The Tower of Innovation
Lisa Su nodded after hearing Yoo Jae-won's brief reply, though not everyone in the room shared her immediate understanding.
"That sounds like an extremely high-performance and expensive component to fit inside a mobile phone," one of the semiconductor division team members objected. In his mind, there was simply no place for a high-end mobile CPU in a handheld device. The image of a mobile phone fixed in his head was still the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X and its clones—bulky, military-radio-like bricks.
The DynaTAC 8000X was infamous for its abysmal battery life: ten hours of charging for just thirty minutes of talk time. Who in their right mind would spend half a day charging a device only to talk for half an hour? On top of that, call quality was mediocre at best. Still, in the 1980s it had been the pinnacle of technology, which was why countless imitators flooded the market. Movies and television shows had cemented the DynaTAC's silhouette as the universal symbol of a "mobile phone."
Things had improved recently. Motorola's MicroTAC 9800X offered major upgrades and finally broke away from the military-radio aesthetic. It was the first flip-phone design, small enough to slip into a pocket—hence the name "pocket phone." At 350 grams, it was a dramatic improvement over the nearly one-kilogram DynaTAC. Most current mobile phones followed the MicroTAC's form factor, and Motorola still dominated the market.
Building on that success, the company had even entered the semiconductor business and was now producing its own CPUs. The 68000 series had been a massive hit in gaming, and its ultra-low-power lineup gave it a strong position in the mobile-device market as well. To Yoo Jae-won, however, both the DynaTAC and the MicroTAC were equally primitive.
"Let's just build it first," he said with quiet confidence. "Then I'll show you exactly what kind of mobile phone we can make with it."
The researcher who had raised the objection could only nod. If Yoo Jae-won's track record had been ordinary, he might have dismissed the claim as bluster. But the man's achievements so far were simply too extraordinary for anyone to argue.
The tablet PCs currently running at the Expo were already being praised as revolutionary. At first, people had wondered where such a device would even be useful. Now, inside the exhibition halls, the tablets were proving indispensable. Complex directions that were difficult to explain verbally could be shown instantly with text and images. Real-time updates on hall conditions were shared among all the guides who carried tablets, allowing them to handle both routine inquiries and sudden situations with remarkable efficiency.
The discussion continued, moving from ultra-low-power CPU development to future roadmaps. For security reasons, Yoo Jae-won revealed only a handful of the critical ideas in his head, but even those fragments were enough to shatter the researchers' conventional thinking.
"At the very least, it should be able to run Doom smoothly," he concluded, putting a definitive stamp on the short-term performance target. A mobile phone capable of running Doom 1 fluidly was the simplest possible way to describe the device he envisioned.
At the same moment in Seoul, Choi Kang-wook looked up from his desk.
"Chief of Staff, we're ready."
"Ah, good. Let's go."
The familiar, almost friendly tone made Choi Kang-wook rise from his seat. Beyond the floor-to-ceiling glass wall, the bustling streets of Seoul spread out before him. The office's single glass wall offered an excellent view—except in August, when it became unbearable. The building, formerly owned by Mirae Construction, had been remodeled into a glass-palace style that looked impressive from the outside. The only saving grace was the central air-conditioning system that had been installed beforehand. Unfortunately, it was not free. The electricity bill for August alone had come to tens of millions of won, which had been a shock. If Choi Kang-wook had been running the building personally, he would have been terrified to turn the AC on. But as part of a massive conglomerate, the situation was different. The corporate tax payments were so large that there were numerous ways to offset costs. Treating the air-conditioning expense as an operating cost effectively made it almost free. It was a trivial detail, yet it made the scale of benefits Korea granted to large corporations painfully tangible.
By mid-September the weather had cooled enough for a pleasant breeze, giving everyone a little breathing room. From the most fashionable stretch of Rodeo Street, the building was constantly surrounded by crowds. The flagship store on the first floor had become a popular meeting spot and was generating impressive sales. Buying the latest Egg-series device from the flagship store had become a status symbol among those who had made money from the Gangnam development boom—parents projecting their hopes that their children might become the next Yoo Jae-won.
