Chapter 49:

Chapter 49:

Translator: MarcTempest

Chapter 49

Yoo-hyun sat on a bench at the outdoor terrace on the first floor, drinking free vending machine coffee.

For office workers, smoking time was also known as the second meeting.

It was more comfortable to talk outside in a relaxed posture than in a stuffy office.

It was similar to becoming talkative after drinking alcohol.

“Phew...”

Park Seung-woo, the assistant manager, had a different expression than usual as he exhaled smoke.

He didn’t smile awkwardly, but looked serious.

“I agree with what you said, but I think the PDA project will fail. Maybe it would be faster to succeed with the Apple phone?”

“...”

Park Seung-woo’s intuition was not bad.

No, it was exactly right.

Although it was still treated as an MP3 player, the Apple phone would pioneer the smartphone market in a few years and absorb all the PDAs.

“But why are you doing it? Kid. When you work in a company, you know. Sometimes you have to do things you don’t want to do.”

“...”

Yoo-hyun nodded his head as an answer.

Company employees had no choice but to follow what their bosses wanted.

To change the instructions, they had to provide enough evidence.

Of course, even if they did that, it would be hard to hear good words.

The best thing was to achieve results by following the right decisions made by the boss.

The next best thing was when the boss made a wrong decision, but changed it in the middle.

They could still make some results if they tried hard enough.

The worst thing?

When they followed the wrong decision made by the boss and failed to make any results in the end.

In the worst case scenario, the person in charge would have to take all the responsibility for the failure.

It was exactly the same situation that Park Seung-woo was in.

“By the way, how should I prepare a backup plan...”

“Huh?”

Park Seung-woo stopped talking as if he realized something.

He seemed to forget that Yoo-hyun was a newbie because he was too proficient.

“Oh, backup means. In case the product quantity doesn’t come out as planned, it’s the follow-up plan.”

“So can you switch to another product?”

“It’s not easy. You can’t find a product that uses such high specs right away.”

Why not?

There was already a touch phone that used a pen before HPDA3 at Hanseong Electronics.

And it was a product that collaborated with Channel, a luxury brand.

Yoo-hyun asked.

“Can’t you use Channel Phone 2?”

“Hmm... It’s possible. Well, they’re also rushing their schedule, so it might be possible.”

“...”

“But it’s too much of a difference in quantity to use it as a backup plan.”

Park Seung-woo looked troubled by his words and Yoo-hyun just agreed with him.

“Is that so?”

“Yeah. Even if we get a lot, we can’t get more than 10% of the production line quantity we set for HPDA3. Well, that’s not a small number either.”

10% was not a small number and Park Seung-woo knew that well.

He looked like he thought it could be one of the backup plans.

But it was true that they needed a proper backup plan in case HPDA3 completely failed.

They couldn’t sell their panel inventory to customers who didn’t have any plans.

They needed some other perspective to deal with it.

Yoo-hyun hoped that Park Seung-woo could find an answer.

“But does it have to be the same resolution product?”

“No. That’s not it. But it’s better to have the same inch size to match the post-processing.”

“So lower resolution is possible.”

“If there are customers who want low resolution on 3 inches. But what kind of high-end model would want low resolution panels?”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah. Why would you buy a good touch panel and use it with such low resolution?”

That was because Park Seung-woo only thought of high-end models like PDA or Channel Phone.

He had a fixed idea that touch phone users were a minority who used high-end models.

They had to break that first.

“Can’t you lower the resolution of the touch panel? I don’t think people will write or draw with a pen on a small screen anyway.”

“Why? It’s quite useful. Customers liked it on HPDA2 and Channel Phone 1.”

Customers are afraid of denying something new.

Part 1 was busy with Nokia’s response, and Part 2 was not in a good mood because of Hansung Electronics’ low phone sales.

Despite that, Shin Chan Yong, the section chief who presented, looked quite confident.

“...As I reported, the market response to Channel Phone is quite good. We are planning to include the success story of Channel Phone LCD panel in our company’s training materials.”

“Is this what HRD (Human Resource Development) asked for? You must be busy with your work. Are you okay?”

“Yes, team leader. It’s something that helps the company.”

Oh Jae Hwan, the team leader, nodded his head as he heard that.

Channel Phone was a product made by Hansung Electronics and Channel, a famous luxury fashion brand.

Shin Chan Yong, the section chief, was in charge of the LCD panel that went into it.

In fact, he used the same LCD panel as other models, so there was no product planning to speak of.

Development, sales, marketing were also aligned with the phone division without any special crisis.

Yet he made it into an achievement and even planned to make it a success story.

He could make a drama-like story with a few adaptations.

He had no better material to package his work.

Yoo-hyun sneered.

He must have asked HRD to make it himself.

The education team at HRD must have been grateful for his offer.

They were struggling to find success stories every year.

The whole process might not have been visible to the team members, including Oh Jae Hwan, the team leader, but it was clear to Yoo-hyun.

He had worked under him for more than two years already.

He knew that his true self was nothing but an empty shell who looked impressive.

Then it was Part 3’s turn.

Part 3 was always scolded by the team leader at every weekly report, but today was different.

“Choi Section Chief, you heard what your boss said, right? I’ve told the sales team already. Try to take initiative this time.”

“I’ll do my best.”

When Choi Min Hee Section Chief reported on Hyunil Automobile’s spec change part, Oh Jae Hwan Team Leader smiled for the first time at today’s meeting.

“Park Assistant Manager, good job on your report today.”

He even praised Park Seung Woo Assistant Manager who always got nagged at.

Shin Chan Yong Section Chief who was sensitive to changes around him felt a sense of incongruity at Part 3’s changed atmosphere.

From Shin Chan Yong Section Chief’s point of view, Part 3 was nothing but a sucker part.

They did all the hard work but had no chance of success.

It meant they had no chance of getting good scores on their performance evaluation either.

Moreover, most of their failed projects were ahead of their time by about two years.

If he proposed them as new items to the phone division using them, that would also be an achievement.

How generous they were to give them away.

But today, for the first time, he thought ‘maybe’.

What had changed?

At that moment, he saw Park Seung Woo Assistant Manager smiling in his sight.

His eyes were directed at the new employee sitting next to him.

He really hated that guy.

He tried to recruit him because he looked sensible, but he was a fool who couldn’t even catch the given opportunity.

On the other hand, he wondered.

‘Wasn’t it him who answered the phone from Hyunil Automobile?’

Come to think of it, he was also there at Park Seung Woo Assistant Manager’s report that he thought would fail.

Did the new employee do some magic?

Shin Chan Yong Section Chief laughed at the thought that came to his mind.

“Really, me. Does that make sense?”

How well could a new employee do?

It must have been a coincidence.

As he thought so, his eyes met with Yoo-hyun’s.

Then Yoo-hyun smiled at him.

Smiled?

It was not a mocking smile for sure.

But somehow, his gaze seemed to look down on him from above and it was very unpleasant.

Shin Chan Yong Section Chief wanted to teach that greenhorn a lesson that he had to lower his eyes in front of him.

Thud.

Thud.

Section Chief Shin Chan Yong who was making a rhythm by tapping his desk with his index and middle fingers looked at Assistant Manager Go Jae Yoon next to him as if he had a good idea.

“Assistant Manager Go, would you like to have a cup of tea after the meeting?”

He said with a friendly smile.

‘Shin Chan Yong and Go Jae Yoon’s combination.’

Yoo-hyun watched the two people leave together after the meeting.