The 3th Generation of the Chaebol Wants to Live Quietly - Chapter 209



Only Noblemtl

#209.

“No matter how great KM Electronics is, I know that it cannot escape the influence of Oseong Electronics. So please help me with the Collins Model contract.”

Director Kwon Tae-seong, who was at a loss for words, stuck out his tongue.

“It’s hard to understand how a company like Walmart could lose in negotiations with KM Electronics.”

Director Mark Miller frowned as he recalled KM Electronics’ actions as a crazy guy.

“That’s right. At first, we thought it would be easy. But as we were negotiating, we realized that they are showing that they don’t mind if we don’t sign the contract. They are saying no no matter what, and it’s really frustrating!”

“… … .”

If Planning Director Kwon Tae-seong hadn’t tasted the heat from Director Choi Min-hyeok several times, he would never have believed it, but things were different now.

He was convinced that Choi Min-hyeok was also behind the Walmart contract.

‘What on earth is Director Choi doing?!’

But there is a reason for this too.

As Collins’ popularity exploded in Europe, word of mouth spread to American consumers.

Enthusiastic Americans continued to urge Walmart to sell Collins.

So, Walmart couldn’t ignore customer complaints either.

So I continued to negotiate with KM Electronics’ overseas sales team, but I couldn’t get through to them at all.

It may seem like a matter of pride that things are not going well and misunderstandings are deepening, but that is not necessarily the case.

Walmart estimated that the demand for Collins in the United States was well over 500,000 units, which is a whopping 2 trillion won in Korean currency alone.

Even though Walmart is a large company in terms of sales, it is difficult to ignore sales of over 2 trillion won.

So, the goal was to pressure KM Electronics in the preliminary battle to gain the maximum advantage in the negotiations.

Minhyuk Choi had already anticipated this situation, so he demanded a contract that was favorable to KM Electronics, even though it was a bit difficult.

He even demanded an apology and compensation for the incident, and threatened not to sell Collins unless it complied with the original contract with KM Electronics.

Director Mark Miller, who was not aware of these details, complained.

“The most problematic issue among KM Electronics’ conditions is the cost of after-sales service, and Walmart has to take full responsibility for all of that.”

Even Director Kwon Tae-seong stuck out his tongue.

“Are you talking about all product-related costs?”

“Yes. Walmart will pre-pay for all minor expenses, including those related to return processing, and will only compensate separately if it is clear that the KM electronic product itself is defective.”

But there were too many of these conditions.

This is also problematic because it is based on Korean law, not American law.

In fact, the bullying using Dennis Kim was all caused by this incident.

The matter grew quite large and eventually led to litigation.

Although the fire was put out, compensation was paid to KM Electronics.

And then I expected we could negotiate a contract again, but things changed.

“KM Electronics says they will continue to push the lawsuit. I can’t understand it!”

The lawsuit was still ongoing. In the meantime, KM Electronics unilaterally notified that the contract would be null and void from now on.

Director Mark Miller also became very angry as we talked.

“Ha, I have dealt with many overseas companies, but I have never seen anything like KM Electronics. Oh, right. Doesn’t Oseong Electronics develop products that correspond to Collins? If so, I will sign a contract right now.”

“… That’s a bit difficult.”

No, Planning Director Kwon Tae-seong is not stupid either, and he reviewed the development of a product to respond to Collins.

Unfortunately, the head of the Osung Electronics Central Research Institute clearly answered that it was not possible.

He showed Collins’ decomposition directly and pointed out the difficult points one by one.

There were various technical barriers.

The best way to overcome that is to copy it verbatim.

The problem is that both the KM coil and the KM high voltage transformer are patented. In order to avoid patents, the design must be changed.

In that case, it was revealed that problems occurred even if it was slightly off.

So, it would take at least two years and at most three years to completely redesign everything, and even then, it would be difficult to guarantee that the quality would be the same as Collins.

‘We have already started development, but we have already made it clear that it is difficult.’ I could not tell Director Mark Miller the internal situation.

