QS Food War - Prelude (1)
The villa members' surprise at a particular section of the list was easy to guess.
QS Food Representative Director: Choi Sang-seok (Current Representative Director of QS Resort)
Two points here would puzzle anyone unfamiliar with the recent circumstances. QS Courier President Seong Yun-hwan raised a question about one of them.
“Are you appointing a new representative director for QS Food as well?”
It was a natural question. At the last presidents' meeting, Je-gyun had stormed out, and everyone knew I intended to prohibit executives from holding concurrent positions across affiliates. They likely assumed I would replace the presidents of the thirteen companies Je-gyun had overseen. Even with the ban on concurrent roles, Je-gyun would still be allowed to keep one presidency, and the obvious choice would be the largest one—QS Food.
Explaining in detail that Je-gyun had tried to harm me and ended up tripping over his own feet was out of the question. Especially the part about him now being forcibly committed to a closed psychiatric ward—I couldn't possibly say that in front of Kim Majin.
“Yes. There was a family matter, and Je-gyun can no longer handle company affairs. As you can see from the list I distributed, all fourteen affiliates he managed will either receive new representative directors or be merged with other companies.”
At my words, everyone's eyes turned to Kim Majin. If there had been even the slightest falsehood in what I said about Je-gyun's situation, she would have been the first to object. Conversely, she was also the person whose agreement I needed most to confirm that Je-gyun had serious problems and could no longer remain in his role.
Of course, Kim Majin knew exactly what Je-gyun had done and his current condition, so she quietly nodded to show she agreed with me. Then she gave me a small smile, thanking me for not exposing her husband's disgrace.
This also achieved another small goal: any lingering doubts the villa members had about Kim Majin would now be completely dispelled. If Je-gyun were still in good standing, it would make no sense for her to be here opposing him. Once they realized he had completely collapsed as a person, her actions became perfectly understandable.
When President Seong Yun-hwan, who had asked the first question, nodded, President Shin Ho-jung brought up the second point that had surprised everyone.
“First of all, congratulations on your appointment to QS Food, President Choi Sang-seok.”
“I think I should save the congratulations for later.”
At Choi Sang-seok's ambiguous reply, Shin Ho-jung turned his question to me.
“I'm not trying to object, but is there a specific reason you chose President Choi Sang-seok for the representative director position at QS Food?”
The earlier question about why QS Food needed a new president was something both Han Seung-woo and Kim Majin already knew the answer to. But why Choi Sang-seok specifically had been chosen was a question only I could answer.
Naturally, all eyes in the living room turned to me—except for Choi Sang-seok, who had been briefed in advance.
* * *
To answer this properly, I would have to go back quite a few years and explain what role Choi Sang-seok had played within the group.
He hadn't always belonged to QS Resort. He had originally worked directly under the head office of the Central Management Headquarters—specifically the personnel team. His nickname back then was “The Scissors.” It wasn't a name he chose himself; it came from how ruthlessly he restructured affiliates, “cutting” employees left and right. The name stuck.
When I later asked him about it while offering him the QS Food position, he admitted the nickname still pained him because of the memories attached to it.
A few years ago, while Choi Sang-seok was diligently optimizing workforce allocation at the Central Management Headquarters, he received orders from Chairman Kwon Byung-do to transfer to an affiliate. His destination was QS Food.
At the time, Je-gyun—who had moved from QS Telecom to Food—had apparently made such a mess of personnel matters that it caught the chairman's attention. After being driven out of QS Telecom for clashing with Je-gyun, he had been demoted, yet he proceeded to inflate the number of executive positions and fill them with people who suited his tastes.
Since the food market was already saturated, Je-gyun couldn't have been aiming for high growth. He was simply obsessed with seizing control of the company and siphoning off performance bonuses.
When Choi Sang-seok arrived at QS Food, he discovered that some people had been promoted straight to executive level without even passing through department head. One of them was Yang Gu-hyun, who had earned the position not through any notable achievements but by currying favor with Je-gyun as his personal drinking companion.
Appointed as vice president, Choi Sang-seok found the situation absurd and prepared to begin his “workforce optimization”—in other words, wielding the scissors. But within less than a month, before he had even properly introduced himself to the staff, he had already become the company's official outcast. The mastermind was Je-gyun; the instigator was Yang Gu-hyun.
Even before Choi Sang-seok set foot in the QS Food headquarters, rumors had spread that a restructuring specialist was coming from the head office. A manual circulated warning employees to avoid him at all costs if they didn't want to be fired.
