With the Time Shop, I Too Am the Greatest Conglomerate of All Time

Episode 53. Woojin Yang of Hwansung Group.

Team Leader Hwang tilted his head.

“You pay when you see an ad. Do you make money doing that? Unless the cost of advertising is very high, it will not be easy.”

Of course, Silverbank was currently in the red.

However, thanks to the national support for the IT industry, people’s perception of the future of the IT industry is very positive.

Silverbank’s stock price was still rising sharply.

“I am not making any money right now. I probably never will.”

Silver Bank failed to provide an opportunity for a reversal and eventually was delisted after about 10 years.

“..knowing that, what is the reason to invest in it?”

“The stock price doesn’t always move in proportion to the company’s business condition. Even if there is a loss, there are many cases where the stock price goes up. Manager Hwang would know better.”

“Are you saying that Silver Bank’s stock price has a hidden factor that cannot be judged by its performance alone?”

“yes. First of all, the idea of ​​Silver Bank itself is simple. If you look at an advertisement, if you give money, a lot of people will gather, and a lot of advertisements will be attached because of the people who gathered like that. Easy to understand and even plausible, right? Ordinary people can think up to this point. And it makes you think that you have found a good business item that is in the red now but is set to turn profitable soon.”

“..I never thought of it that way, but it makes sense.”

“yes. In such an illusion, Silver Bank is growing in size every day. But that illusion won’t last forever. So we’re going to get on it, build up together, and aim to get out before it collapses. For that, the most important thing is timing, right?”

In the case of listed stocks, a large number of stocks cannot be purchased at the same price.

This is because there are several sellers who own the stock.

If my funds go in at once, Silver Bank’s stock price will skyrocket.

The following sellers will continue to raise prices.

That ultimately leads to my loss.

This was also true when selling stocks and exiting.

If my funds suddenly run out, the stock price will plummet, so this was also something to avoid.

Besides, I know the company’s stock price will rise and fall sharply this year.

I didn’t know the exact time.

Getting in and getting out was a task that required skill and attention.

So, an expert like Team Leader Hwang was needed.

“..Dumping into a stock that reflects this crowd psychology is more like speculation than investment. It is better to invest in other stocks other than these risky stocks if it is company operating funds, not personal spare funds.”

That was right.

It’s a business guy who doesn’t know when and how it will change.

Pouring the money to run the company on risky speculative stocks was something that a manager shouldn’t do.

If you don’t know the future.

“Anyway, Silver Bank is not a very large company, so the upper limit of investment is about 2 billion won at most. And I think Team Manager Hwang knows the approximate timing of when to get out of such a dangerous sport.”

“..somehow, it seems that you are convinced that Silverbank’s stock price will go up significantly. Isn’t there a reason other than the one you mentioned earlier?”

“You’re asking if I’m even planning a plan, right? Not me. But I can’t say that there are no other operational forces. So keep that in mind.”

No confirmation though.

I remember Silver Bank as being very fast and very wide both when stocks rose and fell.

If so, it was reasonable to think that someone had touched the background.

“..It is even more difficult to predict the timing if it is an event that includes a strategy. It won’t hurt, but it’s not easy to get out of the highs.”

It means that you are confident that you will not suffer any damage even if you are attached to the operational force.

It’s also worth the hard work.

“haha. Manager Hwang will be able to do a good job. And even if there is a loss, I will bear it, so don’t feel burdened.”

I said it like this

No money will be lost.

I’m an expert, but I’m sure I’ll do well.

“If you say so, I’ll give it a try.”

“yes. And I will leave all the remaining funds at the discretion of Team Manager Hwang. If you find a promising stock, invest in it.”

“You mean all the remaining funds?”

After the Minkle advertisement, they gathered together and their monthly sales exceeded 20 billion won.

Thanks to the continuous PC room chain store contracts, more than 4000 units of assembled computers with high profit margins are being sold per month.

Thanks to the high popularity of the Star League, the monthly sales from direct-managed PC rooms, which increased to 60, and chain PC rooms, which have nearly 300, reached 2 billion won per month.

The net profit of the shopping mall alone was about 1.8 to 1.9 billion won per month.

Hi-Cast’s net profit surpassed that due to the volume of exports to the US.

Thanks to this profit structure, after the acquisition of Hungle and Computer, the internal reserves accumulated in the corporation alone amounted to about 7 billion won.

If you add up the funds accumulated in Hicast’s corporation, it amounted to 15 billion won.

Excluding the 2 billion won to be invested in Silver Bank, I was surprised that about 13 billion won was left to Hwang to invest at will.

“why? Are you embarrassed?”

“..not like that. I’m a little confused because you give me such faith. I haven’t shown anything yet.”

“You predicted exactly when the IMF would explode. In addition, he has the ability to double the chairman’s funds in one year, so I have no choice but to trust him. So, once again, please use that ability properly.”

“All right. We will show you good results as much as you believed in us.”

That’s a good answer.

“yes. believe.”

mid-January.

“The Ministry of Planning and Budget will be established by integrating the Planning and Budget Committee and the Ministry of Budget, and the Central Personnel Committee will be established to secure the neutrality and objectivity of the personnel of public officials.”

There was an article on TV announcing the news of the government’s first cabinet reshuffle.

Among them, the replacement of the chairman of the Fair Trade Commission was included.

I laughed quietly when I saw the news.

