the logistics of its subsidiaries holistically.
But competitive bidding with Qualitative Evaluation? This would be a first for both me and CEO Oh Jin-su sitting across from me.
“Competitive bidding is already rare, but qualitative evaluation? In all my years in this industry, I’ve never heard of it. Lim, have you?”
“This is my first time as well.”
Logistics is about stability. Shippers entrust their cargo to logistics companies, so most want to see the company’s capabilities to ensure their shipments arrive without delay.
But Qualitative Evaluation meant they wanted something more than just capability—their own specific conditions.
“What does Seonjin Motors want that they’d choose Qualitative Evaluation? Have there been any complaints about our service?”
“Precisely because I heard the term from Kang Seon-woo, I did some digging, but there weren’t any. Our logistics operation was structured from the start around Seonjin Motors and the affiliated companies’ logistics, so we’ve always prioritized their shipments above all.”
It wasn’t VIP treatment. We’d moved almost as a single body with them.
“Then what’s this about?”
“It’s possible they’re trying to exclude us.”
I spoke up after listening quietly to Oh Jin-su and Lim Do-hyeon’s exchange.
“Exclude us?”
“I think it might not just be us, but all the participating companies that they want to exclude.”
“What makes you think that?”
Oh Jin-su leaned back in his chair and looked at me.
“At the meeting, I saw Chairman Kang Tae-yong’s son.”
Both Oh Jin-su’s and Lim Do-hyeon’s eyes immediately fixed on me.
“Kang Tae-yong’s son? There?”
“Yes. It looked like he’d already spoken with them before we met.”
“That son… isn’t he the one who’s been in the United States?”
I nodded at Oh Jin-su’s question.
“He gave me a business card as the CEO of a company called Seonjin Global.”
“Seonjin Global? What kind of company?”
“I checked the corporate registration before coming in. They’re registered as a logistics business.”
Lim Do-hyeon straightened up slightly.
“… So that’s what Kang Seon-woo meant about their own logistics.”
Oh Jin-su picked up his pen, then set it back down.
“Their own logistics?”
“Before Kang Seon-woo met with Seonjin Motors, he mentioned something. That they might dream of operating their own logistics.”
“… Really?”
“Yes, it was strange how suddenly they wanted to have a preliminary discussion, and Seonjin Motors…”
Lim Do-hyeon looked at me—as if telling me to speak directly. I thought for a moment, then nodded and opened my mouth.
“I think we need to see Seonjin Motors as a separate company now.”
Oh Jin-su’s eyes widened.
“So what you’re saying is…”
He seemed to be choosing his words, but there was nothing left to hide now.
“Yes, whether or not we feel it, Seonjin Motors probably sees our group as a competitor.”
“… Well, that. I did suspect it.”
Oh Jin-su exhaled deeply.
“I’m not oblivious to how the group operates. But hearing it from someone with standing on the matter—it lands differently.”

“Seonjin Global. So Chairman Kang Tae-yong is handing the work over to his son.”
“That seems to be the case. For now, anyway.”
“If that’s true, then everything clicks into place. Turnkey competitive bidding with Qualitative Evaluation and all.”
Oh Jin-su nodded thoughtfully, then looked at Lim Do-hyeon.
“Lim, you know Seonjin Motors represents a substantial portion of our revenue, right?”
“Yes.”
“If they deliberately push us out, we’ll have to concede. But how we concede determines our future.”
“I’ll find an alternative.”
“Find more than an alternative. Maybe this is the time to…”
Oh Jin-su started to say something, then waved his hand.
“No. Let’s talk once we have something prepared.”
“Understood.”
“I need to report this to the group. We’ll talk later.”
At Oh Jin-su’s words, Lim Do-hyeon and I bowed and left the office.
“You think you can handle this, Kang Seon-woo?”
As we exited, Lim Do-hyeon asked, and I looked at him.
“Yes, sir. Our team will take this on and find a way forward.”
“Good. If you need anything, just say so…”
“Director.”
Just as we were heading back to our desks, a member of Planning Team 1 approached us.
“What is it?”
“The atmosphere in the Sales Division doesn’t seem right.”
“The Sales Division?”
“We’ve been getting reports of resignations lately, which seemed odd. But today, four people from the corporate cargo section of the Sales Division submitted their resignations.”
At his report, Lim Do-hyeon’s expression hardened.
‘Kang Jin-ho.’
And there was only one name that came to my mind.

* * *
“The Chairman has been wondering how things are progressing.”
A week later, at Seonjin Global.
Kang Jin-ho was receiving an unwelcome visitor.
“Progressing? What progress—my progress, or the company’s?”
It was the Secretary General, his father Kang Tae-yong’s right hand. Since childhood, this man had monitored Kang Jin-ho and reported his every move to his father.
Kang Jin-ho knew all too well that most of his father’s hostility toward him stemmed from this man’s words.
“Both.”
“Ha ha ha.”
Kang Jin-ho laughed loudly.
“You know Father has no reason to be curious about me.”
The Secretary General neither confirmed nor denied this, and Kang Jin-ho didn’t like that response.
He knew what Kang Jin-ho wanted, yet the Secretary General never gave it to him.
As if to say: you belong to your father, so I have no interest in you.
“Things are running smoothly. You saw on the way in—the office staff has grown to thirty people, most of them veterans with over ten years of experience in the logistics industry.”
“I understand they came over from Seonjin Logistics.”
“If you already know, why ask?”

