During the subsequent meeting, Lee Hyun-woo declared the following:
“From now on, our company will not have any open recruitment. We will hire as needed, but that doesn’t mean we can hire just anyone. From now on, only the best talents will have the qualifications to join 【Jungle】.”
It was an indication of the intent to improve the quality of the human resources.
In fact, as the company expands and grows in scale, the need for specialized technical personnel is always in short supply.
To meet this demand, it was not possible to set specific periods for recruitment.
People who fully understood Lee Hyun-woo’s words began to speak up.
“There are top experts in various universities. How about approaching them first to secure them?”
“Recently, the decline of PC communication companies has been noticeable. It might be worth looking into their experienced employees.”
“It would be great if there were specialized firms that connect talents.”
“There probably are. I’ve heard of headhunter firms.”
“Then let’s inquire with the headhunter firms.”
“While we’re at it, securing overseas talents wouldn’t be a bad idea.”
“That’s right. We won’t just be doing business domestically in the future.”
Collective intelligence began to bring out not only what Lee Hyun-woo was thinking but also things he hadn’t thought of. He accepted many of their opinions.
“Alright. Then, Team Leader Oh Min-woo will look into the universities.”
It was Oh Min-woo who made that suggestion.
Experts mingle with experts, so he might have built connections through his network.
“Team Leader Woo will inquire about experienced employees from PC communication companies, Team Leader Han Se-jin will handle the headhunter firms, and Team Leader Kang Dong-ho will deal with overseas talents.”
The reason Lee Jung-woo was excluded was that he had to go to the U.S. with Lee Hyun-woo.
Additionally, Jang Yoo-chul was busy with technical support for 【Alpha Cast】.
‘Excluding these six, there are no people to entrust with important tasks.’
For this reason alone, Lee Hyun-woo thought it was necessary to hire experienced talents.
At the same time, he felt it was time to reorganize the structure.
‘The growth rate of our company far exceeds my expectations.’
He spent the whole day immersed in planning reorganization in order to allow increase in scope of work.
The next day, he announced the related matters again,
“Our 【Jungle】 will go bigger in foreseeable future. The six team leaders will each be promoted to division leaders and we will have six divisions. The first is the online shopping division. The second is the portal site division. Next is the content division. The fourth is the cloud division. These are the technical divisions. The remaining two will be the domestic and overseas external cooperation divisions.”
The part leaders in order were Lee Jung-woo, Woo Sang-won, Jang Yoo-chul, Oh Min-woo, Han Se-jin, and Kang Dong-ho.
At the same time, he instructed that each division be subdivided into teams and handed over the promotion contracts in envelopes.
“If you find anything unsatisfactory, let me know. We can renegotiate.”
To reduce distraction from renegotiations in Lee Hyun-woo’s schedule, he make each contract condition to be so exceptional that he could bet his wrist that no one would come.
In fact, it was exactly what happened.
Only his younger brother Lee Jung-woo had something to say about the exceptional condition.
“Hyung, I get why we triple the salary. Our company grows rapidly overnight, so is the responsibility.”
“Yeah, it grows rapidly overnight. So, understand it as sharing and motivating, okay?”
“Yeah, that makes sense. But giving 10% equity if they become a subsidiary CEO?”
That night, Lee Jung-woo’s voice grew louder.
“I’m not saying this because I find it regrettable. People are greedy animals. If they own 10%, they might start wanting to take over the company.”
“Let them do that.”
“What?”
“When they become a subsidiary CEO, I will push them to become independent.”
“…….”
Lee Jung-woo’s jaw dropped at Lee Hyun-woo’s absurd plan.
But Lee Hyun-woo began to explain with a nonchalant smile.
“You are mistaken about something. First, will the six division head become subsidiary CEOs? That hasn’t been decided. Right?”
“Well…”
“Did you really think I would entrust a subsidiary just because they suffered during the startup?”
“Well… no.”
When he was boasting, Lee Jung-woo quickly backed down at his brother’s counterattack.
‘Now that I think about it, my brother is good at drawing boundaries.’
They were brothers who grew up together.
Sometimes, Lee Hyun-woo could be very cold.
Even in the early days of 【Jungle】, he was strict about separating public and private matters, so much so that Lee Jung-woo and Jang Yoo-chul used to complain about him outside.
‘Wait? Then there’s no guarantee that I will become a subsidiary CEO someday?’
In fact, Lee Jung-woo had a dream.
After 【Jungle】 grew enormously, he thought he could choose from numerous subsidiaries, just like 【Guseong】.
Reading Lee Jung-woo’s thoughts, Lee Hyun-woo continued to speak.
“If you don’t show your abilities, you won’t sit in the subsidiary CEO position. No matter if you’re my brother, a friend of my brother, or someone who suffered with me in the early days. I will appoint subsidiary CEOs based on ability. My little brother will understand this decision of mine, right?”
“Y-yeah.”
Judging by his stuttering, he seemed a bit flustered.
Maybe he thought the subsidiary CEO position was a sure thing.
‘If nothing unexpected happens, I should naturally take on major responsibilities.’
Of course, Lee Hyun-woo highly valued his brother’s abilities.