That first month was simply time for the employees to memorize Choi Sang-seok's face and learn exactly who to avoid.
Despite holding the title of vice president, no proper work reports reached him. Whether at lunch or after-work gatherings, QS Food employees went out of their way to dodge him.
Once, while entering the break room, Choi Sang-seok overheard hushed voices inside.
“They say his nickname at headquarters was The Scissors.”
“Wow, what kind of life do you have to live to end up with a nickname like that?”
“If all he does is fire other people while collecting his own paycheck, how does that food even go down his throat?”
“Exactly. Just avoid him completely. Vice President Yang Gu-hyun is right about that.”
Hearing those stories made me curious about one thing: how could someone sent by Chairman Kwon Byung-do's direct order have so little cooperation inside the company?
Choi Sang-seok's answer was simple. The prevailing sentiment was that anyone who got on his good side would be fired by Je-gyun once the restructuring was over. To survive long-term, it was better to avoid Choi Sang-seok entirely.
Under those circumstances, even a restructuring expert like Choi Sang-seok had no way forward unless he could fire the president, Je-gyun, first. To cut staff, he needed to distinguish between the valuable and the worthless, but without any reports coming up, that was impossible.
Realizing the situation was untenable, Choi Sang-seok decided to make an example of Yang Gu-hyun, the drinking-companion executive. Just before submitting the dismissal proposal to the Central Management Headquarters, however, a series of strikes broke out at the QS Food factories—as if they had been prepared in advance.
The stated reason was that the employees couldn't work in peace unless the dismissal specialist sent from headquarters was removed from the company.
Choi Sang-seok had come to clean up bloated executives, not to interfere with frontline production. The strikes were clearly instigated by Je-gyun and Yang Gu-hyun.
I couldn't help but find it ridiculous when I heard about it. A president organizing a strike inside his own company.
In the end, Choi Sang-seok realized there was nothing he could do here. He voluntarily returned to Chairman Kwon Byung-do and admitted defeat. His next posting was QS Resort, a company that consumed enormous labor costs due to its massive workforce.
He had tried to do his job properly there, only to be falsely accused of embezzlement by Jang Gang-tae of JB Group. Just when he thought his time at QS Group was over, I appeared like a savior and cleared his name.
At that moment, after watching how I handled the situation, Choi Sang-seok began to hope that if I entered the succession race, he might be able to return to his original role.
After spending years buried in the smallest affiliate while having once overseen restructuring at the executive level, he must have been itching to get back to work. Now, finally, the wish of this well-honed “Scissors” had come true.
I hadn't just entered the succession race—I had become the most likely candidate for the next chairman. Accordingly, the time had come for Choi Sang-seok to return to what he did best.
When I placed his name on the representative director position at QS Food, I gave him two orders.
The first was to complete the work that should have been done at QS Food all along. From the perspective of the Central Management Headquarters, QS Food's executive structure was far too bloated and desperately needed downsizing. Moreover, there was a specific reason Choi Sang-seok had to finish this task now: after Je-gyun's departure, the company's performance needed to show clear improvement. Only then could I prove at the presidents' meeting that removing Je-gyun had been for the company's benefit, not personal gain.
And nothing improves short-term performance more dramatically than cutting unnecessary personnel like Yang Gu-hyun, who only served as drinking companions and collected executive salaries.
My second order to Choi Sang-seok was a bit more complicated: to seize control of personnel authority and prevent Seong-gyun's people from taking key positions.
Right now, Seong-gyun was pouring out the cash he had so carefully hoarded to buy up QS Food shares. It meant he had chosen QS Food as the battlefield for an all-out war with me.
Just because the opponent picked the battlefield didn't mean I had to avoid it. If I was prepared to win on any battlefield, I would go out and fight. And the preparation to thoroughly crush Seong-gyun at QS Food would be completed by appointing Choi Sang-seok as representative director.
* * *
When I finished summarizing the above, the villa members nodded. Among them, President Shin Ho-jung—who had asked the first question—nodded most vigorously.
“So that's why President Choi Sang-seok said earlier that he would accept congratulations later.”
“Yes. Since I've been named the vanguard, I want to receive congratulations after the appointment is confirmed at the presidents' meeting the day after tomorrow and we've won the battle.”
“I wish you the best of luck. Is there any chance this new representative director list won't pass at the presidents' meeting?”
The first part was directed at Choi Sang-seok; the second at me.
“From now on, we need to eliminate any possibility of it failing. Would you please look at the bottom of the list?”