Real Man

The day of the meeting with the Innovation Strategy Office arrived.

The purpose of this meeting was to discuss the direction of the Innovation Strategy Office.

The goal was ambitious, but they had already talked about it several times, and the outcome was easy to predict.

They would confirm each other’s opinions, and then encourage each other to do their best, even though it was hard.

That’s how it had been until now.

But this time, it was a little different.

Yoo-hyun had a premonition of a clash with his old friends, and he stepped into the Hansung Tower.

Thud, thud.

As he walked through the lobby, he imagined the meeting situation that would soon take place.

The only issue was how to persuade them.

‘It won’t be easy.’

That’s what he thought as he passed the reception desk.

“What are you doing right now? How can you push us like this without any authority?”

A rather sharp voice came from the open meeting room inside.

Yoo-hyun turned his head and saw a middle-aged man growling.

The color of the ID card around his neck showed that he belonged to Hansung Chemical.

He faced another man, and Yoo-hyun’s eyebrows narrowed.

‘Shin Nak Kyun, assistant manager?’

Shin Nak Kyun, who had worked with Yoo-hyun in the Group Strategy Office, was arguing with his opponent in a low posture.

“Director Jang, that’s not what I meant.”

“Assistant Manager Shin, are you still delusional about your time in the Group Strategy Office? The situation has changed now. You have nothing to offer us, so stop nagging us.”

“I’m not nagging, I’m asking you to keep up with the schedule. How can you be so emotional?”

Shin Nak Kyun’s tone was a bit stiff, but it wasn’t that annoying.

He had improved a lot compared to his previous behavior of ruthlessly pushing the subsidiary employees.

But the response from the other side was not good.

“Emotional? Are you trying to teach me?”

“No, that’s not…”

“You should be glad that you’re not from our company. If you were, I would have smashed you.”

“…”

“I’ll report this to the higher-ups and take action. You deal with it yourself.”

The man left a final word and left.

It was probably the first time that Shin Nak Kyun, who had started his career in the Group Strategy Office, was treated like this by a subsidiary employee.

His pride must have been hurt, as he loosened his tie.

“Damn it.”

Then he disappeared in the opposite direction.

Yoo-hyun watched his back for a moment.

He didn’t know the details, but it was clear that Shin Nak Kyun’s status had fallen a lot since the Group Strategy Office was disbanded.

He had the same work, but he lost his power, and he couldn’t control the subsidiaries properly.

The future situation was also not favorable.

Was it because he was in a better position?

Or did he have some affection for him?

If it had been before, he would have felt relieved to see him suffer, but now he felt uncomfortable.

“He’ll quit soon.”

It was more painful to lose what you had.

It was not only applicable to Shin Nak Kyun.

Most of the people who belonged to the Group Strategy Office were elites who had followed a successful path.

They could go anywhere they wanted, but they had no reason to stay in Hansung, where things didn’t go their way.

They lost their experience and skills that they had honed in the top department overnight.

He hadn’t thought about it before, but this part came to Yoo-hyun strongly.

Was there no way to use this efficiently?

A new concern settled in Yoo-hyun’s mind.

After Shin Nak Kyun completely disappeared, Yoo-hyun resumed his steps.

He arrived at the entrance of the Innovation Strategy Office on the eighth floor, and he stopped in front of the semi-transparent glass door.

Unlike other floors, only a few authorized people could enter here.

Yoo-hyun was one of them.

He scanned his ID card and the sliding door opened.

Squeak.

The office of the Innovation Strategy Office was spread out under the bright light.

He had a few chances before, but it was his first time to enter inside.

The overall structure was similar to the strategy department of the Group Strategy Office, but the distance between people felt relatively narrow.

There were many people gathered on one floor.

Yoo-hyun walked to his destination, the meeting room, and looked at the various people sitting in the office.

Among the unfamiliar people, he saw some people he had met while working in the LCD business unit.

He also saw Choi Kyu Tae, the deputy manager who had worked with him during the BCG negotiation.

He didn’t bother to greet him, as he seemed busy.

Thud, thud.