Though he didn’t know which subsidiaries would be spun off in the future, he was often surprised by the competency he hadn’t recognized in his past life.
Even the latest search engine was thanks to the solid initial design by Lee Jung-woo, allowing it to surpass 【Yaho】 in functionality.
‘Perhaps in the past life, 【Single】 was in this form?’
If that were the case, the founders of 【Single】, who were probably researching somewhere, were finished.
The same type of search engine had already been released, and it was clear that the gap would widen as they were collaborating with top universities in Korea and abroad.
‘Sorry, you two. But if the opportunity arises, I will hire you someday.’
Lee Hyun-woo suddenly remembered 【Single】 founders Ray Burin and Mikhail Feiss.
He was just saying it, though.
Would Lee Hyun-woo, who disliked reruns in his second life, really hire them if they met?
‘It would be better if those people created something else to change the world.’
This was indeed Lee Hyun-woo’s wish.
Meanwhile, Oh Min-woo, following Lee Hyun-woo’s instructions, thought of several top experts from various universities, and suddenly, two people flashed through his mind.
They were Ray Burin and Mikhail Feiss.
‘There’s no need to limit our search to Korea, right?’
The two he met at Stanford were exceptional even in Oh Min-woo’s eyes.
Perhaps, if 【Jungle】 hadn’t created the current search engine, they might have done it first.
‘They said they were writing a thesis on search engines, I wonder how it went.’
Thinking this, Oh Min-woo quickly sent an email to the two.
Of course, it was a greeting email, but were they sitting in front of their computers?
The reply came at lightning speed.
Inviting them to the chatroom link, Oh Min-woo waited for their connection.
― Hi, Min. Long time no talk.
― Hi, Ray!
― What’s up, Min.
― Not much, what about you, Michael.
As he wrote, memories of his first chat with these two came to mind.
He had initially made a mistake because the pronunciation and spelling of Mikhail were different.
As soon as he wrote this, he received a message about how they had also made a mistake with the pronunciation and spelling of ‘Min-woo.’
Sharing such everyday stories, Oh Min-woo finally asked the question he was curious about.
― Have you guys finished your thesis by any chance?
― We finished it. But…
The ‘…’ indicated that the result was not satisfactory.
The two soon resolved Oh Min-woo’s curiosity.
― We got good scores, but something was bothering us.
― Yeah, me too. It felt like we were copying 【Jungle】’s search engine algorithm.
― Hey, don’t think like that. Though the roots are similar, the gap will only widen.
― But it bothered us so much that we didn’t want to look at the search engine for a while.
― Right.
― What about now?
― We’re thinking of using that search engine to come up with something else.
― Oh? Really? Can I ask what it is?
― Hold on, my connection is slow again.
This often happens.
The internet in the U.S. is bad, so this kind of logging out and back in happens frequently.
Sometimes it even gets disconnected forcibly, so they logged out and back in to prevent that.
― I wonder when ADSL will be installed.
― Some places have it already.
― Really?
― Yeah, in California. So maybe soon we’ll have uninterrupted chats here too.
― I hope so. Then we can expand to the U.S. faster.
― Honestly, 【Jungle】 has no problem expanding now, right?
― Yeah. Since we have a search engine, we just need to change the language.
― We’ve already prepared for that. But your internet speed is terrible. We’re delaying it because the initial investment would be high.
― That’s a shame.
― Me too. I wanted to experience 【Jungle】’s English portal site.
― Honestly, I have high expectations. 【Yaho】 has obvious limitations.
― Oh, 【Yaho】 is really crap.
― Just wait a bit. Our CEO is going to the U.S. next month, so we will have some answers.
― Oh? Really?
― Wow, really?
― Yeah, maybe a proper portal site will start?
Writing in the chat, he felt a sense of pride.
So much so that he included some exaggerated expressions.
― 【Yaho】 is toast. The same with 【Likes】, we will conquer the world.
Oh Min-woo’s boasting was well-known at both the company and school, and now it seemed to be going global.
― You’re ridiculously cocky.
― Suddenly, you’re starting to piss me off.
― It’s the truth. You guys admitted it after using the search engine.
― Usually, we ignore it when it’s not true. But when it’s true and you boast like that, it’s annoying.
― Yeah, people should be humble.
― I don’t know the word ‘humble.’ What can I do, I’m a genius.
― We were also called geniuses a lot, you know?
― Yeah, we heard that a lot too.
― Then make a better search engine.
― Damn, that pisses me off.
― Exactly. Fine, maybe we can’t surpass you in search engines, but we’ll show you something else.
― Please do. And give me something to look forward to. I don’t know what it is, though.
― It’s simple. It’s called P2P, a peer-to-peer file transfer program.
Instantly, Oh Min-woo felt a strong sense of rejection.
‘This might be what Hyun-woo hyung was worried about.’
He was worried about the principle of the P2P, or peer-to-peer file transfer program, they mentioned.
Naturally, geniuses have rich imaginations, and upon hearing it, they quickly visualize it in their minds.
‘This program might lead to MP3 files’ copyrights being ignored and free file transfers between individuals.’
