A genius thinks differently from ordinary people.
Because the scope of their thinking is different, even Chairman Park Jin-yong was surprised and asked if he was a genius.
Lee Hyun-woo immediately denied it with wide eyes.
“How could that be?”
“No, only a genius could come up with such an idea.”
“But it was our developer who created the MP3 file.”
“Of course, it was the developer who made it. But unless you’re a pretty crazy person, you wouldn’t think to expand the broadband network so that people can easily download music files.”
“It’s not that grand. I just thought we’d be expanding the network eventually anyway, so I decided to challenge myself a bit earlier.”
“That’s exactly the kind of thing a genius would do. Like I said before, they see things from a completely different angle than ordinary people.”
When you come from the future, the world feels slow.
Being used to faster things makes everything frustratingly slow.
So, you try to speed things up, but being called a genius made Lee Hyun-woo feel absurd.
“I feel like I’ve been sitting too long listening to such flattering words. I think I need to get going now.”
“You can stay longer if you’d like…”
“It’s almost time to get off work. I make sure to stick to that one rule.”
“……”
Once again, Park Jin-yong looked like he’d been hit with a punch.
In his mind, a genius is someone who, once they start digging into something, abandons eating and sleeping until it’s complete. Yet, here was Lee Hyun-woo, who was getting up from his seat, a strict advocate of leaving work on time.
‘What on earth can you make of a guy like this?’
Then again, can an ordinary person truly understand a genius?
“Well, I’ll be off then. If you encounter any difficulties or obstacles as you proceed, please contact me. Ah, but make sure to reach me by 4:45 PM on weekdays. After that, I have to enjoy my life too.”
“I… I will.”
“Stay healthy. I’ll see you again. Goodbye.”
As Lee Hyun-woo walked out, Park Jin-yong couldn’t help but feel a sense of regret.
On the other hand, he reaffirmed his resolve to keep engaging with young people.
‘To see that guy again, I guess I have to push for high-speed internet.’
Unlike Lee Hyun-woo, who strictly adhered to the concept of leaving work on time, Park Jin-yong immediately contacted a high-ranking official at a cable broadcasting company.
“Hey, Director Kim, it’s me, Park from 【Samjin】. Remember we talked about our internet project before? Yeah, the one we were going to outsource to 【Dae-han Electric】. I’m going to push for it again. No, not outsourcing, but 【Samjin】 partnering directly with you guys. Do you think it’s possible? You want to meet and talk about it? You always find a way to get me to buy you expensive drinks. Fine, let’s meet at that seafood restaurant. Yeah, today. I want to get this moving as quickly as possible.”
As soon as he hung up, he felt excited.
He could already see the picture forming.
It felt like he could dominate the high-speed internet market.
‘Public enterprises are slow.’
In such cases, private companies that don’t have to worry about various considerations are faster.
Suddenly, he remembered Lee Hyun-woo who had just left.
He wanted to thank him once more for giving him the courage.
Meanwhile, as Lee Hyun-woo entered the company with Han Se-jin, he felt a curious gaze.
He couldn’t ignore it while driving, so he had no choice but to answer.
“I recommended high-speed internet to Chairman Park of 【Samjin】.”
“By high-speed internet, do you mean ADSL?”
“Well… something similar. It depends on what you call it.”
What 【Samjin】 was trying to do probably wasn’t exactly ADSL.
In other words, it was a form of utilizing the transmission and reception networks of cable TV in collaboration with them.
However, Lee Hyun-woo didn’t specialize in such technical details and found it hard to explain.
He knew it was an asymmetric internet different from ADSL, but he didn’t think it was necessary to explain that.
“Anyway, it will be much faster than ISDN.”
“So, you persuaded Chairman Park Jin-yong of 【Samjin】 to push for that?”
“Yes, we need to install internet everywhere to quickly connect the nationwide network. We can’t let only the people in Seoul or the metropolitan area benefit from our MP3 files.”
“So what about Chairman Park? Was he persuaded?”
“He said he would do it.”
“……”
“He seemed like a very impatient person. As soon as I mentioned it, he showed a curiosity as strong as Team Leader Han’s, and once he was convinced it was a promising business, he decided right away.”
“I did hear about the Chairman’s personality from someone at 【Samjin】 earlier. But I still don’t understand how things moved so quickly. It’s like frying beans with a flash of lightning…”
“Sometimes things just fall into place when you grease the wheels properly. This was one of those times. I was prepared to take my time persuading him, but his straightforward personality made things move quickly.”
Lee Hyun-woo mixed in a bit of a lie, but he felt very pleased that Chairman Park Jin-yong decided faster than expected.
Then, a sudden thought made him frown.
“Oh… right…”
“What is it?”
“There’s something essential for installing the internet that I forgot.”
“What is it?”
“Modems. Whether it’s ADSL or cable, the demand for modems will be enormous. Can we supply them properly?”
“Are you talking about the modems like the one we have in our company?”