The release of the New Egg 2 had only intensified the foot traffic. Watching one side of the market heat up over ultra-affordable Kookmin PCs while the other side chased ultra-premium machines, Choi Kang-wook found the world genuinely amusing. Even more amusing was the fact that Yoo Jae-won was involved in both businesses. Although Prime Minister Jeon Myeong-heon had first mentioned the Kookmin PC initiative, everyone knew Yoo Jae-won stood behind it. The subsidies for signing up for Deacom's ADSL service were actually larger than the hardware subsidies themselves.
"Good grief, those kids are back again."
Choi Kang-wook clicked his tongue at the sight outside the window. Young people in foreign luxury cars or mid-size domestic sedans were gathering—members of the so-called Orange Tribe that had been in the news lately. Every time he saw those idle rich kids, he couldn't help but feel exasperated. He wondered what they would ever amount to. The automatic comparison to Yoo Jae-won only made the contrast starker, and the phrase "the end of the world" rose unbidden to his lips.
Thanks to ID Group, Rodeo Street was thriving, which inevitably attracted this crowd. Since the entire street wasn't owned by ID Group, there was no way to drive them out. The best they could do was ask the local police station for increased patrols.
Choi Kang-wook clicked his tongue once more, picked up his Shell Book, and left the office.
The moment he entered the conference room, a chorus of scraping chairs echoed as everyone stood up.
"Sit down, please. I've told you many times not to do that," Choi Kang-wook said, waving his hands. Only then did everyone settle back into their seats.
This meeting, held in the large conference room on the third floor of the Rodeo building, was an executive-level gathering convened by the Chief of Staff's office to finalize the recent organizational restructuring of ID Group and issue the corresponding directives. Hwang Jae-hong, Korea branch manager of ID Investment, Kang Chan-ho, factory manager of ID Display, the head of the Strategic Planning Office, the sales director of ID Investment, and even the flagship store manager had all been given seats. Though each of them wielded considerable authority in their own domains, none compared to Choi Kang-wook. As the undisputed second-in-command of the entire group, the respect shown to him was only natural.
"You should have already received the preliminary notice regarding the organizational changes. I'll now confirm them here. Several large divisions under ID Technology have been fully separated, and the Korean organization has been restructured accordingly."
Having worked alongside Yoo Jae-won for years, Choi Kang-wook's speaking style had grown similar—concise, skipping pleasantries and going straight to the point. He connected his Shell Book to the projector and brought up the new organizational chart of ID Group.
At the very top sat the box labeled "ID Group," with the Chief of Staff's Office, Strategic Planning Office, and Audit Office attached to it. Although Yoo Jae-won's business card already listed him as Chairman of ID Group, no actual holding company had existed until now. This restructuring had finally created a concrete entity. By contributing 51 percent of the shares he held in each ID Group affiliate, the holding company ID Group had been established, complete with the Chief of Staff's Office and Strategic Planning Office. Naturally, Yoo Jae-won could continue to exercise full control over the entire group through his stake in the holding company.
At first glance it might seem like unnecessary complexity, but the crucial difference was that even if he sold off the remaining 49 percent of the holding company and 49 percent of the subsidiaries, his management rights would remain secure. If both the holding company and its subsidiaries were eventually listed on the stock exchange, this structure would become an enormously powerful capital-raising engine.
"I'm aware that this development has brought you considerable unwanted attention from outside," Choi Kang-wook continued. "The listing of Android Corporation has triggered a flood of calls to our Korean executives. People who are frighteningly good at spotting profitable opportunities are trying to extract even the smallest piece of information."
"Please remember that this matter has nothing to do with the Korean affiliates. I ask that you all conduct yourselves so as to avoid any unpleasant incidents."
