Chapter 185

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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“Wow…”

Chairman Kang Seong-ho and the executives couldn’t close their mouths looking at the index on the screen.

“Am I seeing this correctly? Isn’t there some error?”

“No, Chairman. What you’re seeing is Ample’s real-time stock price.”

What is Ample?

It’s the world’s greatest smartphone company, representing America.

Thanks to that, Ample has been rising sky-high.

As a company befitting America’s representative, its market cap was America’s largest.

A company worth 3 trillion dollars.

“And such Ample’s stock price can crash like this?”

But Ample, which had been breaking through the ceiling, was falling.

It’s true that Ample’s performance this year fell a bit compared to last year.

Also, new product launches were delayed due to shipping accidents.

But because it’s Ample, there were many assessments that even if growth stopped, it would hit this year’s peak.

But breaking all expectations, Ample was crumbling.

“And all this really because of that one thing?”

The ESG association Gwangwoon established.

That place had targeted Ample first.

The ESG association must have really been grinding an axe, as they mobilized thousands of personnel for several weeks to investigate Ample factories all over the world and gave the lowest possible score.

They harshly criticized that Ample had only focused on growing its corporate size while infringing on consumers’ rights.

“But evaluation companies that trash Ample like this have always existed, haven’t they?”

“Yes, but no matter how much they shouted, no one listened. But the ESG association is a different weight class. All evaluations from there leak out through media, and they’re even producing documentaries to broadcast on Enflix.”

This was decisive.

No matter how precisely you evaluate, if people don’t know about it, that evaluation has no power.

Knowing that, Gwangwoon was distributing all evaluations from the ESG association through their platforms.

That way, people will learn about the evaluation in more detail, and that directly translates to results.

“This is that result.”

The ESG association’s destructive power exceeded imagination.

Chairman Kang Seong-ho had also been half-convinced when he heard Gwangwoon was targeting Ample through the ESG association.

He thought even so, it would be difficult for the ESG association to kill off Ample.

But was the power of media this strong?

Ample, once called America’s pride, was now transforming into a company Americans are ashamed of.

“No wonder President Jeong established the ESG association for a reason.”

“Yes. To verify the association’s credibility, didn’t they deliberately evaluate Korean companies in Guyana first? That seems to have been effective too.”

Before the ESG association investigated Ample.

They evaluated companies in Guyana as a trial run.

Naturally, the Korean companies heavily deployed in Guyana weren’t pleased. The evaluation criteria were stricter than expected, and they’d have to spend quite a lot of money to meet them.

But what could they do?

This wasn’t just anyone. it was Gwangwoon saying they’d evaluate.

Since Gwangwoon gave them operating rights in Guyana, they had no choice but to weep and eat mustard, pouring money into everything from labor conditions to surrounding infrastructure according to the ESG evaluation.

“If this is the power, you have no choice but to follow.”

There was a reason the ESG association targeted Ample first.

It was to flaunt their power.

To show that if even that iron fortress Ample falls, they can easily crush other companies.

And the effect was tremendous.

This Ample stock price currently getting smashed to pieces proves it.

“The problem is how far Gwangwoon is looking right now.”

“You mean we don’t know the destination?”

“Yes. Whether they really intend to completely destroy Ample or just want to discipline them. We can’t tell from the current situation.”

If you were to name the company in the world that would most oppose Ample going under, it would be Kangsung.

Kangsung and Ample are in fierce competition in the smartphone sector, but actually these two companies have a symbiotic relationship.

Because Kangsung is in charge of producing displays, memory chips, and semiconductors for Ample.

Of course, such a thing would never happen, but if Ample closed down, it would be a complete catastrophe.

All IT companies and parts manufacturers connected to Ample would close down in succession, and an enormous ripple effect would hit financial markets, certainly leading to a financial Great Depression rivaling subprime.

“From our Kangsung’s position too, Ample closing down should never happen. They regularly purchase quite a lot from us.”

That’s why even if Ample and Kangsung bicker and fight with lawsuits against each other, they never clash betting their companies’ fates.

Because they know it’s a loss for both of them.

“But looking at Gwangwoon hitting Ample now, they’re not just trying to scare them. They really seem to be seriously destroying Ample’s brand image to drag them down to rock bottom.”

In other words, if they go further, Ample could suffer irreversible losses.

Then the competitor Kangsung should be happy, but it wasn’t entirely a good thing.

Even if Ample’s overwhelming smartphone sales decrease, that doesn’t necessarily become Kangsung’s gain, and rather display and semiconductor supply decreases, so Kangsung’s revenue also decreases.

“Gwangwoon also knows that if Ample suffers that level of damage, it’s not good.”

“Then… mediation is needed?”

“Yes. Gwangwoon might be waiting for our Kangsung to step in.”

