44. You don’t seem to be desperate yet.
“So, Mr. Park, like I said, I’m going to take a look at the babywearing industry for now. What’s the state of the industry these days? From what I hear, it’s tough.”
I’ll be in Korea for two weeks, three weeks at the most.
In that time, I will make a decision on whether to acquire another company.
Unlike Daesung, it will take time to actually acquire the company, but if I decide the direction first, I can make the final decision later, even if I am in the United States.
As for the acquisition process, Jae-ha and director Park Jin-ho can handle it with the experts I hired.
“That’s right, Mr. Park. Whether it’s a department store brand or a supermarket brand, they’re all going through tough times. Basically, the domestic market is shrinking due to the declining birth rate, and even the Chinese market, which you also entered, is going downhill after the THAAD incident.”
“So a lot of the companies that have gone to China are struggling?”
“Almost without exception, especially the ones that have set up local subsidiaries, I know they’re dying. The ones that have taken a conservative approach, like us, and have gone in as a wholesaler to a local partner, are seeing a decline in sales, but they’re not really hurting.”
“What about Happy Paradise?”
I asked, curious about the state of the market leader.
“In their case, most of their brands are licensed overseas, so when the China rush happened, when everyone else was saying, ‘Let’s go to China! We couldn’t go directly to China because of our license agreement, so we were scared to death at the time, and now we’re just a phone call away.”
“Hya, Chairman Happa Yang is really lucky, isn’t he?”
“Yeah, right.”
As with most baby and children’s companies, Happa didn’t have a great reputation with people in the industry.
It’s better these days, Park says, but when he was there, ashtrays were thrown at him during meetings, and security wrote his name down if he went outside to smoke.
What the hell is wrong with people who make kids’ clothes?
“Tell me what the vibe is on this floor overall, because I’ve been out of the loop for two and a half years and I don’t know what’s going on.”
In that sense, Jinho Park is the best source of floor news.
He started his career in the baby and children’s industry and hasn’t strayed.
“Yes, okay, just to give you a quick report, Happa will ultimately exit the baby and children’s market. We’re going to clean up all of our brands except our flagship brand, Ambassador, and move into adult, and we’re already investing heavily in sports like golf.”
Does this mean the future of baby and kids is bleak?
“And the East is—.”
Mr. Park trails off and looks at me.
“Why?”
“I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”
“How did you know?”
“Is there anything on this floor that I don’t know?”
“——.”
Well, I trick the ghost.
“I don’t care, just tell me.”
“Well, the East is still doing well. You know, they’ve got some Hong Kong capital coming in, and they’re well-funded, and they’ve got a good reputation for design, so I think they’re going to be fine. And I don’t know if I should tell you this, but—.”
“What do you mean, tell me, feel free?”
“He got married at the end of last year, and I was wondering if you knew.”
“Yes. ——.”
I had no idea,
and I didn’t want to know.
Well, this doesn’t feel good.
“Uhhhhh, I hope you don’t mind if I don’t get personal.”
“I apologize. I didn’t mean to offend you.”
“Let’s move on.”
“Next, the JD style is—.”
I’ve been listening to Mr. Park’s reports for a while now, and boy, has this floor gone to sh*t.
A lot of the majors had Chinese capital, and it seemed like everywhere but the East was f*cked.
A company that went to a Korean family was said to have spent all day moving desks.
They reorganized several times a week.
Moreover, national brands are entering China on their own and failing, building huge office buildings and warehouses unnecessarily, and then falling into disrepair.
Suddenly, I think Mr. Hong is really good at running a business.
“Anyway, the best target for us to acquire right now is JD Style, which is a powerhouse in the JD style and supermarket world. The company is in a difficult situation, and they are behind in paying their employees’ salaries and managers’ middle management fees. Besides, they can expand their market and make up for the children’s segment, where we are weak.”
If they’re behind on their managers’ fees, they’ve really gone too far.
