Chapter 87
Chapter 87
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 87
Chapter Title: What Is a Good Management?
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# 87
Again, Writer Episode 87
Chapter 32: What Is a Good Management?
Even though the vice president was just standing there with his hands behind his back, Gu Jin-mo inexplicably felt his throat go dry.
It was just a back view, but it carried an oppressive pressure like no other.
“What are you waiting for? Come in.”
“Y-Yes, sir!”
Gu Jin-mo hurriedly stepped inside at the vice president’s deep, resonant voice that bordered on gravelly.
The automatically opened door closed behind him, completely sealing off the outside world.
“I can tell you’re tense. Looks like you know what you did wrong.”
“……Yes, sir.”
“Sit down first.”
The vice president, who had been speaking without turning around, finally faced him.
The first thing that caught Gu Jin-mo’s eye was the man’s piercing, hawk-like gaze.
His intense eyes gleamed sharply from beneath heavy brows, like those of a tiger.
“No need for tea. In your current state, you wouldn’t even know if it went in your nose or your mouth.”
“I’m fine, sir.”
“If you really need some, make it yourself and drink it. I pour my own anyway.”
“Yes, sir.”
Gu Jin-mo gave a small reply, unable to meet the vice president’s piercing stare.
He sat ramrod straight, like a private facing a drill sergeant.
“I’ll give you time to explain yourself first. Say whatever you want. I’ll listen.”
“…….”
The vice president laid it out openly, inviting him to speak freely.
But despite that, Gu Jin-mo couldn’t open his mouth.
He couldn’t even lift his head.
“Nothing at all? Should I take that to mean you don’t even have an excuse?”
“Well, it’s just that…….”
“Go on.”
“It’s a clichéd excuse, but we didn’t get the results we expected. Still, I take full responsibility because I failed to manage the writers properly.”
“Hmm. Not a bad choice.”
The vice president nodded at how clearly Gu Jin-mo admitted his fault.
If he’d tried some flimsy excuse, he would’ve torn him apart on the spot. At least this showed some basic self-awareness.
“That said, I don’t think the performance was outright poor. It wasn’t a clear success, but it wasn’t a failure either. It just looks like one because of the comparison. Marketing-wise, we lacked firepower too.”
“That’s what makes it a failure. If you don’t win, you lose. And we started first. But we didn’t just get caught—we got overtaken by the latecomers. That’s incompetence, plain and simple. If we’d only been caught, I might’ve understood. Their marketing was unexpectedly clever. But getting surpassed? You’ve seen the current market share, right?”
“……Yes, sir.”
Gu Jin-mo replied with a stiffened face.
With clear metrics in place, there was no room for excuses.
“We even commercialized webtoons ahead of them. The market should’ve favored us in every way. So how did they overtake us in just a few months? And we have the country’s top portal site, no less.”
“……I’m sorry, sir.”
“I didn’t call you here to hear those five words. I’ve already gotten reports from the field staff on the situation so far. Now I want to hear your plans going forward.”
“…….”
Gu Jin-mo swallowed hard again.
But strangely, his posture only shrank further.
The vice president was his cousin outside of work, but in a situation like this, that meant nothing.
If anything, leaning on family ties would likely provoke an even bigger outburst.
“You do have countermeasures prepared, right? It’s been plenty of time. Or are you slacking off, thinking this isn’t so bad?”
“No, sir. We’ve been working on plans. We were in a meeting right now, even.”
“I haven’t heard about that.”
“It wasn’t a full company meeting. I thought we needed to identify our problems first, starting from the bottom up.”
“And the results?”
The vice president took a step back.
Yelling wouldn’t solve anything right now, and he knew it.
Plus, he wanted to hear what Gu Jin-mo had figured out.
It was a problem they needed to address head-on at least once.
‘The writer lineup isn’t bad. Except for the lack of rookies. But that’s unavoidable.’
It was the CEO’s directive to scout only the top writers.
Gu Jin-mo had followed it to the letter.
So even he couldn’t complain about the shortage of newcomers.
The real issue was getting overtaken by the competition.
“Primarily, we failed at writer management. Secondarily, we didn’t promote properly, leading to this mess. Honestly, we haven’t found a solution yet.”
“I have to agree on the promotion part. We were definitely lacking there. If we’d fired back even a little, we wouldn’t have lost market share like this.”
He wasn’t in a position to micromanage the writers, so he didn’t know the primary reason in detail.
But he agreed they’d fallen one—no, two steps behind in promotion and marketing.