What’s more serious is that the next-generation display will be commercialized in three years.

Even if Oh Sung Electronics succeeds in developing a Collins-compatible product, it will be pushed out by next-generation displays by then.

Director Mark Miller, who had already requested Collins-style products from many companies including Sony, was no stranger to this.

“If you help us with this one thing, we will give you various benefits and privileges for future supply of Oseong Electronics products to Walmart.”

“…We will review it internally.”

After the Collins issue was resolved, Kwon Tae-seong, the planning director, realized that Director Mark Miller’s attitude had become cold.

Director Mark Miller hinted that if they did not help with this matter, they could also join hands with HY Group or Daewoon Group for this partnership.

“… … .”

‘Are there any such fucking cases?’

Planning Director Kwon Tae-seong felt like cursing inside, but he continued to smile on the outside.

Because there’s nothing good that comes from getting angry here.

* * *

Macro Miller’s request was a ridiculous story.

However, when Planning Director Kwon Tae-seong actually saw the original KM electronic contract, he couldn’t help but stick out his tongue.

‘They’re really going all out. Do you plan on exporting to the US? Or are you planning on selling Collins in the US through other distributors, not just Walmart?’

Vice Minister Hwang Gwang-su expressed a different opinion.

“If the contracting party came out in a high-handed manner, wouldn’t that be enough?”

“Walmart was being abusive?”

“If you look at what those guys are doing, it’s more than enough. KM Electronics is a bastard that Walmart has never heard of, so they may have been charging them various expenses. Do you think that prickly Director Choi Min-hyeok would have tolerated such Walmart behavior?”

“but.”

Director Kwon Tae-seong also clicked his tongue as he recalled his conversation with Director Mark Miller. The Director Choi Min-hyeok he experienced was absolutely not someone who would tolerate such behavior.

‘They’ll probably retaliate.’

On the one hand, it was strange. I thought Director Choi Min-hyeok only acted like that towards Director Kwon Tae-seong, but he was acting like that towards Walmart too.

Vice Minister Hwang Gwang-soo recently passed over Director Choi Min-hyeok’s actions to kill Director Lee Il-tae.

“The person who tried to bury and kill Director Lee Il-tae, who rebelled against him in the same company, was Director Choi Min-hyeok. That person will not just be taken advantage of by Walmart. This Walmart US lawsuit may go too far.”

Director Kwon Tae-seong, who has had a lot to complain about since then, vented his grievances to Director Choi Min-hyeok.

“Honestly, I feel so relieved. I want to see Walmart and Director Choi Min-hyeok fight until they explode. Just thinking about it makes me feel so refreshed.”

“Director Kwon… … .”

“Oh, that’s how I feel. I can’t just leave it like that. Hey, how about you, Manager Lim?”

In other words, the only person who remained despite expressing his opposition to Vice President Hwang Gwang-soo was Director Im Kwon-soo. However, since the other party was Walmart in the United States, he raised his hand in support of Vice President Hwang Gwang-soo’s opinion.

“It may not have been racist, but it may have been just as harassing. Because that was beneficial to them. Especially if you look at Collins’s response in Europe, they could make a huge profit in the US market through Collins. They must have used that to pressure him.”

That was actually the case.

The atmosphere was not good from the moment when Walmart and KM Electronics sales teams met and talked about the contract. As time went by, the Walmart executives became resentful and started making various pressure-filled remarks.

KM Electronics’ overseas sales team was already overwhelmed by the overwhelming demand, so there was no need to respond even if it was Walmart.

The most important thing is Choi Min-hyeok’s response. He originally intended to escalate the situation. Following ETRI, Walmart was not bad either.

Anyone who doesn’t know Choi Min-hyeok’s thoughts will have no idea what’s going on.

In the end, Director Kwon Tae-seong, who had a headache so bad that he took some painkillers, took a deep breath. He didn’t want to be involved with KM Electronics if possible, but he couldn’t do that anymore.