“Is that what you’re saying? Hmmm, Mr. Director. You’re still in touch with the late managing director of JD, right?”
“Sure. It’s salesman 101. hahahahaha!”
“Well, then, Mr. Director, ask him over a drink, set the tone, and then when it’s ripe, Mr. Lee can step in and bring in the acquisition experts.”
“Okay, I’ll do my best!”
Acquiring another brand is going to be a very long and difficult process.
With Daesung, it was a very simple acquisition because we were debt-free and I had everything figured out.
But the other company that came up for acquisition was completely different.
It’s bigger than Daesung, it has a lot of debt, and the rights will be incredibly complicated.
On top of that, the inventory itself is unreliable, so I’d have to hire a professional due diligence firm to do a proper due diligence on the inventory in the warehouse as well as in the many stores scattered across the country.
Not that I’m in any hurry.
“Oh, and by the way, adjust our managers’ fees. I don’t know about the ones that are making a decent profit, but the ones that aren’t even working part-time. How many stores do you have?”
“I know there’s about 20 of them, and they don’t even take home two million won after this and that.”
“Mr. Lee.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I’d like to ask you to adjust the managers’ fees. There are quite a few managers who fall below the minimum livelihood, like Mr. Park just said, and then they really get screwed.”
“I know what you mean. We’ll either organize it or raise the fees.”
The “accident” I’m talking about is a really big accident.
It hasn’t happened yet at Daesung, but at some of the really badly managed companies, every once in a while, a manager will have an accident where they’re so overwhelmed that they just throw the world away.
I don’t want that to happen in a company I own, even if it’s for the best.
Three days after I asked Jinho Park to reach out to JD, the report came back sooner than I expected.
“Mr. Park, you know that JD thing you told me to do last time?”
“Yeah, and?”
“Well, I had a doctor’s appointment with the senior managing director of JD that same day, and I heard back from him a little while ago.”
“Already? What?”
So soon?
Is this harder than I thought?
“Apparently, the CEO there, Mr. Kim, wants me to meet with you and Mr. Lee.”
“Me? Why me? Why not just Mr. Lee?”
“Well, it seems that the rumors about the CEO have gotten that far, so—.”
If you’ve ever had a salesperson who left a company two and a half years ago take over the company they worked for, you’ve got a case.
It’s hard to expect my rumors not to spread on this narrow floor, where I don’t know anyone more than one leg over, so I didn’t expect them to in the first place.
“So what did you say?”
“I told him I’d ask, but not to hold my breath.”
“Good for you.”
“What do you want to do?”
“Hmmm—.”
I hadn’t really thought about getting involved in the acquisition process.
I didn’t expect to get feedback so quickly, and I wasn’t the right size to deal with it.
Daesung is a special case because it’s a company I worked for, but otherwise, a company with $30 billion in revenue is not something I’m going to get involved in.
Even if JD is bigger than Daesung, it’s $60 billion in revenue.
But you want to meet with me in person, the actual owner of AMD, the majority shareholder of Nvidia and other multinational companies?
Isn’t that a little out of line?
Am I being too arrogant?
But Jae-ha, who had been listening, spoke up.
“Excuse me, Mr. Lee.”
“Yes, Mr. Lee.”
“Why don’t you come with me this time?”
“Together?”
“Yes. I know it’s a bit out of character, but please, just this once. It’s going to take a lot of money to buy even the most disreputable company, and I don’t feel comfortable throwing down 10 or 20 billion myself just yet.”
“Ah!”
Hagiya was much better than me not too long ago, but he was a salaryman for a pittance, and it seemed unreasonable to ask him to go alone to a negotiation to buy a company.
“Alright, if that’s what you want, Mr. Lee.”
“Thank you.”
Actually, I say this as a warning not to ignore Jae-ha.
It’s not going to happen, but there might be people who disrespect him as a professional businessman while I’m gone.
