The Executive's Burden
He turned his monitor to eye-protection mode and stared at the pending approval documents with cold, sharp eyes. Returning to a state of cool, rational detachment, he reviewed the paperwork, drafted his comments, and either placed them on hold or forwarded them to the higher-ups.
The titles of approval requests in this company had to follow a strict rule. First, you had to list the department of the employee who drafted it, down to the smallest team unit, followed by the affiliate's name. Then, a hyphen. After that, you had to summarize the reason why this approval was necessary.
The content above referred to "private"—meaning it was not for the Public Procurement Service, government ministries, or overseas export, but strictly for products sold to the general public in stationery stores and the like. As you know, "wholesale" is a standard term. Therefore, this highly condensed, easy-to-read title could be accurately interpreted as follows:
"Doowon Products supplies various sets of A4 paper to wholesale distributors for domestic personal use. Our Strategic Planning Team has confirmed that current stock is insufficient, and additional production is expected to be required. Therefore, we request that the Holding Company's Business Management Control Office appropriately review this document, determine if additional production of domestic personal-use A4 paper is appropriate, and if deemed valid, authorize the Purchasing Team to acquire the necessary pulp and issue a purchase order."
In reality, if you wrote all that out in the title, the higher-ups might ask, "What kind of crazy person is this? Is he a rookie?" So, the standard procedure was to attach the documents, outline the business details, and send it off for the headquarters to process.
Of course, the Support Headquarters didn't handle every single aspect of the business. When a company submitted a request for resource procurement, they simply had to check if it was valid in terms of industrial engineering, production operations, and inventory management systems, and then approve it. That was their specific role. Profitability, public image, compliance issues, and loss control were handled by rotating through other departments.
So, he had to review the 15 attached documents and the 1,700 characters of mixed English, Korean, and Hanja, then draft his approval comments and sign off as follows:
However, I request verification of whether the pulp being acquired is made from damaged remnants and tree trunks left over from timber use, in line with ESG activities. Please ensure this requirement is noted to the Purchasing Team when submitting the request. MRP review complete, SCM inventory stability and PLM 18,632AU cycle check complete.
MRP stands for Material Requirements Planning. Based on the production schedule and quantities written in the document at the time of submission, one must comprehensively review the timing of raw materials, human resources, and sub-components to answer: "Is it right to approve this now, should it have been done earlier, or should it be delayed further due to market conditions?"
SCM is Supply Chain Management. Simply put, it is a system that measures the possibility of wholesale distributors receiving products (A4 paper) on time and maximizes that possibility. It’s about ensuring that the customer—the wholesaler—doesn't suffer any inconvenience, while also checking that there are no additional costs or losses caused by insufficient or excessive inventory sitting in warehouses.
PLM... we'll look into that later.
"Hmm..."
So, this was the work he had to handle. Unless there was a special event or incident, he spent his time in the office submitting approvals, tapping on his calculator, opening new documents, and making phone calls to write these "approval comments."
It seemed like even a college student could verify this, so why was an Executive Director doing it?
"Are you curious about that?"
"Yes. I could have done that back in my undergraduate days."
"Naturally, an executive has to do it. First, if the person responsible is in a low position, it becomes difficult to hold them accountable. And second..."
His keyboard clattered.
"When did I open this approval document?"
"It was 11:44 AM."
"When did I draft the approval comments?"
"11:48 AM... wait...?"
Two minutes to understand the 15 attached documents and 1,700 characters, one minute to review the feasibility, and one minute to draft the comments—total time: 4 minutes.
"...Is that possible?"
"Ah, no...!"
"If you can do it, you take the Executive Director position."
"Ah... so that's why..."
"What is?"
He looked at her and leaned back in his chair for a moment.
"Well, when I submit approval documents to other departments, it takes 1 to 2 hours...! I was amazed before when I submitted a request for Doowon Electronics' photoresist purchase to the Support Headquarters; by the time I came back from getting coffee, it was already approved."
"Then, who do you think that's all thanks to?"
"..."
Eunbyul stared at him, slowly closing her mouth. She solidified the resolve she had made before going to sleep last night. Just as she had received advice after pouring her heart out to her father... that was the kind of thought she had.
"Ah, General Manager!"
"Yes. You're late today."
"Are you late? Your messenger was on..."
"Ah, that... my secretary came in early and turned it on..."
After lunch, Eunbyul went up first, and he said he would go for a smoke. As he sat on a bench in the pilotis and lit a cigarette, employees recognized him and gathered around. They still felt comfortable around him, but there was something slightly different about them.
"...You're amazing. We didn't even know exactly what happened..."
"No, it's nothing..."
"I heard on the news that you might receive an award..."
"Oh, stop it."
"You even paid for the medical expenses of the injured crew members... It was so unexpected, you threw yourself into the fray without anyone telling you to..."
"No, it's... hah, I'm just a bit of a fool who's too nice—"
Wait, I've never spent my own money...
"...?"
"To think you'd be this humble after doing such a thing..."
No, I really didn't know, why are they suddenly—no, from my bank account? Where? From my securities account balance? In cash? Or what?
In their eyes, he was just being humble, so he let it slide. From the start, there was one thing they felt certain about after this incident.
'The succession of the position seems to be underway.'
'I must get on Han Suhyun's side... No one else matters. They're just salaried executives anyway.'
This wasn't about the employees' morality. Regardless, they were making a living through this company, and they wanted to eat and live longer, more comfortably, and in the best places possible. To do that, they had to keep working here, and this company was churning through restructuring, voluntary retirement, and honorary retirement every quarter. So, they moved in the direction of praising him as much as possible. In the direction of lifting him up.
However, as he listened to those words, he momentarily buried the fact about the medical expenses and thought about what Eunbyul had said before work started. The advice she had given him.
"General Manager, you aren't the type, but now everyone will be extremely favorable toward you, and they'll act like they'd even give you their gallbladder if you asked."
"So, don't push them away or dislike them too much, but find the talented individuals among them and list them up."
"After all, in time, the Chairman of this company will be you. So, after you secure the successor position, you need to find people who can keep the company running well even if you aren't there."
"Distinguish between those who just flatter you and those who 'inflate your ego' but also have the ability to fly."
The words of Eunbyul, whom he had initially thought of as just a playful, young junior, a fool, a bright child, had entered his heart to some extent and formed a consensus. He also thought he should do that, and he didn't think her advice was wrong.
Even though it was said by a subordinate, a secretary, it was worth listening to. He wasn't just easily swayed by a woman's words. If he hadn't had the discernment, he wouldn't have been able to survive in this position.
Also, he began to trust her. He didn't know what had happened after he dropped her off at her house last night, although he had briefly seen the lewd, corrupted expression of Seo Jia on her... but the things Eunbyul had done over the past week were incredible, things only a tiny fraction of other secretaries, no, employees in this company, could do. And she had offered all that credit to him without a shred of lingering attachment, regret, or hesitation.
So, he began to watch the people, thinking about the words they said, their expressions at the time, their gestures, and the things they had done in the past.