Corporate Villain
Copyright© 2025 by K.W
Chapter 20
“When you think of Spain, the first adjective that probably comes to mind is ‘passionate.’”
It was the day before the world would know me as the son-in-law of the Daeyoung family, the prospective groom of Kang Moon-jung, the sole legitimate heir of Daeyoung.
D-day 1.
Due to my orders, Deputy Chief Oh Ji-won, who had formed an inspection team and returned from a business trip to Andalusia, prepared an executive presentation on financial risk.
“Then, which is the most passionate region in passionate Spain? Barcelona? Madrid? Ibiza?”
A presentation very characteristic of Deputy Chief Oh Ji-won was underway.
Skipping the buildup, he went straight to the point.
But it’s precisely Deputy Chief Oh Ji-won who can sufficiently explain the situation with just a few specific words and expressions, and that’s the special quality I highly value in him.
After shaking his head sideways to his own question and answer, he pointed at a specific region displayed on the screen with a beam laser and said,
“It’s right here, Andalusia.”
Flanking me were the directors of the Asian and Oceania (Americas and Oceania) regional divisions.
Head of the European Regional Division.
Director of the Asian Regional Division.
Director of the Oceania Regional Division.
These three are known as the ‘Big Three’ of Daeyoung Corporation’s trading division.
Our trading division, unlike the construction division, which is divided into overseas and domestic sectors, follows a head system, not a division chief system.
Because the business fields are so diverse and require meticulous attention, we don’t have a separate highest position for the trading division; instead, we assign executives to each regional division and differentiate positions only as heads and directors.
And then there are the other executives seated, the Finance Director and the Domestic Distribution General Director.
This is the first project I directed after being appointed as the executive director of Daeyoung Corporation.
As it’s a project directed by the head, it only needs the approval stamp of A grade or higher from the Finance Director related to financial risk.
However, in a conglomerate like Daeyoung Corporation, formality is extremely important.
Sometimes, formality can decide everything about a business.
After all, business is done by people, and it’s the formality within a corporation that sets the mindset of those people.
That’s why I personally went to the directors of the Asian Regional Division, the Oceania Regional Division, and the Domestic Distribution General Director to ask them to join me.
Ultimately, the overseas branches managed by each regional division are another sales channel for all the products handled by our Daeyoung Corporation.
Without a domestic distribution planning department, it would be impossible to penetrate the distribution channels of other companies besides Daeyoung Distribution, where Senior Executive Kang Moon-jung serves as the operating head.
A business that starts with securing all domestic and international distribution channels held by the giant conglomerate Daeyoung Group cannot fail.
It was to show this to the Finance Director and to remind everyone once more of the significance of the Madrid branch to me, who had the entire Andalusian olive project stolen from me.
“Andalusia. It maintains clear skies for more than 300 days out of the year. It’s a region with little rain. It’s known as the hottest area in Spain, with average temperatures in July and August being 4 to 5 degrees higher than in Daegu, which is nicknamed ‘Daefrica.’”
Deputy Chief Oh Ji-won was explaining with a neat graph why the Sherry region of Andalusia is inevitably famous for its wine.
“In that murderous heat, the most passionate, quintessentially Spanish wine is produced, which people call Sherry.”
Jerez, El Puerto de Santa Maria, Sanlucar de Barrameda.
The map of the Sherry Triangle formed by these three towns appeared on the screen.
Even if the same grape variety and the same winemaking method are used (which must utilize Sherry casks, and unlike other wines, brandy is added after fermentation to increase the alcohol content by about 3 degrees), only the wines coming from within this Sherry Triangle can be called Sherry wine.
“Quinzone. A vineyard located in the region that simultaneously borders Jerez and El Puerto de Santa Maria.”
This winery also happens to be one where Deputy Director Oh Ji-won has opened up significant possibilities for a contract.
“94 hectares. It’s a vast area, approximately 280,000 pyeong. As a single winery, it can be considered the largest in Spain, producing 600,000 bottles annually. The expected billing turnover is 20 million euros. In Korean won, that’s about 29 billion, plus or minus 300 million, depending on the exchange rate.”
“Quinzone, Quinzone ... Is this a wine that hasn’t yet entered our country?”
The finance director, whose knowledge of wine is relatively lacking.
But, formally, it’s also true that he holds the key to executing the project.
“It seems like a brand I’m hearing about for the first time.”
“It’s a brand that has repeatedly entered and then left the domestic market, changing distributors each time.”
“Why is that?”
“It’s hard to explain other than the lack of capability of the domestic distributors that handled the brand...”
“On what basis did you analyze that?”
Deputy Director Oh Ji-won’s clear explanation followed.
“It seems that all of them had a good eye, but unless they were large corporations, they lacked the financial power to promote an unfamiliar brand. In fact, if you look at the wines that these companies mainly handle, they are brands that have already gained some recognition.”
Pictures of cost-effective wines, whose brand labels would make one nod in agreement, appeared on the screen.
“On the other hand, they have turned their attention several times to distinctive wines like Sherry or Port, but as I mentioned earlier, without aggressive marketing and sales, they have repeatedly failed after bringing them in ... These companies have quite a history of such failures.”
“Isn’t there a reason why only small and medium-sized companies have been attached to the brand as distributors, without any large corporations? Maybe because the Sherry wine category itself is a difficult one.”
To this, Deputy Director Oh Ji-won, with a smile on her face, asked the finance director.
“Which market are you asking about? The global market, or are you talking about the Korean market?”
“Either one.”
“As I mentioned before, only wines produced within this Sherry Triangle can bear the name Sherry. Yet, Sherry wine, along with Portugal’s Port wine, has firmly positioned itself in the wine market as a dry aperitif or a sweet dessert wine. As the domestic consumers’ awareness of wine becomes more mainstream, the preference for Sherry wine is also on a continuous upward trend.”
To read the complete story you need to be logged in:
Log In or
Register for a Free account
(Why register?)
* Allows you 3 stories to read in 24 hours.