“Okay, Mr. Park. Let’s make an appointment.”
“When?”
“What’s the point of dragging it out? Well, I need to do some research for a day, so tell him to come in the evening the day after tomorrow.”
“You mean here?”
“Yeah, you’re the one who’s in a hurry, right, and we can meet in the Korean restaurant room out front?”
“Okay, but what about the attendees?”
“I’ll have them come as far as Mr. Ko, and we’ll just have me, Mr. Lee, and Mr. Park leave.”
“Okay, thank you!”
“——.”
“——.”
I put Mr. Park in, and he was happy as a clam.
After all, when has Mr. Park ever been involved in an acquisition like this?
Maybe he feels like he’s becoming a tycoon.
Two days later, at a Korean restaurant in front of the company, I met JD CEO Kim Chul-hwan and executive vice president Ko Jin-nam, a founding member of the company.
“hehehe! It’s nice to meet someone who is famous in the fashion world these days. I’m Kim Chul-hwan.”
“——.”
There is a common handshake for elderly people.
When an elderly person meets a younger person, he or she will hold out one hand without extending the elbow, and the younger person will put his or her left hand to his or her chest with a humbled expression and shake it with his or her right hand while bending at the waist.
It’s usually called a superior handshake.
I used to get it from time to time in sales and thought it was kind of funny, like, how dare he do this to me?
Is this guy crazy?
It’s not a strange situation if I go bankrupt tomorrow because I’ve been looking into it for two days, right?
Moreover, ‘I’m Kim Chul-hwan’?
Since he was staring at me in disbelief, I realized that I had made a mistake, so I blushed and cautiously extended my hand again.
“Uh, I’m sorry about this. It’s just a habit of mine.”
Okay, let’s get this out of the way.
He’s a lot older than I am, and he’s still got a decent reputation on the toddler floor.
“Yeah, I get it. It’s steel.”
“And this is—. This is Mr. Ko Jin-nam. He’s been with me since the Dongdaemun market. He says he knows Mr. Kang.”
“Yes, I’ve seen him a few times before, in stores or at buyers’ meetings. Mr. Ko, it’s been a long time.”
“It’s been a long time. Mr. Kang. I didn’t realize you were so successful with this.”
“Yes, we got a little lucky. Why don’t you also say hello to our CEO, Mr. Lee Jae-ha? He’s the new CEO of Daesung, and he’ll be in charge of everything from now on, including acquisitions and mergers.”
As we exchanged greetings and chatted over the meal, I found myself growing increasingly uncomfortable in my seat.
These guys, they don’t seem to be in a hurry yet, do they?
No, they are, but they still don’t seem to have grasped the reality that their business is effectively dead.
Even if they don’t want to believe it.
“Uh-huh—.”
Every time he opened his mouth, he’d talk about the glory days of his company, and he’d blather on and on about things I’d figured out over the past two days that didn’t make sense.
This way, I don’t have to sit there.
“Our warehouse is, like, state-of-the-art and—.”
Boom!
“?”
I slammed my spoon down with a loud thud, and eyes focused on me.
“Uh, I’m sorry, sir, but I think we’re done for the day.”
“Huh? Oh, no, why—.”
“I’ve been briefed by Mr. Park, and I’ve done some research of my own. Mr. Kim, I don’t think this is the right time for you to do this.”
“What?”
“Your capital is completely wiped out, you’re refusing to take out loans, not just the first, but the second, and you’re even facing lawsuits because you can’t return the deposits of managers who quit, and on top of all that, you’re about to go bankrupt within the next five days?”
“Uh, uh—.”
“And yet you don’t seem to be desperate enough to talk about it, is this the time to talk about the good old days?”
“Well, I, uh—.”
“Mr. Lee! Director Park, let’s go!”
“Hey, CEO Kang!”
I ignored the calls behind me and just walked out.
That company will go bankrupt within five days.
If I come to my senses before then, I’ll be back, or I won’t.