Before the game scenario and character development, there was another task that needed attention.
This was actually one of the things Lee Hyun-woo was best at.
In his previous life, the chairman of 【Deokseong Group】 referred to this ability as renovation.
In dictionary terms, it means restructuring, reform, and remodeling.
‘Jung-woo, this guy, he’s just like me; he takes on too much.’
This was a characteristic of a workaholic.
Lee Jung-woo is the head of the online shopping division.
That job alone is demanding, yet he travels abroad for business.
Moreover, he had a deep affection for the search engine he had created, so he continued to tweak it. Even when he was advised to create a club to relax, he ended up forming a PC game club to devise new strategy simulations!
Lee Hyun-woo knew his brother’s personality well.
Like himself, Jung-woo would work around the clock to complete multiple tasks.
So, could he secure his own time?
‘This isn’t work-life balance.’
It was clearly time to start the renovation to reduce his brother’s burden.
This was the outsourcing he had mentioned to the representative of 【Alpha Cast】 some time ago.
Thus, he locked himself in his room at home and categorized five priorities.
First, tax affairs. This was already being outsourced to an accountant.
Second, legal affairs. This also involved working with a law firm, so it was similar.
Third, finance. Tax and finance are different. The former is for taxes, while the latter is about how to manage the earned money. In 【Jungle】, this was Lee Hyun-woo’s job.
Fourth, communication. Organizational life is a continuous process of conflict resolution and compromise. Coordination is needed in vertical relationships, between departments, and among employees within departments. Large corporations have dedicated communication departments, but 【Jungle】 did not yet have one. Naturally, Lee Hyun-woo was handling this.
Lastly, HR. Both Lee Hyun-woo and each department head were directly involved in recruitment. It was fortunate that the authority was dispersed to some extent. But does that mean there were no problems?
‘Of course, there are.’
Recruiting people inevitably consumed time.
It would be convenient to create an HR department in 【Jungle】.
However, hiring people was not an easy task.
The company had not been established for long, so few people understood the CEO’s philosophy and the company’s vision.
The few who did were the aforementioned department heads.
‘Right now, it’s more about nurturing the recruits well rather than just hiring well.’
So, it seemed necessary to entrust the task to outsourcing firms that could objectively evaluate capabilities.
Lee Hyun-woo quickly wrote down one word.
- Headhunter Platform.
There are quite a few headhunter firms, but those based on IT platforms were almost non-existent.
‘Let’s look for similar firms at the 21st Century Venture Business Association meeting this time.’
Additionally, Lee Hyun-woo’s job was to find out if more outsourcing was needed.
The next day, he called in the heads of the development, sales, and marketing departments separately to ask about their needs, and after fully understanding them, he attended the 21st Century Venture Business Association meeting.
Joe Murphy also participated in this meeting.
Two days ago, when they met, Lee Hyun-woo had asked him to look for good IT companies.
‘To think I’d find them myself.’
With the results obtained from communicating with other department heads before the meeting, he had to find outsourcing firms.
Therefore, he said to Joe Murphy,
“If you need an interpreter, please call anytime. However, it might not be a bad idea to filter out companies whose representatives can’t speak English. At least choose companies that show desperation using body language; you’ll probably have half the battle won.”
“I agree. I have the same criteria.”
English isn’t everything.
But it could be a standard.
Efforts to communicate could attract investors.
‘I’ve already informed today’s participating companies.’
The content was that an American fund company was looking for investment targets.
Thus, whether accompanied by an interpreter or expressing themselves with gestures, they would have to struggle desperately to catch an investor.
If Lee Hyun-woo intervened any further, it would damage their independence and foster dependency.
After introducing Jung Sung-woo of 【Alpha Cast】, who Joe Murphy was most interested in, Lee Hyun-woo looked around to find someone.
‘I heard quite a few places I’m looking for are coming today.’
In recent months, dot-com companies had started to spring up like mushrooms after rain in South Korea, based on ADSL.
Thus, many companies had joined the ‘21st Century Venture Business Association’ based on word of mouth and various media reports.
After examining the list, Lee Hyun-woo found several promising places.
Of course, the criteria here meant places suitable for outsourcing.
One such place caught his eye.
The nametag read 【Internet Goblin Market】.
He quickly approached and asked,
“Hello?”
“Oh, hello? Nice to meet you.”
The person who greeted Lee Hyun-woo with a look of honor was Koo Man-hoi, the representative of 【Internet Goblin Market】.
Seeing the name on the nametag, Lee Hyun-woo asked,
“Could you spare some time for me?”
“Of course. Please go ahead.”
“Actually, I briefly visited 【Internet Goblin Market】 yesterday and noticed it’s a site that promotes living information newspapers.”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
Originally, there were several such living information newspapers.
Representative examples include 【Flea Market】, 【Intersection Market】, and 【Crossword】.