As he walked, he soon reached the promised place.

Park Doo Sik, the deputy manager who was waiting in front of the meeting room, raised his hand with a friendly expression.

“Manager Han, you should have told me you were here.”

“Didn’t you tell me to come alone and gave me access to the ID card?”

“Well, it’s a two-in-one deal.”

Park Seung Woo, the manager who appeared behind Park Doo Sik, opened his arms and hugged Yoo-hyun.

“Wow, my mentee! You’re here.”

“Yes. How have you been?”

“It feels weird to see you here. We should always meet at a hotel, right?”

“If you say that while hugging me, people will misunderstand.”

Yoo-hyun cut him off and pushed him away, and Park Seung Woo made a sheepish expression.

“Is that so?”

“Ha ha! That’s right. It’s perfect for misunderstanding.”

“Ha ha ha! What does it matter? He’s my mentee.”

Park Doo Sik shrugged his shoulders and Park Seung Woo laughed loudly.

Yoo-hyun smiled faintly at the friendly two seniors.

Apart from the upcoming clash, they were both very good colleagues to him.

Swoosh.

Then, a man passing by gave Park Seung Woo a cold look.

“Manager Park, is this your home? Can you be quiet?”

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

Park Seung Woo apologized immediately, and Park Doo Sik confronted him sharply.

“Deputy Manager Son, you’re not hurt, are you? Why are you making a fuss over this?”

“A fuss? Did I say something wrong?”

“Deputy Manager Son, I don’t think you’re in a position to say that.”

“Didn’t you see that we have a guest? Why are you picking a fight?”

Park Doo-sik, the deputy manager, pointed his chin at the man who turned his head.

As soon as he saw the brown hair that reached his eyebrows and the sharp chin, Yoo-hyun remembered his old memory.

‘Deputy Manager Son Jung-ho?’

He was the person he had to face in the group strategy room in the near future.

While Yoo-hyun blinked his eyes at the unexpected encounter, Park Seung-woo, the senior manager, intervened between the two people in a good-natured manner.

“Come on, there’s no need for you two to fight. It’s all my fault. I’ll keep my mouth shut.”

“Hmph. Let’s be careful not to harm each other. Don’t act like you’re so great just because you have the vice president on your back.”

The man sighed and glanced at Park Doo-sik, who stood his ground without backing down.

“It’s not like I have him on my back. If you’re going to leave, just go. Don’t bother me.”

Flash.

The man who locked eyes with him fiercely turned his body, and Park Doo-sik nodded his head vigorously.

It was obvious that the two of them didn’t get along.

What on earth happened?

The image of the two of them being close friends as the ‘Son-Park’ duo in the group strategy room flashed through Yoo-hyun’s mind.

Clang.

Yoo-hyun, who entered the conference room, asked.

“Who was that person just now?”

The answer was given by Park Seung-woo, the senior manager who came in first.

“Oh, Deputy Manager Son Jung-ho? I told you before, right? The faction problem here is serious.”

“That’s right. But why is there a faction?”

“He’s close to being the leader. We hate him very much.”

Deputy Manager Son Jung-ho created a faction?

-Senior Manager Han, the faction problem is especially serious in the group strategy room, but you don’t have to join it. What’s the point of fighting by dividing into your side and my side? In the end, they’re all eating our flesh.

Deputy Manager Son Jung-ho, whom he met in the group strategy room’s personnel support department, was not the kind of person who would create a faction for political gain.

Rather, he was the kind of person who listened to the other side’s story.

Thanks to his open-mindedness, Yoo-hyun and Park Doo-sik, who moved to the organization, were able to adapt quickly.

Not only that, but they also achieved great results in a short period of time by participating in his project.

After recalling his memory, the faction problem in the innovation strategy room looked completely different.

Yoo-hyun nodded his head and glanced at him.

“I see. Was he originally here?”

“No, he’s not an original member. He was scouted by the vice president in the middle.”

Park Seung-woo, the senior manager, followed up with an explanation after Park Doo-sik, who had a stiff expression.

“He’s from Han Sung Chemical’s strategy room. He’s also my colleague who joined the group at the same time.”

