Chapter 72

Hyunwoo was fearful of failing another test with Art Hill.

Suddenly, he wondered why.

Why was he scared?

There was no reason for him to fear. Even if the N&C product failed the test again, and the press reported about it again, Aurum stocks would fall a bit, but that was all.

Of course, the potential dealers in the process of executing a contract might hesitate, but given the value of the product and the price, they would likely proceed with the contract. In other words, he had nothing to lose.

Still, I had better be careful to be on the safe side.

Hyunwoo called Sangtaek Kwon in Vietnam, “Sir, you know that we have received a sample order from Art Hill, right?”

“Yes, I know.”

“Do you think we can pass the test this time?”

“Absolutely. Our product these days is different from the one the dream team produced first. As we have hired several more technicians, we have eliminated most of the defects a lot. I’m confident,” said Sangtaek.

“If you say so, I’m positive, too.”

Hyunwoo felt Sangtaek’s confidence spreading into his heart.

Right, life is an adventure anyway. There is no progress if I avoid risk because of fear. I’ve got to overcome it.

Hyunwoo called Sungwoo again and asked him to proceed with the contract with Art Hill. Several days later, the samples were delivered to Art Hill. Hyunwoo felt his heart pounding in his chest.

Why am I so nervous now?

He had no reason to get nervous. The quality of the N&C dream team’s product had been improved greatly, and it would pass their quality standard.

Even if it didn’t, it didn’t matter. Though it was too late to do anything now, Hyunwoo still had other options.

Three days later, he recieved a call from Sungwoo whose voice was full of excitement, “We did it! We passed the test. Art Hill decided to replace some of Castor’s products with N&C’s.”

Hyunwoo’s eyes bulged at the new. He was confident that the N&C product would pass the test, but it hadn’t really hit him yet. No matter what, it was true. Now, he was determined to make N&C beat Castor and take its place. Art Hill was the starting point of the challenge to beat Castor.

“How big is their order?”

“$50,000 for a start. It looks like it accounts for 30% of their total imports of castor.”

“How much did you ask for the unit price?”

“They wanted 45 cents per piece. I talked with President Na in Vietnam, and he said he was satisfied with that.”

45 cents converted to about 470 Korean won. As N&C was supplying similar products to Aurum at 430 won, Art Hill’s price was good enough, but it was far from a satisfactory price.

Wasn’t it Art Hill that sent out a press release that purposely pulled down the quality of N&C products and put the company in a difficult situation? Given Art Hill’s mean action, Hyunwoo could not give them a good price at all.

“I can’t accept their offer of 45 cents. Ask for 50 cents per piece,” said Hyunwoo with an icy tone.

Sungwoo was stunned, “50 cents? Don’t you think it’s too high? Isn’t it unfair, given the unit price we charge other companies?”

“How do they know our price for other companies? And the new product we supply to Art Hill is a high-end type.”

“I guess they will try to get a good bargain.”

Of course, they will. Even though they’ll try to cut the unit price by all means, N&C is in a stronger position now.

“Got it. Let me try, if you insist on it.”

“You can do it. I know you’re quite capable, man.”

“I guess they will send a strong negotiating guy. As you know, Art Hill is the best furniture company in the domestic market.”

“Doesn’t matter. We can wield it soundly when we have the knife. Frankly speaking, they pay almost 60 cents to Castor, but they want to offer us only 45 cents. Does it make any sense? If they keep asking for a lower price, ask them if their quality standard is that bad. They won’t ask for a lower price anymore because they’ll feel shamed. If they still insist, you don’t have to sign the contract. It’s only their loss anyway,” said Hyunwoo, cheering him up.

In fact, Hyunwoo felt Art Hill would accept the contract even if he asked for a higher price because even that price was 10% lower than that they paid for Castor.

Hyunwoo still remembered the vicious press release by Art Hill intended to deal a blow to Aurum. He wanted to charge an expensive unit price to Art Hill as payback.

When he thought as far as that, a better idea came to his mind, “If the contract fails, tell them you’re going to send out a press release to the effect that the dream team gave up the contract because Art Hill was trying to knock off the price too much.”

Then, Sungwoo understood Hyunwoo’s intentions, “Oh, that’s a very good idea. Got it. Let me try anyway.

At the negotiating table in the purchasing department of Art Hill, there were three people from Art Hill seated on one side while Sungwoo was on the other side, but he wasn’t intimidated at all.

A tense war of nerves was going on while they were negotiating. It was already their fifth negotiation session, but they failed to iron out their differences on the unit price.

“It’s too pricey. We don’t have any reason to change our suppliers at that price. To be honest, 45 cents is our final counteroffer.”

Sungwoo quietly watched his counterparts and let out a deep sigh. Then, he closed the files on the table. As the last resort, he gave them the advice that Hyunwoo had tipped him off

“I thought Art Hill’s quality standard was very high, but it’s not. I now know it’s worth only 45 cents.”

“That’s why we offered you a compromise offer at 47 cents. If we back down a bit, you’re supposed to do the same. Don’t you think that’s the basics of the negotiation?”

“It’s my mistake. I just thought about the contract only, not the negotiation. If I had found it out earlier, I should have asked for 55 cents from the beginning, and then backed down little by little for a better compromise. Anyway, thanks so much.”

Sungwoo put the files back into his briefcase, and the Art Hill negotiating members blankly looked at him.

Sungwood stood up, “As our negotiations failed, we don’t have to spend our energies on this anymore. Actually, I have got so many inquiries from potential buyers, so I have to visit some other place. Let me take my leave first.”