They cover real estate, car sales, and job listings, and 【Internet Goblin Market】 was similar, with the difference being that it was exclusively online.
“Seeing that, I thought it was similar to the outsourcing company we’re looking for, so I asked for your time.”
“Outsourcing? Are you saying there’s something you want to entrust to our company?”
Koo Man-hoi’s eyes widened at the sudden mention of outsourcing.
What could 【Jungle】 need from an online living information newspaper?
“Yes, that’s right. We’re thinking of creating a headhunter platform. We’d like you to operate it.”
“Headhunter platform? What is that?”
“It’s very simple. A platform that ‘matches’ talents interested in specific companies with the companies that need those talents.”
The explanation was concise but to the point, making it easy to understand.
If one had founded an IT company, they certainly weren’t a fool.
No, it wasn’t an exaggeration to say they possessed exceptional skills.
The same was true for Koo Man-hoi.
“I think I roughly understand what you mean.”
“I’m glad you understood it right away. Still, you’ll need a more detailed explanation, so please visit 【Jungle】 soon. Then we can discuss the platform in detail.”
The first meeting was enough for now.
Next, upon visiting, the platform creation would be entrusted according to Lee Hyun-woo’s needs.
For the record, Lee Hyun-woo planned only to make the initial investment in this platform.
After that, he intended to entrust almost everything, including operation, but if labor costs and website maintenance fees were burdensome, he could cover the costs on the condition of sharing substantial profits.
In other words, everything was negotiable from start to finish.
Thus, Lee Hyun-woo sought outsourcing companies for HR, communication, development, etc.
‘If outsourcing is well-utilized, it can be a win-win.’
By the end of the meeting, he wore a satisfied smile.
He felt he had gained quite a bit today.
Just as Lee Hyun-woo felt he had gained a lot, Joe Murphy felt the same.
Having already decided in his mind to put the final touch as a fund manager on this trip to Korea,
‘But to wrap it up with all these numerous Korean venture companies?’
Each one was unique.
The day before leaving Korea, he held a summary meeting with the junior investment managers who had accompanied him on the trip.
“While there exist hybrid online-offline newspapers in both Korea and the U.S., there’s no website as fast and accurate as 【E-Daily】. Moreover, I liked the business philosophy of its CEO, Mr. Yoon. He plans to focus more on international news rather than domestic news.”
“Not bad. In Asia, except for Japan, there is a lack of sensitivity to international news. Especially in the economic field. Hence, even small economic shocks have a significant impact. The strong dollar has already shaken things up significantly from last year to this year. There are even instances of borrowing short-term foreign debt to lend it long-term.”
“That’s going off-topic. Let’s get back on track.”
“Oh, yes.”
Joe Murphy only intervened when a junior fund manager occasionally tried to show off their insights.
For now, he ordered them to focus more on visions than on future problems.
As expected, they shifted their focus according to his order.
“What about 【Ghost】, which made a big hit with Hangul programming? Although profits will only come from Korea, the country currently has the world’s highest internet population. It could be quite profitable in the short term.”
“I found 【Other People’s Stories】 interesting. People always love gossip. Just exposing ads to netizens who come to see it seems profitable.”
“I tried to choose from the mainstream rather than focusing too much on unique things. Online shopping sites like 【Internet Park】 or portal sites like 【Help】 may not compare to 【Jungle】, but they have growth potential, don’t they?”
“What about entertainment content? The game company 【Aon】 is running a subscription model with online games.”
“There’s also 【Blue Moon】 in a similar vein, although it focuses on PC games rather than online.”
Many companies were mentioned, but there were still dozens more names left unspoken.
But Joe Murphy wanted to address something at this point.
“Why hasn’t anyone mentioned 【Alpha Cast】 or 【One Computer】?”
This was strange.
These were the most promising companies aside from 【Jungle】.
Soon, the reason came out.
“We wanted to focus on profitability.”
“That’s right. Those two companies have already secured quite a few investors. If we jump in late, we can only get a small share.”
“The same goes for 【Hangul Soft】. We might as well pick a company with less revenue but high growth potential thanks to our investment.”
“Oh, did you know? 【Jungle】’s CEO invested about $1 million in 【Alpha Cast】 and made a significant profit.”
“Really?”
“Yes, I heard it directly from Mr. Jung, the CEO of 【Alpha Cast】. The company’s current value is over $50 million, and Mr. Lee’s stake is worth about $6-7 million.”
“$50 million is the current value. Didn’t we estimate its value to be ten times that?”
“There was an analysis suggesting it might reach that value someday.”
“Wow, Hyun-woo Lee is good at investing too.”
“Maybe we should check other places too. If he invested in the places we’ve mentioned, he’d be sitting on a pile of money.”
“He’s already sitting on a pile of money with 【Jungle】.”
Listening to their conversation, Joe Murphy thought of Lee Hyun-woo.
‘A person who sees value will be good at investing too.’
He was even more eager to join hands with him and build the future together.