This Walmart situation had to be resolved before the ETRI work.

“Isn’t there a way?”

Chief Im Kwon-soo was in hiding because of past events.

In the end, it was Vice Minister Hwang Gwang-su who stepped forward.

“How about using Director Jang Seung-il instead? Even if KM Electronics’ influence has diminished, they probably won’t like clashing with Wal-Mart within the group.”

“Are you saying that Director Jang Seung-il doesn’t know about this yet?”

“Are they out of their minds right now because of the group’s succession issue? The Walmart thing will be a bit weird. If Director Jang Seung-il finds out about this, he will absolutely not let it go.”

“Okay. Just give it a try.”

“All right.”

* * *

Unlike Team Leader Im Kwon-soo, Vice President Hwang Gwang-soo got along well with many people while working at KM Electronics. He met with Vice President Koo Gil-mo, who had recently been promoted to Vice President, and told him about the Walmart situation.

Of course, I talked in circles, but that was enough.

Deputy Director Koo Gil-mo, who was looking into Vice Chairman Choi Moon-kyung and Planning Director Choi Min-hyeok due to the conflict over the group’s succession, immediately conducted additional investigations and reported to Director Jang Seung-il.

Director Jang Seung-il let out a sigh, and since this was a sensitive matter, he went to see Chairman Choi Yong-wook and informed him.

Chairman Choi Yong-wook has been closely monitoring the recent activities of the Oseong Group and the DL Group, so he did not take this incident lightly.

In fact, if Choi Min-hyeok had hit Daewoon Electronics or Oseong Electronics instead of Walmart, I would have just watched.

But Walmart was a bit different.

Walmart is meeting with major Korean conglomerates such as Oseong, Daewoon, and Lotte regarding distribution expansion, but mid-sized groups are also included.

However, the KM Group was excluded from the target. However, this does not mean that the Planning and Coordination Office simply left this matter alone.

There could have been many opportunities through joint investment.

In fact, Chairman Choi Yong-wook obtained some information through an acquaintance of his.

“I heard that it won’t be easy because of issues with share distribution and the restraints of large domestic companies. Is that true?”

“So far, that is what the Planning and Coordination Office has decided. Although Director Mark Miller visited Korea last week and met with executives from Oseong Materials, it will not have much significance.”

“Well, unless Oh Sung Electronics is a cripple, I don’t think they would try to join hands with Walmart.”

The question is whether Walmart’s entry into domestic distribution and its growing influence will end there.

There is also a possibility that Walmart will strike the back of the head of the company it joined hands with after gaining some experience in the Korean distribution market.

“Just looking at the issue of equity distribution, Walmart is not willing to easily hand over control to a large Korean company. This means that they do not trust large domestic companies in the first place.”

“Wouldn’t that be a good opportunity for us too?”

“It’s hard to see it that way. What Walmart is most worried about is the Korean characteristics. In the initial entry, they will put forward joint investment companies, but once they gain a certain level of trust, they can easily hit you in the back of the head.”

“Tsk.”

Chairman Choi Yong-wook also had a headache when he thought about the poisoned apple called Walmart. There were too many obstacles to readily joining hands with Walmart.

But how can you bully Walmart like that?

Chairman Choi Yong-wook also hesitated while watching his grandson Choi Min-hyeok’s actions.

If Vice Chairman Choi Moon-kyung had done that, he would have called her in right away and destroyed her, but Choi Min-hyeok couldn’t do that.

“Minhyuk, this guy thinks he’s Don Quixote. Why on earth does he keep causing trouble like this?”

“… It must be because of the money. If Collins exports to the US become full-scale, the scale will be enormous.”

“But wouldn’t the production be that low?”

“Walmart could make an astronomical investment in KM Electronics. With that amount of money, they could just buy an existing TV factory and modify it.”

“I wonder if it will be quite large?”

“It’s not certain, but I estimate that the demand for Collins in the US alone is over 500,000 units. Considering the size of exports to Europe, it’s hard to estimate.”