Some people flinched; others visibly relaxed—most notably Hwang Jae-hong and Kang Chan-ho. Their roles naturally involved frequent external contact, so the warning hit them directly. Kang Chan-ho, however, had been worried about something else entirely. He had feared that ID Display might also be spun off from ID Technology. Seeing the finalized chart with ID Display still firmly under ID Technology brought him immense relief.
"Let's move on to the next agenda item."
Choi Kang-wook pressed the spacebar. The organizational chart vanished, replaced by a single large icon of a skyscraper rising from flat ground.
"We've discussed many times how ID Group's rapid growth has left us short of office space. That problem ends now. The Chairman has approved the construction of a new headquarters building."
Applause broke out around the table. Even the Korean branch alone had its various affiliate offices scattered across the city. Choi Kang-wook himself had only recently moved into the Rodeo building; before that he had used the Seocho-dong office he had kept since his lawyer days. After remodeling the Rodeo building to create his own office and the conference room, almost no space remained. The ID Office development team, which occupied the entire second floor, was also running out of room and had been forced to rent additional space nearby—an inconvenient arrangement.
Many other departments faced the same issue. At Choi Kang-wook's suggestion, ID Group's overall accounting was still handled by the Korean branch, and the volume of transactions and the number of staff had grown dramatically. Yoo Jae-won's decision to build a new headquarters had come at exactly the right time.
"The headquarters will be built in Dogok-dong. This will be the true headquarters of ID Group—not just in name, but in reality."
Yoo Jae-won had named the building ID Global Headquarters. The San Francisco building was called ID Technology Center, while the Manhattan building—acquired because there was no land available to build—had been designated ID Investment Building. Seoul would be the true command center overseeing the entire group, while the other two buildings served Technology and Investment respectively. Even in an age of globalization, ID Group was making it clear that it remained a Korean company at heart.
"Strategic Planning Office, please begin the architectural design commission and the construction company bidding process. Once the blueprints are ready, send them to the Chairman for approval immediately and proceed accordingly."
Normally, bidding meant lowest-price selection. Yoo Jae-won, however, intended to choose the firm that could best deliver the design, performance, and quality he wanted. Although his friendship with Jeon Myeong-heon meant Mirae Construction could not be ignored, even they would be rejected without hesitation if their blueprints or estimates were inadequate.
"The Chairman has said that if the city permits it, we may build as large as necessary to create a new landmark that could replace the 63 Building. We will occupy the prime floors ourselves and lease the remaining space as offices or retail to generate revenue. Therefore, Branch Manager Hwang Jae-hong."
Hwang Jae-hong, who had been listening with his mouth agape at the sheer scale of the plan, was so startled by the sudden address that he missed his chance to respond. Choi Kang-wook continued without pause.
"Please meet with the commercial banks and inquire about financing options."
Securing bank loans—Hwang Jae-hong's specialty. He already knew from experience that it was far better to use the bank's money than one's own when constructing a large building. Seoul's land and property prices were rising at a terrifying pace, and the real-estate myth showed no sign of collapsing even as the century turned. Although the blueprints for ID Global Headquarters had not yet been drawn, Hwang Jae-hong felt an instinctive certainty that the project would be a massive success.
"Yes, sir. I'll report the results as quickly as possible."
Choi Kang-wook nodded, closed his Shell Book, and looked around the room.
"Does anyone have anything else to add?"
When no one spoke, he declared the meeting adjourned. As everyone gathered their materials and stood, Choi Kang-wook singled out one person.
"Manager Kim Taek-jun."
"Y-yes, sir!"
"You received an email from the Chairman yesterday, correct? I received the same one. He asked us to discuss it together, so let's go to my office."
Kim Taek-jun's anxious expression brightened instantly. He had been struggling with an unexpected directive that had landed on his desk—building a remote lecture system using the internet. The concept made sense, but he had no idea how to actually implement it, let alone where to find qualified instructors. Knowing that Choi Kang-wook had received the same email and was willing to help felt like an enormous weight being lifted.
Following Choi Kang-wook out of the conference room, Kim Taek-jun's steps felt considerably lighter.