“How could we?”

“Didn’t our Kangsung receive a separate evaluation from the ESG association? It was less intense than Ample, but we still made some adjustments based on the feedback from that side. If we leverage that point saying we’ll take responsibility for all of Ample’s parts and manufacturing, wouldn’t Gwangwoon have justification?”

Given the ESG association’s scathing evaluation came out, Gwangwoon was also pushing forward with the media power at full throttle.

But Gwangwoon also knows that if things continue, Ample is in danger, and that could shake global financial markets.

In other words, they also know they need to stop at some limit.

And to do that, they need justification.

“Our Kangsung becomes that justification.”

A very good idea.

“But doesn’t that just benefit our Kangsung? We’d be squeezing more money from Ample.”

“Yes. We can squeeze out trillions annually in additional money.”

“So is there anything for Gwangwoon to gain?”

The benefit Gwangwoon takes is one.

Making known to the world the power of the ESG association.

But that was it.

“It’s Gwangwoon. They’ll surely try to pocket gains through other routes. They might demand something from us.”

Kang Seong-ho also nodded at those words.

Gwangwoon as they’ve experienced has always been the same.

They never do business at a loss.

***

“Ample?”

“Yes. Kangsung is negotiating with Ample to change factories. So they’re also trying to work things out with the ESG association that’s currently giving harsh evaluations…”

The ESG association’s influence was more tremendous than expected.

To the extent that even Ample was shaking.

Our Gwangwoon’s platform power was significant, but I too hadn’t expected it would show this level of power.

“The ESG thing…”

But I didn’t want to pay much attention to ESG matters.

The evaluation criteria they put out were so suffocating.

There was no need for me to step in.

“Please tell them to discuss well between head office and Kangsung about that.”

“Ah, okay.”

Honestly speaking, it was just too complicated and I didn’t want to get involved.

“And these are documents sent from Saudi Arabia.”

“Saudi Arabia?”

“Yes. They’re intensively distributing in the Asian region. Do you remember from before? Saudi Arabia was raising investment while building Neom City.”

Back then, Saudi sent us an investment proposal too.

But we didn’t invest.

“But this time they’re raising investment for that again. Neom City isn’t proceeding according to the blueprint as you predicted, President, but Saudi is still aggressively investing in infrastructure development and completely transforming the entire nation.”

It’s true that Saudi has undergone tremendous change compared to the past.

With the current power holder Hamud Salman making various investments, the nation was being led through major changes.

“Neom City is still in progress too. It’s realistically impossible to build according to the old blueprint, but the ambition to make it the world’s greatest city remains, as they’re spending enormous amounts of money.”

That’s why they were raising investments more eagerly.

Because they were gradually reaching limits with just the money Saudi had.

“What does the ESG side say?”

“They haven’t evaluated yet.”

“Then let’s proceed when the evaluation comes out from that side.”

With the ESG association created, an investment guide emerged.

When investing somewhere new, first look at the ESG evaluation.

I know ESG is very demanding and the evaluation criteria are strict, but wasn’t the purpose of creating that place to make a better society and environment from the start?

So even if it takes a bit of time and the evaluation criteria are demanding, I wanted to lead by example.

“Lastly, this is something head office sent. But the materials are quite extensive.”

“How much…” Gasp.”

I was startled by the enormous materials that employees were carrying in piled high.

Did they write a dissertation or something? Hundreds of pages of booklets were piled up like mountains.

“These are materials they organized about which directions Gwangwoon should invest in the future. Since they’re organized into scenarios by field, the volume is a bit large.”

“This isn’t a bit. this is way too much.”

“That’s true.”

What era is this?

It’s an era where people don’t read unless it’s a 3-line summary.

But this volume looked like it was around 30 books.

“Somehow it keeps increasing as days go by.”

“Yes. But headquarters has been investing according to your instructions, President, and our company keeps growing bigger every year.”

On top of that, it was also because I got into bad habits from the start.

Since I receive materials from headquarters every year and set overall directions, they keep sending me materials every time.

“……”

I sat down and reviewed the materials.

I groaned about there being too many materials, but I didn’t need to worry much.

Because,

‘It’s coming out now.’

After reading materials to some extent, my intuition, having finished absorbing information, sends signals like this.

‘Seeing red, this one I should absolutely not do.’

I closed the material without needing to look further.

Before, I used to read diligently, but I know that following my intuition’s judgment is far more accurate and faster than my personal judgment.

After repeating this several times.

“…?”

This material felt different from the first impression.

[Investment focused on sports and culture.]

It seemed to be material about making more active investments in Korean sports and K-POP, K-dramas, K-games, and so on.

For domestic sports teams, there are several places Gwangwoon operates.

