In reality, due to the overflowing inventory, fashion clothing could now be obtained cheaply.
Rather than building factories and investing money in manufacturing facilities, it seemed better to approach distribution first.
Before going to work, Lee Hyun-woo asked his father to look into several companies.
Then, after starting work, he sought out Woo Sang-won.
“There will probably be a contact from 【Aejeong Group】 regarding an online fashion mall.”
“By online fashion mall, do you mean the collaboration event with 【Aejeong Apparel】 that a team leader brought in a while ago?”
“No. It seems like they are thinking of creating an internet shopping mall entirely focused on fashion.”
Woo Sang-won’s eyes slightly wavered.
The reason for his tension was because 【Aejeong】, which had cooperated with them so far, now intended to compete with an online shopping mall.
Reading this through his intuition, Lee Hyun-woo smiled and said,
“Don’t worry. We, as a comprehensive mall, don’t need to be concerned about places that deal with just one thing.”
“Ah, yes…”
“And more and more dot-com companies are going to emerge. If we worry about each one, we can’t get any work done. We should just steadily follow our own path.”
“Yes… I understand.”
“Anyway, if they do decide to create it, please support them as much as possible. If 【Jungle】 becomes known for building excellent online shopping malls, it can only be beneficial. Many large companies will become our clients in the future.”
No matter what crisis unfolds.
No matter what tense situation arises.
Lee Hyun-woo remained unshaken.
And that was good.
‘Listening to the CEO, it is true. If we start a fashion collaboration event, would the existing comprehensive malls stay still?’
The place that immediately came to mind was 【Internet Park】.
Recently, the place had received funding from a foreign investment firm and was trying all the shopping packages handled by 【Jungle】.
In other words, they were openly copying, but without related legislation, it was hard to prove they were plagiarizing. The gap with 【Jungle】 was so enormous that it seemed better for the large company to leave the small shop alone.
“Maybe because I’ve risen to a position with more responsibility than before, I seem to have become more sensitive.”
“It can happen. I understand. But rather, it might be better to use the emergence of other comprehensive shopping malls as leverage.”
“Indeed…”
“Why not hold an idea contest within the company? To see how we can differentiate ourselves from the dot-com companies popping up overnight.”
“Not a bad idea. No, we should do it regularly.”
Even without this, his mind was complicated.
After becoming COO, there were too many things to worry about, and every time a report came up, making decisions was a burden.
Naturally, it was due to the sense of responsibility.
But when Lee Hyun-woo opened the way to gather various ideas, the burden strangely eased.
It was inevitable because, after rising to the second position in 【Jungle】, the loneliness had also increased.
No one said anything, but Woo Sang-won had to worry and decide alone.
These days, he even ate alone.
Noticing this, Lee Hyun-woo readily made this suggestion.
“Would you like to have lunch with me today?”
“What? Ah, yes… I would like that.”
In fact, Lee Hyun-woo had seen through Woo Sang-won’s current state.
He recalled how he too was under tremendous pressure when he was appointed as an executive in his past life.
It hadn’t even been a few days, yet there was an urgency to achieve something.
If many of the projects the company was pursuing didn’t go well, there was an unnecessary sense of responsibility, as if it was all his fault.
‘It’s always like that for novice executives.’
It might have been even worse for Woo Sang-won.
Although Lee Jung-woo and Jang Yoo-chul were promoted to executives, the real responsibility for 【Jungle】 lay with Woo Sang-won.
The two were rather relieved of some burden because they were studying and working simultaneously.
‘I feel sorry for giving him heavy responsibilities without releasing him.’
Of course, it was something Woo Sang-won had to overcome, but since it was a very unusual case, Lee Hyun-woo felt he should take good care of him.
So, a while later, seeing Woo Sang-won with a grim expression at a nearby restaurant, he said,
“Do you remember our company last year?”
“I do, but… it feels like it was a long time ago.”
“Right? We sometimes say time flies, but if too many things happen within that time, even a short period can feel distant.”
Woo Sang-won silently nodded.
Indeed, working at 【Jungle】, many things do happen.
Surprisingly, most of them were filled with good news and opportunities.
The problem was what came next.
The organization wasn’t ready, but there was a feeling of having too many tasks to handle.
Woo Sang-won, overseeing operations, kept finding gaps, and there weren’t enough hands to fill them.
So, he regretted it.
When Lee Hyun-woo told him to find a balance between work and life and to take it slow, Woo Sang-won pretended to listen but showed with actions to others that it was time to work, not play.
“Even though we haven’t tied up loose ends, new things keep popping up, and while handling them, more issues arise. Meanwhile, others keep suggesting new things, and I, the only one at the top, have to give new orders. Every day feels breathless, doesn’t it?”
