After getting off the phone with Jae-Sik Moon, Gun-Ho drank his tea. It was already cold, but he didn’t mind it.
‘Jae-Sik Moon’s wife seemingly acclimated herself well to the new environment already. Once she gives birth to their child next month, Jae-Sik Moon will become the father of a child. They will easily find help in China since it would be easy and not expensive to have a housekeeper. What about Young-Eun and myself? Young-Eun’s mother is not here. Should I ask my mom to stay with us for a while to take care of our baby? Young-Eun might not like it… Maybe she wouldn’t feel comfortable living with my mother…
Jong-Suk Park’s child must have grown up a lot by now. His baby is 100 days old, I guess. Oh, wait. Maybe she is six months old.’
Gun-Ho made a call to Jong-Suk Park.
“Yeah, bro!”
“Where are you right now? I hear all sorts of noise from your side.”
“People from H Group are here to evaluate our factory under their five-star quality certification program. They are looking into our production process management and system.”
“Oh, really? I will call you later then.”
“Yeah, I will give you a call once this is done. If it’s about anything urgent, I can still talk with you.”
“Nah, it’s okay. There is nothing urgent. I will talk to you later.”
‘H Group sent people to evaluate our GH Mobile’s factory…’
He grinned since this was a chance to become H Group’s first vendor company.
As a matter of fact, President Song made it possible for GH Mobile to become a candidate for one of the first vendor companies of H Group. President Song used to work for S Group before joining GH Mobile, and S Group was H Group’s first vendor company. Therefore, he had close connections with H Group’s executive officers, especially in the purchasing department. Also, he knew how to tactfully respond to H Group’s quality test conducted on their potential vendor companies. However, with all those President Song’s knowledge and useful connections, GH Mobile just didn’t have a chance to be considered as a candidate to be their first vendor company. There had to be a reason why H Group would pick a specific company for it. For example, a company should either manufacture a product that H Group needed and that couldn’t be manufactured by other companies, or it had to have a connection with H Group’s owner.
President Song came with a strategy specifically aimed at being H Group’s first vendor company. At first, he reached out to the global company— Chrysler— and started supplying products for them, thinking that it would demonstrate to H Group that GH Mobile was producing quality products good enough to be picked by Chrysler. However, H Group’s purchasing department didn’t show any response to it, well at least in the beginning. Even though President Song made an effort to convince them that GH Mobile was well equipped with excellent engineers and facilities, it wasn’t just good enough.
However, they started paying attention to GH Mobile when A Electronics increased their product order from GH Mobile several times. A Electronics was notorious for being picky in selecting their suppliers after all.
GH Mobile grabbed the opportunity when one of H Group’s current first vendor companies produced some defective parts for H Group. In searching for another vendor company that would replace the one with defective products, H Group wanted to verify GH Mobile’s facility and production capability.
It was a result of the collective effort of many people. President Song tried hard to have this opportunity, and Director Jong-Suk Park along with the people at the quality control team and research center worked so hard not to produce any defective products. They were lucky as well.
‘It’s really difficult to have a chance to be considered as a candidate, but once H Group actually sends their people to a candidate company to check their production system, it is almost a done deal.’
Gun-Ho grinned again.
Gun-Ho was dozing off in his office after lunch, when he received a call from President Song.
“H Group’s people were here today to evaluate our factory under their five-star quality certification program. We had lunch with them afterward.”
“Good job, Mr. President Song. Did they point out anything that they didn’t like?”
“They seemed to be very satisfied with our production process management and system, which had been very well maintained by Director Park. They also checked our research center’s testing system, and they were good too.”
“Really? That’s very good.”
“They pointed out one thing though. We left out the real time monitoring on our mold temperature, and also they were not quite satisfied with our inspection system on the voltage management. The quality control team will make a report about the correction on them, and will send it to H Group.”
“Oh, I see.”
“We were lucky today because those inspectors from H Group, who visited our factory today, are the people who I had known since I worked for S Group.”
“Hmm, really?”
“It seemed that they didn’t know that I am working at GH Mobile. Also, they said that they didn’t know that GH Mobile has a large factory like this one and that it is very well equipped with an excellent quality control system and production process.”
“President Song, you are the one who made it that good by nagging the workers constantly.”
“Well, our workers followed my lead very well, and I know that it was not an easy job for them.”
“I’m just crossing my fingers here to hear good news from them soon.”
“Well, their inspection is completed. All we can do now is to wait until they make their decision.”
After quite a while, Gun-Ho received a call from Director Jong-Suk Park.
“Bro? I’m sorry that I’m calling you late.”
“I was told that the people from H Group left.”
“Yeah. They looked very satisfied with what they saw here.”
“Are there many things that we need to correct?”
“Just one or two, but those are easy fixes.”
“Hmm, really?”
“I was going to call you right after lunch, but I was really busy because of President Song who nagged at me and other executive officers without break.”
“What was he nagging about?”
“For the thing that H Group people pointed out today, he summoned me, the quality control team lead, and the management people from the research center. And he nagged us there for hours, I think. I almost headbutt him.”
“Haha. I see. President Song spoke highly of you though.”
“I know he doesn’t talk badly about any of us behind our back. That’s why I don’t actually hit him. But he is definitely not someone who I want to be close with.”
“I guess that he knows how to push your button. Haha.”
“Don’t laugh, brother. I’m serious here.”
“I feel relieved knowing that those H Group inspectors left with satisfaction.”
“Yeah, I feel good too.”
“Hey, your daughter grew up a lot, right? I guess she is 100 days old?”
“Bro, she is 7 months old already.”
“Is that right?”
“She is so cute. Whenever I go home after work, I can’t stop smiling because of her.”
“Really? She can’t speak yet, can she?”
“No, not yet. She babbles a lot though for a long while. She laughs a lot whenever I wave some toys in front of her.”
“Oh, really? She does sound very cute.”
“I shake rattle toys most of the time because she responds to it very quickly. It’s fun.”
“Your parents and parents-in-law must feel joyful playing with her too.”
“Yeah. They compete with each other to get a chance to play with her.”
“I can imagine how your family would spend time happily with your daughter.”
“Thanks, bro.”