In his view, the handling had been far too sluggish.
Promotion was all about timing, after all.
‘As we grew into a big corporation, we got bogged down in unnecessary procedures.’
Company growth was good.
But it came with more problems too.
“I feel the same, but from the company’s perspective, it was unavoidable. They weren’t ready yet either.”
“Definitely different from webtoons. This proved we can’t do things the same way.”
“Yes, sir.”
“So those are the two biggest issues? What’s the fix?”
If they’d diagnosed the problem right, a solution should follow.
That’s why the vice president went straight to asking for plans.
“We need to cut loose writers who miss deadlines. Ruthlessly. Though we’d monitor the popular ones a bit longer.”
“Start with the ones not bringing in revenue. Not bad. But not a complete fix.”
“I plan to be even tougher on that. They have their own rules, sure, but the market’s changed, so the rules have too. We won’t let things slide vaguely anymore. For the second issue, I think we need more time. Realistically, it’s beyond my level to handle alone.”
“You’re still just a team leader.”
“Yes, sir.”
The vice president nodded slowly.
Marketing wasn’t something the web novel division could handle solo.
At best, they could run events, but that wouldn’t compete with Kakao Page.
“How about this approach?”
“What do you mean, sir?”
“If we can’t catch up, we sabotage them a little. There are no eternal partners in that industry, right?”
“Eurm!”
Gu Jin-mo instantly grasped what the vice president meant.
He pondered it seriously.
Was it feasible?
“Pros move for money, don’t they? We lured the current web novel writers with cash too.”
“But it’s a method that failed once before.”
“That’s why we need reliable writers. Ideally ones who’d hurt Kakao Page. I hear there are two such writers.”
“Yes, sir.”
Gu Jin-mo knew exactly who he meant.
It’d be weirder if he didn’t.
Those two were the masterminds behind Kakao Page’s current success.
The problem was they each had management companies, and Kakao Page wouldn’t let them go easily.
If the roles were reversed, he wouldn’t either.
“From that look, you think it’s tough?”
“Kakao Page won’t release them easily. Plus, their managements are in the middle.”
“That’s why I think it’s possible.”
“Pardon?”
Gu Jin-mo blinked in surprise.
He couldn’t guess the vice president’s thinking.
“If they were directly tied, it’d stir up trouble. But a third party changes things. And we have an edge Kakao Page doesn’t.”
“Welfare benefits?”
“That’s secondary. Not tempting enough for writers. They’d endure that for stable income, but top tiers are different. Which means that’s where we start preparing.”
Gu Jin-mo fell into thought.
Trying to discern the intent.
But no matter how he racked his brain, he couldn’t figure it out.
“For example?”
“I hear Kakao Page is prepping webtoons. They’ve locked in genres; now they’re eyeing webtoons. So what should we do?”
“Propose first, before Kakao Page.”
“No. Use our established system to poach them. They’re just starting; we have a solid setup. But it won’t last forever.”
Gu Jin-mo bowed his head again.
He knew exactly what that implied.
The silver lining was his minimal ties to the webtoon division.
“I’ll contact their management first.”
“That’s it?”
“I’ll schedule meetings right away. Both managements, for the two writers. Bringing them both would be ideal, right?”
Gu Jin-mo spoke confidently, but the vice president’s face hardened.
He fixed Gu Jin-mo with a cold stare.
“You can’t help it, can you?”
“Pardon?”
“They’ll come just because we call? They’re not the desperate ones. Sure, we could set a meeting. But will we get the answer we want?”
“Uh…….”
Gu Jin-mo was at a loss for words.
Realizing he was the desperate one.
The one who needed results.
“Go now. Meet them by any means. Today. Then bring me results. Only then can we plan marketing or promotions.”
“Understood!”
“Go.”
“Yes, sir!”
Gu Jin-mo rushed out of the vice president’s office.
But the vice president sighed at the sight.
Frustrated at having to micromanage like this.
“When will you show some real competence?”
Thinking of the slow-witted, mediocre Gu Jin-mo, he let out a deep sigh.
But he didn’t realize.
The company system was what had shaped Gu Jin-mo that way.
* * *
Woo Ji-hyun paused his writing and unlocked his smartphone.
Time for a quick break to check SNS.
“My followers exploded.”
Right after posting the sports car photo, his Instagram—previously at 70 followers—skyrocketed.
Facebook was the same.
Friend requests poured in.
Even more shocking: elementary and middle school classmates he barely remembered were acting friendly.
“The world sure is a funny place.”