“Phew… that’s true. When you assigned me the role of COO recently, I felt both burdened and excited, but now the excitement is all gone.”
“Do you want to step down?”
“……”
“But you don’t want that, do you?”
“Yes… it’s something I have to go through anyway.”
“Then you should enjoy it.”
If you can’t avoid it, enjoy it!
It wasn’t fresh advice, but Lee Hyun-woo began explaining specific methods.
“Think big.”
“Think big?”
“Yes, humans are prone to headaches when they start focusing on details. Because details keep multiplying. So, pass the details to someone else and just focus on the big picture. For example, changing the world. We are actually doing that. These days, young people look at portals instead of newspapers.”
It was true.
Not always, but they reduced the number of times they read newspapers by half and used portal news.
“Because of this, internet-only newspapers emerged. These newspapers deliver news to readers much faster, and subscribers acquire information more quickly than before. The world is slowly changing, and I want to speed up this change. For example, what if we read newspapers on our phones instead of computers?”
“Is that… possible?”
“Why not? Just increase the screen size. Oh, it needs to be transmitted wirelessly, not wired. But why can’t we do that? There are already papers proving that wireless internet is technically feasible and companies developing it.”
“That’s true, but…”
“If it were me.”
Lee Hyun-woo interrupted Woo Sang-won’s words and continued.
“To be precise, if I had a lot of money, I would boldly execute funds to advance the era of wireless internet. Then people would shop online on their phones, consume news, listen to music, watch movies… there’d be so much to do.”
It seemed like a story from a distant future sci-fi novel, so Woo Sang-won’s expression disappeared.
But soon, he began recalling what Lee Hyun-woo had done so far.
The person who opened the era of affordable computers to activate online auctions and shopping.
The person who combined fun elements like free email, internet cafes, and blogs to popularize portal sites.
The person who commercialized MP3 files by inducing telecom operators to implement ADSL and helping 【Alpha Cast】 create MP3 players.
The person who influenced the improvement of internet speeds in the US and Japan for overseas expansion.
‘Somehow, it feels like the CEO could do such things.’
When he thought this far, Lee Hyun-woo continued with a smile.
“But turning imagination into reality wasn’t something I did alone. As I mentioned, I drew the big picture, and Director Woo, Director Lee, and Director Jang helped with the details. Also, now there are more people to help, so it’s much easier than before.”
“Haha…”
“So, Director Woo, let’s draw the big picture together. The others will fill in the details. That’s why we hired them, and we need to leave room for them too.”
Strangely, listening to Lee Hyun-woo’s words, the heavy burden on his mind started boiling with excitement.
Suddenly, the corners of Woo Sang-won’s mouth lifted.
Nodding was a natural progression.
“Yes, I’ll give it a try.”
Fortunately, for Woo Sang-won,
There was another piece of good news that afternoon, along with Lee Hyun-woo’s encouragement.
It was the launch of 【Jungle USA】.
“As expected, it’s hard to connect!”
“They prepared so many servers, why is this happening?”
“This is a sign it’s doing well!”
“That’s true, but…”
“Oh? It’s working again. It’s still lagging, but…”
“They’re in contact and said they have added more servers!”
“Can they do that so quickly?”
“They were prepared. We’ve had so many experiences, the warnings we gave led to this result.”
Listening to the conversation between the newly appointed portal site team leader, Jung Kwang-yeol, several team leaders, and employees, Woo Sang-won folded his arms and quietly smiled.
Next to him was Lee Hyun-woo with the same expression.
When asked in a slow tone,
“Do you think it will definitely succeed?”
Woo Sang-won replied in a relaxed voice.
“Yes, probably.”
“How will it change America?”
“At first, it will change like our country did, but it might take some time. Ah, we can refer to Japan. It’s bigger than our country but smaller than America.”
In other words, due to differences in territory and population, it might not change quickly.
Once again, Lee Hyun-woo drew a big picture.
“It needs to change quickly to sell a lot of things like MP3s.”
“We should push Joe Murphy. Then, won’t he move on his own?”
“Indeed…”
Unlike the morning, the conversation flowed smoothly.
With voices full of relaxation.
“Instead, we can enter online shopping anytime, right? How about integrating it quickly?”
Woo Sang-won also proposed a big picture.
“It seems Japan will be first, rather than America.”
“Really?”
“Yes, otherwise, Son Jung-yi, who serves in Japan, will feel neglected.”
People say business is not done with emotions, but in reality, there’s no business without emotions.
As long as the choices aren’t wrong, you can establish lifelong business partners.
“I should contact him.”
Woo Sang-won smiled and picked up the phone.
In fact, he planned to have a deep conversation with Son Jung-yi today.
‘Until when does the CEO have to care about foreign affairs?’
It was another moment when the work that Lee Hyun-woo had been handling alone was shared.
