Unexpectedly, the long-awaited date proposal came from Lee Hyun-woo first.
“As the CEO, I should be the one to set an example for life after work.”
At exactly 5 PM, he approached Kim Ah-young and asked her to show him around Jeju Island.
Kim Ah-young smiled brightly and said, “Sure.”
She briefly saw Park Min-sook clicking her tongue but internally justified herself, saying, “I didn’t ask first.”
Thus began their Jeju Island tour in December, but unfortunately, it got dark too quickly.
For dinner, Kim Ah-young had no choice but to take Lee Hyun-woo to a famous hairtail restaurant.
“This is probably the best place in Jeju Island.”
Recalling memories of visiting with her father, she placed the order and looked at Lee Hyun-woo.
Honestly, there were a few things she wanted to ask.
“About the work-life balance you mentioned earlier.”
“Hmm?”
“It sounds promising, but would a 35-hour workweek feasible from a business perspective?
“There’s a reason for it.”
“Really?”
“We’re not a large corporation yet. Because of that, we can’t offer high salaries. Saying we offer double the salary of a public servant is a bit much, isn’t it?”
“Is that so? Are you suggesting that you offer approximately 90 Million?”
“Yes, it’s becoming more realistic since last month. We started to offer a bit less than 100, so we conmpensate with reduced working hours.”
The average annual salary in large corporations was around 160 million won.
Next year, it was certain to be between 170 million and 180 million won.
“Next year, we’ll make it more realistic and create a salary system that doesn’t fall short of large corporations.”
“And then you’ll increase working hours?”
“No way. You brought me to the best restaurant in Jeju Island. Will you take me to just any place next time?”
“Of course not.”
“Same here. I can’t tell employees to work harder after guaranteeing them sweet working hours and packaging it as work-life balance while raising their salaries.”
“Ah…”
“Instead, creating an environment where they can work harder within those hours is the ability of a manager.”
Whether blinded by love or not, Kim Ah-young found Lee Hyun-woo’s words 100% reasonable.
“Should I also cultivate a work-life balance environment? Although I’m uncertain if it’s possible in the hotel industry.”
Lee Hyun-woo smiled and shrugged, indicating that was all the advice he could offer.
In reality, Lee Hyun-woo wasn’t sure about the answer either.
“I want to change the philosophy, not the form.”
The conglomerates had to change.
But the core of change wasn’t ‘show’ but ‘mindset.’
That’s why he tried to have many conversations with Kim Ah-young, Kim Tae-hyun, or Choi Sun-hwa whenever he met them.
If they didn’t change, the era of conflict and confrontation would continue, so he made the effort.
“I don’t know about other things, but our country joined the OECD. The media is touting it as a social club of advanced countries. Economically, even if we’re not an advanced country, we’re getting closer. But we need to look back and see if we have established a labor-management relationship that matches that. Don’t you think?”
“Yeah, I am of the same opinion.”
Had she ever agreed with someone else’s words without her own opinion?
But Lee Hyun-woo’s words were so reasonable that Kim Ah-young kept nodding.
Of course, she gave the following instruction to Park Min-sook upon returning at night.
“Please investigate how much we can reduce working hours from our perspective.”
It might be because she felt a lot in one day, but Kim Ah-young was sure that even though it might not be as much as 【Jungle】, 【Seorabeol Hotel】 also needed to change.
“How can he have so much to learn from?”
Inevitably, she decided to stay close to him to learn more in the future.
The next day, the shift personnel arrived.
In other words, the first 50-something people returned to Seoul, and the remaining 50-something came in.
The team leaders who came with them were Woo Sang-won, Jang Yoo-chul, and Kang Dong-ho.
Woo Sang-won had something to report, so he asked Lee Hyun-woo for some time.
“The server capacity has increased by more than 80%.”
“It’s faster than expected.”
“Yes, it’s thanks to combining the data storage technologies of Team Leader Lee and Team Leader Oh that it’s only this much; otherwise, it would have exploded already.”
This was true.
If Lee Jung-woo and Oh Min-woo had not pioneered new horizons in data storage technology, the server purchase costs would have multiplied.
“In that case, we should place a bulk order. We need cloud services next year anyway.”
“The issue is space. It looks like we’ll need something close to a warehouse.”
“Indeed… Should we build a data center then?”
“A data center?”
Since the concept wasn’t well-established yet, Woo Sang-won tilted his head at Lee Hyun-woo’s casual suggestion.
So he had to roughly explain the basic concept of a data center.
“To put it simply, it’s a facility that collects data connected to the internet. Inside this center, there must be routers, servers, and uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) for power.”
“It’s not just servers that are needed.”
“Servers are definitely the most needed.”
Since it wasn’t an entirely new concept, Woo Sang-won quickly understood.
“But there are conditions for the location of the data center. First, the land price must be cheap.”
“Ah, yes. That makes sense.”
“Cooperation from the government and local governments is essential. We need to solve the power issue.”