“You’re colleagues who joined at the same time, but why are you like that?”

“Why? Is it strange that we don’t get along?”

“A little. It’s the first time I’ve seen Deputy Manager Park get angry at someone.”

Yoo-hyun admitted honestly, and Park Doo-sik gave a bitter smile.

“Well. We just don’t match. He annoys me every time I see him, so it’s a bit tiring.”

“I might be biased, but Deputy Manager Son seems to be good at his job.”

“That’s true. I admit that. But if we don’t get along, we can’t work together.”

Park Doo-sik drew a line, and Park Seung-woo approached him gently.

“How about me? Do we get along well?”

“Hmm, you’re a bit silly, but not bad.”

“I see… I think I know why we get along well.”

“What? Haha!”

Park Doo-sik laughed incredulously, but shrugged his shoulders.

It was the same kind of laugh he used to show to Son Jung-ho.

Why did the two of them become so twisted?

Soon after, he had a chance to guess the answer.

At the place where Vice President Shin Kyung-wook and Executive Director Yeo Tae-sik came in, Park Doo-sik started his presentation.

“The innovation strategy room will follow the group’s holding company transformation…”

Hardware vertical integration through Shin Hwa Semiconductor acquisition, software innovation with Silicon Valley model, unnecessary subsidiary cleanup, and so on.

Big things flowed out of Park Doo-sik’s mouth, just by listening to them.

Most of them were previously discussed, and Yoo-hyun agreed with the overall direction.

He still had a problem with focusing only on extroverted results, but he planned to argue about this part after listening to the explanation.

Yoo-hyun pointed out the part that worried him first.

“To do all this, you’ll need a lot of manpower, right? How are you going to do that?”

As Yoo-hyun asked, Park Doo-sik immediately showed the operation plan.

Bang.

“We have to keep replenishing the manpower. However, since it’s not easy to secure skilled manpower, we’ll operate with internal manpower for the time being.”

“Is this the current organization chart on the screen?”

“That’s right. We’ve also increased the size recently.”

Yoo-hyun quickly took in the organization chart.

At the top of the tree-structured organization chart, the current roles and the roles that would change in the future of each team were listed together.

Below that, there were pictures and brief profiles of each team member.

It was a confidential document that could grasp the internal situation of the innovation strategy room at a glance.

Nevertheless, the reason why he willingly disclosed it to Yoo-hyun?

It was because the trust relationship between the people who gathered here was solid.

Yoo-hyun ironically found the problem in this fact.

‘I see why there’s a faction.’

He found the reason why Son Jung-ho was distorted and opened his mouth.

“All the members here are going to the newly established infrastructure construction department.”

“That’s right. From Shin Hwa Semiconductor acquisition to the whole group strategy, we’ve been doing it, haven’t we?”

Executive Director Yeo Tae-sik answered, and Park Doo-sik added an explanation.

“As the director said, it’s more efficient for the people who have been doing it to keep doing it.”

“I see.”

Park Doo-sik was going to be the team leader of the infrastructure strategy team.

Among the many staff members below him, more than half of them were from the LCD business unit.

There was no room for other department members, including Deputy Manager Son Jung-ho, to join.

Yoo-hyun’s expression didn’t look very good, and Executive Director Yeo Tae-sik asked.

“Why? Is there something bothering you?”

“We’ve been responding urgently until now, but it’s going to be a full-scale war from now on. But I wonder if we can cover everything with this manpower.”

“As I said before, we’ll supplement the manpower.”

“Yes. But if you look at the next department, most of them are MBA graduates, right? The fact is that they seem to have more expertise than us.”

Yoo-hyun pointed out the facts, and Executive Director Yeo Tae-sik countered.

“You can’t judge the work ability by the background. The reality is different, isn’t it? Besides, that department is in charge of the important role of handling the internal and external strategy of Han Sung Electronics.”

“It’s an important role. But it’s also a difficult job to achieve results, as they are constantly blocked by foreign executives.”

In Yoo-hyun’s words, the reason why the innovation strategy room was divided was clearly melted.