For baseball, we’re running a pro team, and for soccer, we’re running Tottenham overseas, but it felt like we were neglecting the domestic scene, so we acquired a team in the second division.

But going a step further and investing more in sports and Korean culture to commercialize them as main products. that was the meaning.

“……”

Besides that, complex stories were densely written crammed into the document.

Soon, energy began seeping from there.

“…!”

This time it wasn’t red, but gold.

I think this was the first time seeing light beaming out this decisively while deciding investment directions annually.

So there was no more need to deliberate.

Thud,!

I immediately closed the heavy document.

Then golden light seeped out even more powerfully.

“Please forward this to head office.”

***

“ESG? Sending that to Saudi Arabia?”

“Yes. He said he won’t invest without ESG evaluation.”

Through this Ample incident, the ESG’s power was confirmed.

But Jeong Jin-ho isn’t satisfied with that and is trying to make ESG the future global evaluation standard.

Seeing how he’s trying to apply this strict standard to Saudi Arabia right away.

“Saudi won’t accept. That place has too many problems.”

With the harsh working environment fully exposed there, of course they wouldn’t welcome ESG evaluations.

“Then this should be viewed as a rejection.”

“It’s a rejection while simultaneously trying to check us.”

“Check us?”

“Yes, Chairman. These are documents President Jeong Jin-ho sent from head office. Deciding where Gwangwoon should invest from now on. it determines future business direction.”

He had been waiting for that material.

Doesn’t Jeong Jin-ho make decisions based on materials head office prepares every year?

“He was fast this time too.”

“Yes. When you bring him materials, he makes decisions that very day.”

He has no idea how he reviews that mountain of materials and makes decisions so quickly.

What’s important is that Gwangwoon has never lost money by investing according to Jeong Jin-ho’s words until now.

“But this investment content is quite interesting. He chose sports and culture, and this overlaps a lot with Saudi Arabia.”

“With Saudi Arabia?”

“Yes. Hasn’t Saudi been spending considerable money on sports lately? Soccer, golf, F1, and even e-sports. opening separate leagues and tournaments with enormous prize money. Didn’t they sign Ronaldo to the Saudi league at the end of last year?”

There were many complaints about that from various sports sectors.

Saying Saudi was stealing fans with money.

But regardless, Saudi was continuing aggressive investments.

“But this investment proposal of ours is the same. We’ll pour massive money into sports to create a sports market that won’t lose to any country.”

In other words, bring famous people from overseas to the Korean market en masse, promote, and draw attention with high tournament prizes.

“So you’re saying we’ll compete with Saudi?”

“Yes. Actually, this document also says competition with Saudi is inevitable.”

“Competition with Saudi… that’s a bit uncomfortable.”

What is Saudi?

It’s an internationally famous big spender.

The sovereign wealth fund they operate alone is 1,000 trillion won.

It’s not for nothing that conglomerates rush to Saudi to bow their heads.

“But the fact that President Jeong Jin-ho approved competition with Saudi means…”

“We don’t need to fear Saudi at all.”

“Yes. He seems to have judged we have the advantage. In fact, our power in media is overwhelming, K-culture became famous through Enflix, and K-POP is also wildly popular.”

In other words, Gwangwoon’s weight class no longer needs to fear Saudi.

“So you’re saying our Korea will stand at the center of sports and culture?”

“Yes. Under Gwangwoon’s name.”

If this scenario goes well, it would clearly create tremendous synergy with Gwangwoon’s current subsidiaries.

“The problem is we need to get over this big mountain first. Jin-ho read all this and knew that we need to achieve this first for things to align properly, right?”

“Yes. Since he carefully read everything and sent it, he must have approved assuming we’d successfully complete this negotiation.”

Hwang Dae-woon let out a short sigh.

Because the mountain to climb first was too high from the start.

“…But can they really come over?”

“Korea’s status is a completely different dimension from before thanks to our Gwangwoon… but honestly, I’m not sure. There are many regulations to fix domestically. Plus, there are rumors that America is currently negotiating to sign this player.”

“It’ll be difficult.”

“Yes. It really won’t be easy.”

But this is a document that Jeong Jin-ho himself approved. In other words, head office must accomplish it no matter what. No matter how impossible it seems.

“Contact the strategy team. Tell them to get this done no matter what resources they have to mobilize. This is an investment Jin-ho approved. can’t fail from the start, can we? Whether they’re in America or Saudi Arabia, bring them. By any means!”

“Yes.”

After dismissing the executives, Hwang Dae-woon fiddled with the document in front of him.

First among all domestic sports, elevate the K-League one level higher to create a world-class Super League. This was the first goal of this scenario.

But to achieve this, one powerful strike was needed. A strike that would electrify the whole world.

[Lionel Messi, pursuing K-League signing.]

End