Woo Sang-won nodded.
“Seoul will be difficult then. The suburbs are also expensive, and there will be immediate power shortages.”
“Don’t pinpoint any place, just make the local governments compete.”
“Pardon?”
“Building a data center requires investment in design, construction, and basic equipment. Even a single building needs hundreds of billions of won. With long-term stable tax revenue and regional economic stimulation, local governments will jump at it.”
In his past life, local governments had also jumped at the chance to build 【Single】’s data center.
Even now, if he explained the impact of a data center well, local governments wouldn’t hesitate to jump in.
“You really know everything, CEO.”
“Sometimes I wonder why I know so much myself.”
Of course, it was because he had lived twice, but he couldn’t say that, so he just smiled calmly.
“By the way, to complete the data center, I’ll need to request help from 【Guseong】 again.”
Building a data center requires high-level technical skills.
Moreover, since they need to know the internal servers and network equipment well, a collaboration between 【Guseong Construction】 and 【Guseong Systems】 was essential.
“It looks like I need to meet with Tae-hyun hyung again.”
Kim Tae-hyun was a director at 【Guseong Systems】.
Naturally, he needed to discuss it with him, so he asked Kim Ah-young to arrange a meeting that evening.
Kim Ah-young, who had already spent two evenings with Lee Hyun-woo, naturally accepted the request and contacted Kim Tae-hyun.
These days, Kim Tae-hyun was in a great mood.
It was because the demand for servers was about to explode.
It was a natural process.
As the daily use of high-speed internet increased, both individuals and companies needed servers.
“Switching the computer production line to a server production line was a stroke of genius.”
Changing the production line wasn’t easy, but since computers and servers had very similar structures, it wasn’t difficult either.
Moreover, as the year-end approached, computer supply was heading towards excess, so it seemed timely to switch, and the company was reevaluating his abilities.
Because of this, when Kim Ah-young’s request came in,
“Really? Hyun-woo wants to see me? Alright! I’ll take the morning flight and go right away.”
(Huh? No need for that. We can see each other when we return to Seoul.)
“No, no. I also want to thank him. Thanks to him, the server demand is no joke right now.”
Feeling good, his heart became generous.
Honestly, he adored Hyun-woo to death.
It was also Hyun-woo’s advice to mass-produce servers.
Moreover, 【Jungle】 was the biggest buyer of servers from 【Guseong】.
They would need more in the future, so he felt he needed to meet him for client management purposes.
After making an impromptu decision, he flew to Jeju Island the next day.
When he arrived at the hotel, it was just lunchtime, so he set up a separate meeting with Lee Hyun-woo.
“I heard from Ah-young that you’re having a workshop here?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“That’s quite generous. Or is 【Jungle】 doing better than I thought?”
“I just felt like it since it’s the year-end. More importantly, hyung, there’s something I’d like to discuss.”
“Really? What is it?”
“Actually, we’re planning a data center and wondered if we could entrust it to 【Guseong】.”
Here, Lee Hyun-woo briefly explained the concept of a data center.
After listening to his explanation, Kim Tae-hyun’s eyes widened.
“So, it means that not only the construction company but also 【Guseong Systems】 should be involved.”
“And it seems like we’ll also place a special order for servers from 【Guseong Electronics】.”
“This is an enormous project involving three affiliates.”
“That’s why I’m requesting you, hyung. I was going to tell you when I went to Seoul.”
“No, actually, I wanted to see you to thank you. As you know, thanks to your advice, we’re about to enter the golden age of servers. Orders are piling up even before we make them.”
“That’s great news.”
Lee Hyun-woo genuinely smiled and rejoiced.
“Servers are items sold more to companies than individuals.”
Consumer goods companies focusing on wholesale and retail were gradually transforming into business-to-business transactions.
If this accelerated, what other changes would start to happen?
‘It’s interesting, really interesting.’
Meanwhile, Kim Tae-hyun also had a genuinely amused expression.
“To be honest, I came not just to thank you but because talking to you is fun. Actually, I have an appointment in the evening, so I have to go back right away.”
“Wow, so I’ve become hyung’s endorphin.”
“Don’t get me wrong. Talking to you makes me feel like I can see the future. That’s why I want to meet often.”
“Yes, I also want to meet hyung often.”
So I can keep influencing you not to end up in court later.
After saying this to himself, Lee Hyun-woo took something out of his pocket.
“Ah, hyung. I also showed this to Ah-young. Want to see it?”
“Hmm? What’s this?”
“An MP3 player.”
“MP3 player? Oh, does this play MP3 files?”
“Yes, that’s right. A company I know made it, and they recently got a patent.”
He emphasized the word “patent” a bit more to suggest not getting into disputes with 【Alpha Cast】 but instead paying the patent fee and making the product.
But what he really wanted to say was the following.
“Suddenly, I thought, how about adding an MP3 player function to mobile phones?”