“Yes, the ones we got from 【Dae-han Electric】 for testbeds. As far as I know, those modems are made in Belgium…”
“Really? I didn’t know that.”
Of course, they wouldn’t know.
In his past life, the company that benefited from providing internet modems through the Belgian manufacturer 【Alkart】 was 【Duksung Trading】, and it was Lee Hyun-woo who pushed that project aggressively.
So?
‘I initially intended to distribute the internet nationwide, but I might get some windfall profits in the process.’
If you see money lying on the street, you can’t help but pick it up.
Lee Hyun-woo decided to boldly purchase modems in large quantities.
The next day, Lee Hyun-woo contacted the Belgian modem company 【Alkart】 and said,
“Hello, this is Korea. We’d like to place a large order for modems.”
(A large order?)
“Yes, that’s right.”
(How much are you thinking of ordering?)
In his past life, 95% of the modems produced by the Belgian company were consumed in Korea.
This was quite an interesting fact.
Even the U.S., the home of IT, and Taiwan, known for making excellent intermediate components, didn’t think of making these modems.
‘It would have been better if it were Taiwan.’
Distance always matters in trade.
Moreover, Taiwan has a lower cost of living than Belgium, so they could have imported the modems at a cheaper price.
But in this situation, there was no other way.
【Alkart】 had suddenly emerged to almost monopolize the modem market, so Lee Hyun-woo had no choice but to import from the distant Belgium.
However, there’s always a higher level above.
Given the circumstances, Lee Hyun-woo thought he’d try to negotiate the price down and asked,
“Can you tell me how much stock you have?”
(Well, I’d have to check that.)
Their voice sounded indifferent.
They probably thought he wouldn’t order as much as he said.
“Then please check that separately. For now, we need 100,000 units immediately.”
(One hundred… one hundred thousand units?)
Why were they surprised? He had mentioned a large order from the beginning.
‘Their stock must be lower than expected.’
The other party, surprised, asked about Lee Hyun-woo’s identity.
(Where in Korea are you?)
Come to think of it, he had only mentioned Korea, not where or who he was.
‘Guess I was too hasty.’
But there was no need to rush.
Lee Hyun-woo, who was effectively living a life ahead of his time, calmly replied,
“We are 【Jungle】. I’ll give you our website address, so you can check it. To ensure a more secure transaction, I’d like someone from your side to come over.”
(Ah, yes, I’ll verify and send someone over as soon as possible.)
“And the important thing is the price. How much is it?”
(It’s $10 per unit.)
Upon hearing the unit price, Lee Hyun-woo quickly did some mental calculations.
Approximately 100,000 units would be $1,000,000, which is about 780 million won at the current exchange rate.
Should he be thankful that the exchange rate was favorable for importing goods at this point in time?
‘Still, it’s expensive.’
He began the process of negotiating the unit price down.
“You want to sell 100,000 units at $10 each?”
(Considering it’s a large order, the price is negotiable. How about we discuss it when our representative arrives?)
“Sure, I’ll send you an email with our contact details and address. Please send someone over as soon as possible.”
(Yes, understood.)
“Then, I’ll hang up now.”
There was no need to be overly polite when placing a large order, so Lee Hyun-woo stated his business and hung up.
He pondered for a moment.
‘I need to negotiate at least 5%, ideally 10% off the price.’
His habit of negotiating prices from his trading company days kicked in.
He tentatively decided to aim for a 30% profit margin.
Who would buy this product right away?
‘【Dae-han Electric】 and 【Dae-han Telecom】 would be good trading partners.’
If he imported 100,000 units, he would almost have an exclusive distribution network, so he could negotiate the desired price.
‘By the way, to do this well, I’ll need someone knowledgeable in trade.’
He couldn’t do everything alone.
While resolving to hire more people in essential areas later, he also thought of localizing modem production.
If he continued importing from faraway Belgium, the initial supply might be manageable due to the slower rollout of high-speed internet, but later on, it could become uncontrollable.
So, wouldn’t it be better to produce them nearby?
Thinking of this, he considered 【Guseong Group】 and 【Samjin Computer】 but shook his head.
‘It’s not good to concentrate everything in one place.’
There’s a reason large corporations collaborate with partners.
Specialization happens when parts are distributed.
So, where should he turn to?
While he was lost in thought, there was a knock on the door.
“Yes.”
“President Kim Yoon-soo is here.”
“Ah, please let him in.”
Lee Hyun-woo smiled broadly as he welcomed the always warmly received Kim Yoon-soo.
‘I’ve found it at last.’
【Won Computer】 had recently expanded its production facilities, so it should have the capacity to produce modems.
After a brief greeting, he asked President Kim Yoon-soo,
“President, you mentioned you were worried after expanding your factory, right?”
“Yeah, I told you yesterday. I expanded the factory, but if we don’t sell enough computers, what will I do? I’m worried every day.”
“Then how about making computer parts?”
“What?”
Kim Yoon-soo’s eyes widened at Lee Hyun-woo’s suggestion.
