The Mistake I Made Without Realizing It
There are mistakes like that.
Mistakes born of ignorance, of familiarity, of comfort.
They don’t come from malice, so they don’t lead to an immediate conflict, but they’re still the kind of mistake that can never be allowed to continue.
When you’re just starting out in society, you make those mistakes all the time at work.
"Hello~ I'm here again~"
Park Jaeyun had been making that kind of mistake lately.
"Oh, Chief Park. You're here?"
"Yes. The product is going live officially now, so I came by because I was told to stop in and say hello."
"You didn't come to say hello, you came because you were told to say hello?"
"Yep. The CEO told me to, so I came to have coffee with you guys~"
Park Jaeyun had taken over the visits to Korea University’s Department of Veterinary Medicine.
For things like delivering promotional materials and handling simple communication, it was enough for Park Jaeyun to go alone rather than needing deep communication with the professors.
The problem was that, with all the repeated visits, Park Jaeyun had become far too comfortable with the people in the lab.
"Our product is good, right?"
"It is. I think the animal hospitals using it could probably premiumize their services too."
"Then it sounds like a good thing, since the animal hospitals can charge more too."
"Oh? Right. I guess so."
She made mistakes more and more often, like casually revealing that she hadn’t come of her own volition, or speaking too directly about money.
The graduate students in the lab mostly let it slide because Park Jaeyun was a young woman.
But Professor Shin Dongjin, who happened to notice it, took a different view.
"Chief Jaeyun. Come over here."
"Huh? Yes!"
At last, Park Jaeyun saw Professor Shin Dongjin with a serious expression for the first time.
＊＊＊
"Yes, Professor. Yes. Yes. Yes, I'm sorry. Thank you."
I hung up after my call with Professor Shin Dongjin and let out a deep sigh.
I was glad the shared office had a phone booth I could use.
My expression still hadn’t lightened at all.
"Right. I never really drilled business etiquette into her."
Professor Shin Dongjin had gathered up the things Park Jaeyun had said that were careless and relayed them to me.
Not in the spirit of tattling, but as a way of saying he wanted me to keep this from happening elsewhere.
As for the careless remark she’d made today, the professor had already spoken to her about it.
From what I’d heard, she was apparently on the verge of tears, and I was worried about what state she’d be in when she got back to the office.
"This is hard."
Right now, Park Jaeyun wasn’t directly meeting clients for sales.
I’d only asked her to handle relationship maintenance with places where our contracts had already ended and formal agreements for non-academic use had already been signed.
But because she’d gotten too comfortable, and because she didn’t know the subtle nuances she absolutely shouldn’t cross, things like this had started happening.
She said she was on the verge of tears after being told off. Don’t say anything about what’s already been done; just tell her what she mustn’t do from now on, okay?
When I asked in a gloomy tone, Badugi looked a little startled, then clapped.
So now you’re thinking before you ask, not just blurting it out.
I’m not in the mood for jokes.
I meant you sounded like you’d actually thought it through.
Even so, it didn’t forget to add a warning so I wouldn’t get too soft-hearted.
Be glad Professor Shin Dongjin gave you feedback. If this happened out in the field, it’d be a major accident.
I nodded as I read the text.
Right. We had to make sure this didn’t happen again.
Chief Jaeyun, when you come back, please don’t return to the office first. Come to Meeting Room C.
I could imagine how badly that message would make Park Jaeyun’s heart sink.
But I thought it would be better to somehow wrap up the incident properly than to send her straight back to the office in that state.
So I took my laptop and waited for her in Meeting Room C.
Her return was quicker than I expected.
"Siwon, hello."
"Hello, Jaeyun."
In a voice drained of strength and full of defeat, Park Jaeyun greeted me.
"Um... I'm sorry."
Before I could say anything, she apologized to me first.
She looked like she might cry, but she was holding it back with everything she had.
She was definitely going to burst into tears the moment I said anything.
"No, it’s okay."
So without thinking, that was what I answered.
Of course, Badugi immediately looked at me like I was ridiculous.
I hadn’t planned to tell her she’d done nothing wrong, but I didn’t want to make her cry.
No matter what you say, and no matter how you try to comfort her, she’s going to cry. Just say what needs to be said.
At Badugi’s cold words, I clamped my mouth shut. After a moment, I spoke carefully to Park Jaeyun.
"Jaeyun, how about we put together a business etiquette guide that works for our company?"
At my words, Park Jaeyun looked at me with a slightly puzzled expression.
Apparently, she couldn’t understand why I was asking to do something together instead of scolding her.
"Pardon?"
I explained my position calmly.
"You, Juwon, and the rest of us will all have to meet clients at some point. I thought it would be good to prepare so we can present a consistent standard of business etiquette when that happens."
"Ah."
There was no criticism, no blame, and yet Park Jaeyun began to cry.
Badugi had been right: she really was in a state where anything would make her cry.
