The CEOs present at the conference didn’t stop grumbling. In fact, they expressed complaints for survival, not just for the sake of complaints. They were concerned that if they were not included in KOVE DREAM, they would be dropped out of the race without ending the vicious cycle of financial difficulty.

They demanded, “Why don’t you try to coexist with us?”

“Why are you keeping silent about our demands?”

Hyunwoo took the mike, and the conference room full of their grumbling became quite suddenly. He opened his mouth in a calm voice, “Let me offer you an alternative.”

With a look of great expectations, they focused on his remarks.

“This is what I think is the best alternative. I’m open to your better idea, but if you continue to make the demands for lowering the criteria, I would rather…” He stopped momentarily before continuing, “I would rather be blamed for my decision.”

That meant he would not listen to their demands anymore, which was like an ultimatum to them.

They became tenser now. They hoped Hyunwoo’s alternative could be a silver bullet to revive their companies.

“I’ll make sure KOVE DREAM creates a fund for technical assistance to help many companies enhance their technical prowess.”

The exit strategy that Hyunwoo devised was to end one link of their vicious cycle with the fund of KOVE DREAM. If they could enhance technical skills, they could be included in the minor league of KOVE DREAM, and as a result, increase their sales, it could drive them to develop technology and increase the sales for themselves.

Hyunwoo continued, “In the meantime, let me consult with you how to lower the criteria on joining the KOVE DREAM minor league, but that won’t be lowered enough to satisfy you. As soon as the consumers have the impression that KOVE DREAM’s technology has dropped, it will lose the value of its existence.”

Several CEOs raised opposition to his proposal, presenting their own opinion, but none of their ideas were better than his idea. It was a simple expression of their complaints.

Hyunwoo stressed, “KOVE DREAM is a consortium of companies united to promote their own interests, not a charity organization. If you don’t want to join, it’s your choice. I’ll work with the companies that support my proposal.”

They had no other choice. They felt staying with KOVE instead of Dream Korea would be more beneficial to their business.

A little later some of them began to mention more realistic topics.

“By the way, did you already decide the name ‘Minor League of KOVE DREAM’? It looks funny a bit…”

Of course, that was a temporary name. Hyunwoo thought about it a lot.

If they belonged to the minor league, Hyunwoo felt they needed kind of different treatment with the impression that the quality of their products was good enough.

While he was pondering that, Hyunwoo suddenly thought of a certain color. He felt as there is no rank in color, it could make a good impression.

“How about naming the minor league ‘KOVE DREAM Blue’?”

They would use the same internet homepage, warehouses and sales methods. The only difference would be their use of a separate ‘Blue’ window within KOVE DREAM homepage for the sake of its own distinction.

The CEOs were again divided over Hyunwoo’s idea, but he cut off their words coldly.

“I’m sorry, but I won’t listen to your complaints. If you have a better idea, please take the mike.”

Nobody came up with a better idea.

Nodding his head, Hyunwoo said, “You still have time. I’m going back to Korea next Tuesday. If you can find a better idea, let me review it.”

Hyunwoo wrapped up the conference.

“Even if we operate under the name KOVE DREAM, we won’t accept the local Korean companies only. If the Vietnamese companies have good technical skills, we will accept them.”

“Really? If that’s the case, don’t you think that will blur the image of our identity as the consortium of Korean companies here?” asked one CEO.

Shaking his head, Hyunwoo said, “KOVE DREAM has been founded with the sense that Korea and Vietnam should prosper together. In that respect, the inclusion of Vietnamese companies will help clarify its identity.”

They approvingly nodded their heads.

In fact, there was a sentiment among Vietnamese CEOs that they were receiving reverse discrimination by local Korean companies.

“I’m going to distribute a press release as soon as possible to show our resolve that we want a win-win relationship with Vietnamese companies. And then we’re going to make inroads into Japanese and US markets…”

Now there was heard Hyunwoo’s voice only in the conference room because they had no better ideas.

The meeting ended like that, and the CEOs left the place with some regrets, but most of them had a satisfied look on their faces after hearing Hyunwoo’s silver bullet proposal.

***

On Saturday, Hyunwoo continued to have a meeting in the N&C conference room. Following the meeting with more than 100 CEOs yesterday, he met with about ten CEOs this time.

But the meeting proceeded in the same way. When they asked the questions, Hyunwoo replied.

“How are you going to create the fund on technical assistance?” asked one CEO.

