QS Food Showdown - The Opening Moves (2)
Below the list of newly appointed representative directors’ names were the names of smaller companies slated for merger with existing affiliates. One of them was QS FnB, just as expected. Team Leader Jung Ju-seong confirmed the entry and gave me a small smile. Another company marked for elimination appeared further down the list, and President Choi Sang-seok tilted his head in confusion.
“You’re planning to merge QS Publishing as well?”
Team Leader Chae Hee-geon, on the other hand, nodded as though he fully understood the reasoning behind the decision.
“I’ve also thought it wouldn’t do any good for Director Kwak Hee-yeon to sit in on the presidents’ meeting. She’s perfected the art of dressing up her words in lofty language while speaking with venom. We’re not living in the Joseon dynasty—why is she so obsessed with the Three Bonds and Five Relationships?”
“As you said, Director Kwak seems convinced I’m the villain who destroyed the bond between brothers. She’ll probably oppose President Choi Sang-seok’s appointment to QS Food more fiercely than anyone.”
Despite our explanation, Choi Sang-seok still looked uneasy and tried to dissuade me again.
“I’ve heard Director Kwak Hee-yeon has been quite upset lately, but there’s no need to push yourself on my account. I’ll do my best to prove my capabilities in the presidents’ meeting. As you said, QS Food is in desperate need of an executive-level restructuring.”
“That’s your job, President Choi. My job is to push through the merger of QS Publishing and the motion to dismiss Director Kwak. We can’t leave someone who contributes nothing to the company dragging us down forever. You said QS Publishing has almost no chance of turning a profit, right?”
It wasn’t a question that demanded an answer, yet Kim Majin unexpectedly spoke up.
“I’ve been studying the matter for the past few days. Just as you said, Young Master, QS EnM has been keeping QS Publishing afloat by continuously purchasing additional shares and injecting funds. Without a dramatic change in the revenue model, turning a profit in the short term looks virtually impossible.”
Oh? A few days ago she had asked for materials on QS EnM’s current issues, saying she didn’t want to attend as a clueless president. Since I didn’t know much about QS EnM either, I had assigned her a staff member from the Central Management Headquarters. It seemed she had actually studied quite a bit.
While I was at it, should I ask a few more questions? If she answered well, at least the villa members would stop seeing her as a parachute appointment who only got the job because of family connections.
“What’s the trend in QS EnM’s increasing stake in QS Publishing?”
“When QS EnM first acquired Baekyeom Publishing, it held 51 percent. After changing the name to QS Publishing, that stake has now risen to 98 percent, with roughly 25 billion won in additional capital injected.”
“So there’s no more equity left to buy?”
“No. That’s my assessment as well. I’m sorry if this sounds like I’m undervaluing Director Kwak Hee-yeon, but she doesn’t seem interested in making money.”
She answered well. Even if this were an external candidate interview for the representative director position, she would have passed. One more question, then.
“How do you think QS Publishing’s revenue model should be improved?”
“Once I become president of QS EnM, I’ll have influence over QS Publishing’s management as well, so I’ve given it some thought. I believe we need to abandon the current model of focusing solely on offline bookstores and selling only classic translations. The most urgent task is to release existing IP as e-books.”
“Will that alone fix the chronic deficit?”
“Of course not. If I had full authority, I would secure content IP suited to the online market, since the reading population has largely shifted online. If we have sufficient financial capacity, we could even launch our own platform that functions as an online bookstore.”
Perhaps because of Kim Majin’s personality, her answers were wrapped in cautious phrasing, yet each point accurately grasped the situation at QS Publishing and the broader market. With every word she spoke, the villa members’—especially Team Leader Chae Hee-geon’s—gazes changed dramatically. At this point, no one could still see her as nothing more than a former actress who had lucked into the presidency of QS EnM through family ties.
Although we hadn’t discussed it beforehand, Kim Majin seemed well prepared, so I threw her one more question whose answer I didn’t know myself.
“If such solutions exist, why has QS Publishing maintained its deficit structure all this time? I’ve been hearing for years that the reading population is moving from paper books to e-books.”
“After checking several documents, I found that QS Publishing had internal movements trying to adapt to those changes. Younger employees had voluntarily formed a task force that even received executive approval, but it was disbanded shortly afterward by the representative director.”
A task force is a temporary organization assembled by pulling necessary personnel from various departments to achieve a specific goal. They are usually created during management crises or when external issues arise. It was unusual for employees to read the market situation and form one voluntarily. The fact that such employees existed suggested QS Publishing wasn’t entirely without hope. We just needed to remove the one fool at the top.
“The representative director would be Director Kwak Hee-yeon, correct?”
“Yes.”
Kwak Hee-yeon wasn’t just an eyesore to me—he was genuinely a cancer on the company as well.