“Correct. I offered them higher salaries and brought them over. We need those experienced hires, and it weakens Seonjin Logistics at the same time.”
I looked at the Secretary General’s face as I said this, but it remained unreadable.
“Seonjin Logistics may notice.”
“That’s the point.”

“I ran into Kang Seon-woo when I went to meet with Seonjin Motors.”
“… You mean Team Leader Kang Seon-woo?”
“Yes. They’ve probably figured it out by now.”
“If they figure it out, they can countermeasure…”
“No, what I mean is they’ll realize there’s nothing they can do about it.”
Kang Jin-ho spoke with confidence.
“Now that the field is set to Qualitative Evaluation, I’ll win this contract by any means necessary.”
The Secretary General listened intently to Kang Jin-ho’s words.
“But Kang Seon-woo can’t do that.”
Kang Jin-ho continued with the same confident tone.
“People who’ve lived their whole lives as rule-followers don’t know how. He’ll keep trying to change things within the system. Especially since he’s just a team leader—he has no real power.”
For the first time, the Secretary General nodded. Following the matter of Kang Seon-woo, he’d learned something.
That he was an extremely stable person.
Even when he first joined Seonjin Logistics, he’d only worked within the system to prove his abilities—unlike Kang Jin-ho, standing right in front of him, he was not the type to overstep his bounds.
“You’re making a face of genuine approval for the first time, Director.”
Kang Jin-ho continued.
“Tell Father it’s progressing well.”
“Seonjin Global’s capital has reached its limit. As I mentioned, the Chairman said he would discipline me if I provided separate gains…”
“Ah, I’m already handling that carefully. When you visit next time, you’ll see.”
Kang Jin-ho smiled at the Secretary General with supreme confidence.

* * *
“I knew we’d need structural reform in our logistics division, but I didn’t expect it to come this fast.”
After work, sitting at home, I was organizing my thoughts.
“How we weather this period and adapt will determine the future of our logistics business.”
Corporate logistics was good for generating stable revenue, but it had a critical flaw: you had to follow the shipper’s direction and interests exclusively.
Especially for Seonjin Logistics—born into this structure—we couldn’t even dream of other corporate logistics clients. Our entire logistics and delivery network was built around Seonjin Motors’ needs.
“The question is how to achieve that structural reform.”
If that was the problem, then the answer lay in how to reform our structure.
“Going forward, most large corporations will set up separate logistics subsidiaries to handle things internally. Rather than do others a favor, they’ll create their own affiliated companies to funnel logistics costs into secret funds or succession resources.”
Of course, in twenty or thirty years they’d realize how inefficient it was and eventually shift to third-party logistics as the law tightened and regulations cracked down. But for now, that was the trend.
Creating a logistics subsidiary was the easiest way to facilitate the transition of management rights from the second generation to the third.
“Then we have to abandon corporate logistics. Fortunately, we have an alternative.”
Saying so, I looked at the screen. On the monitor were Social Commerce businesses that were establishing themselves and growing.
Companies like Rocket Shopping, Ticket Shop, and Wee Market were moving beyond just selling coupons—they were undergoing structural reform by bringing in their own logistics operations.
From their perspective, they’d need a company to handle logistics, and once the Fulfillment Center was completed, Seonjin Logistics could become their excellent partner.
Buzz—
While I was thinking along those lines, my phone vibrated. I checked the screen: it was Jung Tae-sung calling.
“Director Jung.”
-Sir, I apologize for calling so late.
“No, the fact that you’re calling at this hour means something important has come up.”
-Yes, I found something I needed to report urgently while investigating Seonjin Global.
Jung Tae-sung and Choi Sung-hun were mobilizing all their networks to investigate Seonjin Global.
-Seonjin Global has been in contact with the financial sector recently.
“The financial sector?”
-Yes, they’re meeting with commercial banks and investment firms, though I don’t have specifics. My intuition tells me they’re trying to secure investment.
“How much was Seonjin Global’s capital?”
-According to the registry, five billion won.
They were poaching people from us, and their capital was just right for setting up an office before it would run dry.
Seonjin Global needed capital from somewhere, but it couldn’t be from Seonjin Motors Group.
They weren’t an affiliate company, and since Seonjin Global’s CEO had a special relationship with Chairman Kang Tae-yong, any investment would expose them to charges of Breach of Fiduciary Duty or Unfair Business Allocation.
That’s why they chose the competitive bidding format as cover—to avoid the appearance of favoring one side.
“So Kang Jin-ho is looking for money sources.”
I was wondering how Seonjin Global would crack into the market, and the answer was starting to become clear.
“Director, spread a rumor on Yeouido.”
-What kind of…
“That DK Capital is looking for a new business partner with serious money on hand. And arrange a meeting with Danny. I need to explain something to him myself.”

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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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