"I'm sorry. I'm not crying because I want to look pitiful. I know exactly what I did wrong today. I'm sorry."
"No, if the tears come, then cry. It's okay."
I handed her some tissues, and Park Jaeyun tried her hardest to stop crying.
There probably hadn’t been an option where she didn’t cry in the first place.
"For now, just pull yourself together. I'll fill in a shared document with the basic points I have in mind."
"Yes."
Thinking that vague comfort would only make things worse, I opened my laptop and organized a simple set of business etiquette guidelines.
Badugi also gave me quick feedback, and while Park Jaeyun was getting herself together, the document was practically finished.
Looks like you’ve already made the whole thing.
If I ask her what she thinks, that’s enough. We weren’t really trying to get ideas from Park Jaeyun anyway.
Fortunately, Park Jaeyun recovered much faster than I’d expected.
"I'm sorry. I wasn't crying to make myself look pathetic or anything. I think I just cried because I felt so stupid about how I’d acted."
"That happens. It’s fine. Can you open the file I uploaded first?"
"Yes. I have it open now."
We talked about the document outlining business etiquette as if nothing had happened.
Since all the mistakes she’d made so far were included in the content, embarrassment filled Park Jaeyun’s face.
Even so, instead of crying again, she made an effort to do something useful.
"It’ll be hard for me to add content directly, so I’ll design the document itself. I’ll also organize the order and group related points together."
"Sounds good. Thanks."
At my "Thanks," it looked like Park Jaeyun might tear up again, but she barely held it back.
"Um, I have another visit to the veterinary department scheduled for tomorrow too. Is it okay if I still go?"
She asked me with a worried expression.
She’d been corrected today, and now she was asking whether it was really all right for her to go again from the company’s perspective.
I liked that this wasn’t the kind of question meant to dodge responsibility, like Do I really have to go?
"Of course you can go. There’s no need to bring up today’s incident again. Just be careful from now on."
"Yes, sir."
Everyone makes mistakes.
The important thing is not to blame others for them, or keep making the same mistake over and over.
There was no need to make a huge issue out of this from Park Jaeyun, who was still early in her career, for a mistake like this.
"Tomorrow, we’ll need to install the updated version again. Have you learned how to install the program?"
"Yes. I’ve learned it."
"Want to try doing it once?"
From the company’s point of view, this was something she could grow into.
＊＊＊
TA Medical’s X-ray analysis AI for veterinarians was officially released.
Since the licensing process had been completed, it could now be sold officially.
As expected, though unfortunately, we weren’t getting many purchase inquiries from ordinary animal hospitals.
Only veterinary departments at universities and large premium animal hospitals were requesting demos.
"That’s a little disappointing. Revenue isn’t coming in right away."
Of course, everyone in our company found that disappointing.
Still, because I kept emphasizing how grateful we should be for anyone willing to try new technology at all, everyone managed to let go of their disappointment better than I’d expected.
"Our actual product is top-tier, but there just aren’t many people interested."
"It’d be nice if the related papers came out faster."
It was the kind of disappointment you could shake off with a few muttered complaints here and there.
If the product is good but the market itself is small, what are you supposed to do?
While I was resting my chin on my hand and dealing with routine work, Badugi suddenly threw a question at me.
If it was asking the question, then the answer was probably the next thing I needed to do.
The market.
In simple terms, the place where buying and selling can happen.
Right now, the market for our product line was small, so that was probably why Badugi had said that.
"Sung-hoon."
"Yeah?"
"If the product is good but the market itself is small, what do you think we should do?"
I passed the question to our marketing lead.
Fortunately, Sung-hoon answered without any difficulty.
"We should grow the market. That’s what we need to do right now."
Both Badugi and I nodded.
"I was planning to share a strategy for that anyway, so would it be all right if I asked for a meeting during an open slot on Siwon’s shared calendar today?"
"Sounds good. We can just go now."
"Then let's go now!"
I worried for a moment that Juwon might say something from the side, but she didn’t seem to care at all.
It seemed she had already passed along to Sung-hoon the target market she wanted for the product, along with its strengths and weaknesses compared to competing products.
At last, it felt like the two of them had settled into a real division of labor.
"Thank you for putting together the strategy right away, even though I didn’t even ask you to."
"If the work is visible, it needs to be done. Please let me know right away if anything’s lacking or looks off."
"Yes, yes."
Sung-hoon’s PPT materials were much more polished than before.
What stood out was that he had updated the competitor analysis and market research data Juwon had given him in far greater detail.
Because the presentation was built on solid data, the follow-up plans were logical and realistic too.
"I split the plans into Option A and Option B for each budget level. Please let me know which one looks better."
The proposals were convincing enough that I nodded on instinct.
Even Badugi seemed surprised at how quickly he was growing.
"Sung-hoon, which option would you recommend?"
"I think Option A would be worth trying."
"Then let's do that."
Now it was time to start spending the investment money in earnest.
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