“I think any member of KOVE DREAM can financially take care of three or four technicians on its own. The technicians should also lower demands for their contract money. Don’t you think both sides should meet halfway?” answered Hyunwoo.

“How do you decide on the priority?” asked another.

“Well, it’s a first-come-first-serve basis. KOVE DREAM will support the company first that finds common ground with technicians, but those companies that are stigmatized as unscrupulous will be excluded from the assistance,” answered Hyunwoo.

The meeting atmosphere changed after several bouts of questions and answers between the CEOs and Hyunwoo. Now Hyunwoo asked questions and the CEOs, including Na, answered.

“If you increase the number of KOVE DREAM Blue companies to 50, don’t you think the overall technical prowess will be lowered as a whole?” asked one CEO.

“It depends on how you look at it. But I think they’re still ahead of Chinese companies. Recently the technical skills of local Korean companies have improved a lot,” replied another CEO.

“If that’s the case, can you set the criteria tailored to that level?” asked Hyunwoo.

“Let me take that into account,” said Na.

“If you expand the membership of KOVE DREAM to Vietnamese companies, do you expect there are many such companies?”

“Tough question. In my mind, there are not many, but I expect there are a lot trying to join KOVE DREAM Blue. Maybe there are more Vietnamese companies than local Korean companies.”

Na looked a bit gloomy. He was concerned Korean companies might lose the initiative to their Vietnamese rivals.

But Hyunwoo disagreed with him.

“I’m going to make sure our Korean companies get technical assistance first. The more KOVE DREAM gets bigger, the more technical assistance it will offer to the Korean companies, which I think will help strengthen them further. So, please make efforts to attract Vietnamese companies with technical prowess.”

“In fact, I’ve been doing some research on that. There are many Vietnamese companies that want to join because KOVE DREAM is popular. However, some of them equipped with high technical skills don’t want to join when I replied to their interest,” said Na.

Hyunwoo took his remarks lightly. For it was not necessary for all the companies to join KOVE DREAM.

But he seemed there must be some reason for their rejection, given Na’s way of speaking.

“Do they have any bad feelings about KOVE DREAM?”

“No, I don’t think so. It looks like they are trying to gain the upper hand in the conditions of the contract. They seem to think if we approach them first, they will get a better deal.”

There was nothing like a better deal. The role of KOVE DREAM was to sell their products in Korea and get the commission. ‘Better deal’ for them would mean lowering the commission rate as low as possible.

“How about it? As you came as far as Vietnam, won’t you visit them and negotiate? As far as technical skills are concerned, they have a very good name here,” said Na.

Hyunwoo shook his head at the drop of a hat.

“KOVE DREAM will sign the contract with any company on an equal basis. It won’t approach companies that don’t want to join and beg for them to join. It will accept those companies who want to join and pass our criteria.”

Na nodded at that.

“Got it. Ooops, times flies so fast. Let’s go out for lunch.”

Hyunwoo headed for the N&C cafeteria with the participant CEOs that day.

After lunch, they took a walk in the park near N&C factory. The park was not far from its main gate.

Then, there was some noise near the main gate as if there broke out a scuffle.

Na asked one of his staff to go and check it out.

A little later he came back and reported, “They came here several days ago. You remember the Vietnamese companies DF Technology and Young Plastics, right?”

“They came again?” said Na, making a frown.

Hyunwoo tilted his head and asked, “Are they company CEOs? What brought them here? Are they here to ask to join KOVE DREAM?”

Na shook his head and said, “Their technical skills are way behind. As they know that, they can’t ask us to have them join KOVE DREAM or Blue.”

“Why are they here then?

“Well, to make a long story short, they are here to ask for our investment because they’re in financial difficulty right now.”

In short, they were begging for investment.

Hyunwoo didn’t show any interest, but what Na said next aroused his interest.

“They’re really persistent. How many times did they come here? I know their desperate efforts to save their companies, but they’re asking too much,” said Na.

“Looks like they’re not swindlers.”

“I know they’re sincere businessmen, but they put themselves in financial difficulty because of bad management.”

Hyunwoo suddenly recalled the first time he met Na.

Na was like them at the time. Na was a sincere businessman like them, who had great pride. But his company was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy because of his bad management.

Without Hyunwoo’s investment, it would have been impossible for Na to revive his company.

When he thought as far as that, Hyunwoo became more interested in them. If they showed a potential, he wanted to give them an opportunity.