‘haha. I should prepare a congratulatory gift. What would be good?’

end of January 1999.

Meeting room of Hwansung Electronics PSE (Portable Sound Electronics) division.

Vice President Yang Woo-jin, head of the business unit, slammed a paper iron on the desk and shouted.

“Do you know how much I was sold at group executive meetings because of you?”

“Why did our Hubb MP3 player lose so much sales in one month?”

‘Hey, a young guy came to the parachute saying that it was the Royal Family.’

‘Is that our fault? We worked hard too!’

Dissatisfaction could be seen on the faces of those sitting in the conference room.

No one spit it out.

“Are you going to stay like that honey-eaten dumb? one manager. Say something. Why did things happen this way?”

A man called a manager answered.

“..a competitor launched a new product last month. It seems that our Hubb sales have been cut a lot because of that.”

“Our new product also came out last month. Are you saying you’ve been pushed back?”

“…”

“It’s amazing. Isn’t that competitor a small and medium-sized business that can’t even compare to us? We spent close to 10 billion won on R&D alone, but does it make sense that we haven’t been able to catch up with that small company even with that money?”

“Performance has almost caught up. Design is an issue. Because design is not necessarily proportional to R&D expenses. The designers on the high-cast side are so talented, it’s not easy to catch up.”

“If design is a problem, shouldn’t we just ask a famous designer? Hi-Cast is not the only one who knows how to draw beautiful designs.”

“As you said, there are many people who know how to make pretty designs, but designing electronic products is not just about being pretty. I need a design that is pretty, easy to use, and has no problem in functioning, but I haven’t found anyone who can draw such a design yet.”

“You say that.”

Since last year, my father, Chairman Yang Ki-moon, informed me that he would choose a successor solely based on his skills.

The battle for the successor of the Hwanseongga, the number one chaebol family in Korea, has begun.

Although my father has still corrected it, there may be a lot of time left before deciding on a successor.

No one knows what the world will be like.

I had to put myself in good shape as soon as possible.

The eldest brother, Yang Hee-jun, was in the process of gaining experience by entering the electronics headquarters early.

Performance wasn’t bad either.

My second sister, Yang Mi-jin, was very active as the head of the customer strategy division at the Korea Department Store, an affiliate of the Hwansung Group.

The third brother, Yang-gyun Yang, was in charge of the overseas division of Hwanseong Construction and was evaluated as doing his part.

No one was happy.

He was looking for an item, thinking that he might not even have a chance to return to himself as the fourth person at this rate.

After seeing a portable MP3 player, he decided to use it as his weapon.

I persuaded my father with difficulty to set up the PSE division.

It attracted people from the audio division.

In the beginning, there were difficulties in developing the technology.

It has been overcome by investing huge R&D expenses.

We launched our first product early last year, and the response was not bad.

Sales began to slowly increase from the summer, and at the end of last year, the market share reached 30%.

Although the hi-cast share is still over 50%.

I thought it was just a matter of time to turn over.

This month, the share has shrunk to single digits again.

Yang Woo-jin, feeling nervous, chewed his lips.

“Chief Han. Find out who the high-cast designer is.”

“..I would like to find out, but why did you say that?”

“It’s hard to find such a designer anywhere else. Are you going to give up though? You have to steal it.”

The office of the head of Hwansung Electronics’ PSE business division.

Yang Woo-jin asked.

“A manager. Did you know a bit about high-cast designers?”

A manager put on a puzzled expression.

“Yes. I was looking for it, but it’s true.”

“Is there any problem?”

“As you know, Highcast is an internet shopping mall company called Damoye, the largest shareholder. And the majority shareholder is a 20-year-old college student named Kang Jae-woon, who said that he was in charge of the design.”

“..the major shareholder was in charge of the design?”

“..it will be difficult to pull.”

After thinking for a moment, Yang opened his mouth.

“If we can’t win with the product, we have to use another method.”

“What if there was another way?”

“What is the hi-cast capital structure? Have you borrowed anything from the banknote?”

“There is not. 100% equity capital.”

Mr. Yang smiled with a surprised face.

“under. Even today, there are people who do business with their own money.”

In Yang’s common sense, it was better to get a loan, even if there was spare money.

If you have a high credit score, you can get a loan at a low interest rate.

It was profitable to reinvest in the company again with the remaining funds, or to bury it in other good investment places such as real estate or stocks.

Running with 100% equity capital had only one advantage.

It is safe from external attacks.

Because of that single advantage, there was hardly any way for Mr. Yang to attack Highcast.

“Looking at the way it looks, it must be the same for everyone, right?”

“Highcast doesn’t even have a place that can even be called a competitor, so let’s shake up the parent company, Damoye. Please take a look at Damoye’s competitors.”

“I didn’t see it exactly, but the same goes for online shopping malls. Except for Damoye, there are only arrogant shopping malls.”

“I’m going to pick one good guy out of those arrogant shopping malls and push it. Unlike this electronic product market, online shopping malls are like a battle for money, so in the end, the one with the most money wins. And in a fight like that, our cheers are rarely lost.”

“.. let’s take a look.”

Late January, USA.

“Steve Mars of Apple Inc. said that he is confident that the D-AMac PC released this time outperforms competitors’ products in every aspect..”

At about the same time, American media outlets were pouring out articles about Apple’s launch of a new AMac PC.

The entire IT industry, including PC and CPU makers, began to stir.