Sungwoo bowed to them politely and then left the conference room without looking back, but he stopped before he was out of the room and turned his head, “One more thing I would like to let you know. I’m going to make a press release on the outcome of our negotiations. If I show your offer price and that of the Japanese company Castor along with the price comparison chart, they would know who’s to blame for the failure of the negotiation.”

At that moment Sungwoo confirmed that their expressions began to harden, while there was a satisfactory look on his face.

Sungwoo left the conference room.

In the meantime, Hyunwoo was very anxious to hear from Sungwoo and waited for his call. It was exactly one week after the negotiation with Art Hill had collapsed that Sungwoo called Hyunwoo,

Hyunwoo immediately picked up the phone.

“What happened?”

“Things didn’t work out as we expected.”

Hyunwoo gave a silly smile. Obviously, they struck a hard bargain, but it didn’t matter. At the end of the day they would have no choice but to buy his products at some point in time Why? Hyunwoo felt N&C products were good in value and price, but also their image as the product of Korea’s dream team added to their marketing potential.

“It’s alright. You don’t have to be disappointed.”

“Well, I executed the contract anyway, but the unit price was not what we originally asked for.”

“What? Did you make concessions on the price then?”

“No, they did, not me.”

Hyunwoo could not understand what Sungwoo was talking about, “Hey, don’t beat around the bush. Get to the point right away. I can’t talk with you long as I’m in the office.”

“Well, they agreed on 50 cents, after all.”

Hyunwoo eyes widened with surprise, “What? 50 cents?”

“Well, I asked for 50 cents, thinking this would be the end of the deal, and then I just got it off my chest. Then, they suddenly called me to say they would accept my offer.”

Hearing Sungwoo’s explanation, Hyunwoo felt that his advice paid off. In particular, Sungwoo’s mention of the quality standard of Art Hill was really effective. When Sungwoo gave up any further negotiation and left the negotiation table, they decided to accept his offer, after all.

In terms of the profit margin rate, 50 cents per a unit was the highest. The production cost was 360 won and the sales price was 530 won, which meant the profit margin was 32%. Out of that, 12% was supposed to be N&C Korea’s commission fee.

Even if the initial sales volume was set at $50,000, it would bring in over 6 million won per month as the commission fee, and several months later, when Art Hill decides to import all the parts from N&C Vietnam, the income would triple to almost 20,000,00 won monthly. Even if he divide it by half, it was still 10,000,000 won per month.

Hyunwoo had a big smile.

“Nice job, man. You had better take a big break for the next several days.”

“Why should I take a break with such an exciting assignment before me? I think I should get a new dealer. Before I go to the United States, I intend to control the domestic castor market.”

“That would be great, hahaha.”

Several days later, Art Hill published a press release, announcing that they decided to purchase the dream team’s castors at last. The release made a special emphasis on the quality of the dream team’s products.

“The dream team’s castor is as competent as that of the Japanese company boasting the world’s best quality. We appreciate it was a good occasion to rediscover the great potential of the Korea, so Art Hill made a big concession on the unit price as part of our efforts to support the dream team’s success. We’re planning to organize a special team for those who’re thinking of making another dream team modelled after the dream team in Vietnam. The special team would serve as a link between Korean technicians thinking of going abroad and those companies looking for Korean technicians.”

N&C Korea was involved in a similar project as Art Hill’s proposed special team, but Art Hill was obviously planning to do it in a more organized way.

Anyway after the press release went out, Art Hill’s stock prices skyrocketed.

Strange enough, Aurum’s stock prices went up too because the general public naturally associated Art Hill with Aurum whenever someone mentioned Art Hill.

Hyunwoo giggled at that, thinking to himself, Hummm… Isn’t it fair that Aurum should give me an award for this?

Suddenly, an announcement on the company’s bulletin board came to his mind. It was about the regular staff reshuffling during the upcoming spring season. Management was supposed to promote some employees along with reorganization of some units, so Hyunwoo submitted some documents showing his performance, but he didn’t expect anything like promotion.

How could he get promoted to deputy manager when he had already been promoted to an assistant manager some time ago.

Yonggu needs to get promoted ahead of me.

A team leader, the matter of promotion didn’t matter that much to Yonggu because he was more focused on using the promotion as a chance to win over Minhye Park, the president’s daughter.

Hyunwoo wanted to support Yonggu as best as he could, but it was not something Hyunwoo could meddle in. If he made some silly remarks about Yonggu, he and Yonggu would become objects of management’s hatred.

Yonggu is quite capable. He could be the team leader and win Minhye’s heart by himself.

Hyunwoo felt just trusting him would be as good as supporting him.

****

Youngsu Park, the manager of the purchasing team, walked back to his office after meeting with the president.

Pacing up and down nearby, Yonggu stood up when he saw Youngsu, “Why are you here?”

“I’ve got something to tell you.”

“Really? Tell me then.”

“Sorry, but can we move to a quiet place?”

Younggu looked at him with half-closed eyes. As the staff reshuffle was just around the corner, supervisors like Youngsu took special care not to talk with their subordinates secretly, but Yonggu, along with Hyunwoo, were the pillars of his purchasing team.

“Okay, then. Shall we move to the conference room?”

When they moved to the conference room, Yonggu began to speak, “I hear we have a staff reshuffle early next month.”

Suddenly Youngsu looked at him sharply because he figured out what he was trying to say, “So?”

“Is there anyone in our team up for special promotion this time?”

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