“Then it would be far better to sideline Director Kwak Hee-yeon from management, absorb QS Publishing, and have QS EnM directly oversee the online content business.”
“I agree. Operating under the QS EnM name would likely help more with securing content than under QS Publishing, and leveraging the secured IP to produce video content would benefit from organic collaboration with other departments inside QS EnM.”
Only then did President Choi Sang-seok nod with a bright expression, agreeing that Director Kwak Hee-yeon needed to be removed.
“In that case, I’ll proceed as planned to pass the merger of QS Publishing and the motion to dismiss Director Kwak. After that, President Kim Majin, I’m counting on you.”
“I’ll do my best.”
“Attorney Oh Il-mu? According to the company bylaws, once a dismissal motion is submitted against someone, that person cannot participate in any other agenda items except to defend their own dismissal, correct?”
Oh Il-mu, who had been meticulously reviewing the QS Group bylaws at my instruction, answered with certainty.
“Yes. The rule was established after former President Ko Deok-man, whose dismissal motion had been submitted, caused such an uproar during the meeting that he disrupted other decisions as well.”
“So if we submit the dismissal motion, Director Kwak Hee-yeon will be immediately barred from participating.”
“That’s correct.”
A quiet laugh escaped me. With this, we had succeeded in completely excluding Director Kwak Hee-yeon, who had served as the loudspeaker and focal point for Je-gyun’s remaining faction, from the meeting room. The other remnants, now without a center, would naturally shift to at least neutrality—or even my side—since Kim Majin had aligned with me.
What remained were the presidents standing in Seong-gyun’s line. Since Seong-gyun was still intact, an all-out confrontation with that faction was inevitable. Among them, the person I was watching most closely was President Ko Deok-man, whose name had just been mentioned by Oh Il-mu.
Given Seong-gyun’s personality—completely different from Je-gyun’s—it was unlikely he would personally enter the presidents’ meeting and argue heatedly with a microphone. He would use a loudspeaker from his own line, and that person was almost certainly President Ko Deok-man of QS Precision Components. Rumors claimed that when this man opened his mouth, it was as large as the 55-inch wall-mounted TVs that QS Precision Components produced alongside displays. It was hard to believe a human mouth could really be that big—unless it belonged to a hippopotamus or crocodile—but the man certainly talked a lot, and every word he uttered carried weight. There had once been a dismissal motion against him in a presidents’ meeting after a recording of him speaking abusively to an employee had spread. At the time, I had been focused on Law Firm Seungbaek’s affairs, but I later heard that Seong-gyun, judging that he couldn’t afford to lose such a high-performance loudspeaker, had actively shielded him. Seong-gyun’s efforts succeeded, which meant we would have to face President Ko Deok-man at next Monday’s presidents’ meeting. So we needed to seriously discuss how to shut that man’s enormous mouth.
Buzz, buzz-buzz-buzz, buzz.
A somewhat vulgar ringtone vibrated from somewhere.
“Ah, my apologies.”
The person who reacted to the sound and pulled out his phone was President Shin Ho-jung.
“If it’s an important call, you may take it.”
“Just a moment. I set this vibration pattern to activate when there’s a message related to the group. Let me check quickly.”
So that kind of setting was possible? As expected, technicians were different.
“Yes.”
After tapping the phone screen several times, President Shin Ho-jung’s expression rapidly hardened.
“Everyone here should check the newly submitted agenda for the presidents’ meeting right away.”
What? Who had submitted an agenda in the meantime? At Shin Ho-jung’s words, the villa members, myself included, hurriedly took out their phones.
Haa. What was this? Kwon Seong-gyun had made the first move?
* * *
It wasn’t only Ho-gyun who was accelerating preparations for the rapidly approaching presidents’ meeting. Seong-gyun, equally determined not to be chased out of the meeting room like his younger brother, was meeting new people and doing everything possible to ensure success. The place Seong-gyun was currently at was a Korean restaurant near the QS Food headquarters. Having reserved an entire private room for a confidential conversation, Seong-gyun was seated with three other people. One was President Ko Deok-man, who would speak in his stead during the upcoming presidents’ meeting. The other two were influential figures within QS Food who had remained after Je-gyun’s departure. Among them, Executive Director Yang Gu-hyeon, who had been anxiously wondering what would happen to his own executive position if Je-gyun stopped coming to the company, spoke to Seong-gyun first.
“I haven’t seen President Kwon Je-gyun at the company lately. Has he been having health issues? Since you’re brothers, I was wondering if you might know something, President Kwon Seong-gyun.”
There were far too many problems surrounding Je-gyun to list them all without the night passing. Yet Seong-gyun couldn’t very well air his family’s dirty laundry in front of subordinates, so he steered the conversation toward something they would be interested in.
“It seems difficult for Je-gyun to continue as president of QS Food. That’s why I’m planning to submit a motion for the appointment of a new representative director at the presidents’ meeting.”