Chapter 19

Chapter 19

7:50 am Korean time.

An L6 exploded while flying inside the Hawaiian Airlines HAL745 flight from Las Vegas to Hawaii.

The L6 in the pocket exploded and the passenger suffered burns to his thighs and fingers, and the plane made an emergency landing 30 minutes after departure.

The passenger was said to have exchanged the L6 with a recalled product the day before.

This news was immediately sent to media outlets around the world, and all airlines in the United States all at once banned the L6 cabin and luggage.

The Korean media also reported the news as emergency news. It was broadcast on the news that passengers carrying L6s were unable to get to and from the airport.

8:35 am.

An emergency meeting was convened at Seosung Electronics’ Gangnam office building.

A black sedan entered the parking lot of the Gangnam office building one after another. Not only Cho Dong-jun, president and executives of the IM division, but also Vice Chairman Im Jin-yong were caught on the camera of the broadcasting company.

9 am.

Immediately after opening, Seosung Electronics started trading with a whopping 10 percent drop. The KOSPI index also fell by 38 points.

Foreigners took a short position in both futures and spot and poured out Suseong Electronics stocks. Institutions then started selling, down to 13 percent by the afternoon market.

Investors’ eyes were all focused on the Gangnam office building.

* * *

Articles were posted on the Internet all the time. Reports from stockbrokers also poured in. Most of the articles recommended buying Seosung Electronics, and there was no recommendation to sell.

[At the time of the financial crisis, the stock price of Seosung Electronics fell to the high 300,000 won range. At that time, President Park Il-chan, an investment expert, said the following.

‘The opportunity to buy Seosung Electronics at this price will not come again in the future.’

Since then, the stock of Suseong Electronics has more than quadrupled, proving that he was right.

It is the same this time. An unprecedented event called the L6 explosion occurred, but this is only a short-term bad news.

For long-sighted investors, now is the best chance to buy Seosung Electronics stock at the lowest price.]

“Is this the right time to buy?”

I muttered out of embarrassment.

“These crazy people…”

If it’s that good, you guys buy some.

Institutions were recommending aggressive buying, and at the same time, they were pouring out selling volumes. What kind of inconsistent behavior is this?

Perhaps it was thanks to articles and reports that kept coming up, while institutions were selling all at once, only individuals were struggling to support their purchases.

Of course, individuals are not stupid.

The reason for the purchase is probably because they decided that the worst case of discontinuation could be avoided.

If measures are taken after the meeting is over, the stock price that has plummeted will also rebound.

What will Seosung Electronics do?

* * *

Seosung Group’s Gangnam office building main building conference room.

Not only the IM division, but also the CE, semiconductor and display divisions, all executives gathered in the conference room, except for those who went on business trips.

The people gathered here were nothing more than the leaders who moved Seosung Electronics, the best company in Korea. Their salaries alone were well over hundreds of millions of dollars.

The reason they gathered in one place was because of the unprecedented event of the L6 explosion. That’s why everyone kept a dark expression on their faces and was extremely quiet.

“The Vice-President is coming.”

As Jin-yong Lim entered the conference room, the executives stood up all at once.

“Sit down.”

Im Jin-yong sat in the chairperson’s seat. The original owner of the site collapsed a year ago and was hospitalized. Even if he recovers, it will be difficult for him to return to the front line of management.

Lim Jin-yong was the vice president only by name, but in reality he was no different than the chairman of the Suseong Group.

He looked around the executives and said.

“Everyone knows what the situation is. If the battery was the problem, why did the product that replaced the battery explode?”

The eyes of executives turned to Cho Dong-jun, president of the IM division.

President Cho Dong-jun opened his mouth.

“The cause of the explosion is currently under investigation.”

“How long do you think it will take for the results to come out?”

President Cho Dong-jun answered Im Jin-yong’s question.

“It could be done in a week at the earliest, but it will take more time to figure out the exact cause.”

The problem was that the recall was rushed.

Even if it took time, I should have found the cause and dealt with it.

“Is there a solution?”

Kim Myung-soo, head of the Future Strategy Office, said.

“Once we make time to announce the recall, we need to find the cause and fix it in the meantime.”

“Are you going to recall again?”

“Making time comes first.”

Consumers will not be able to convince them that they should come and fix it now, so a recall is the best policy.

The question is that this is already the second time, and in the meantime, can you find the cause?

“It’s the best way to cut losses.”

There was one more way. But no one spoke that way. The expected loss was too great.

Once the time was spent, opinions were gathered in the direction of finding and solving the problem.

Now the decision rests with the owner.

Im Jin-yong did not make a decision easily.

‘What is the best way to do it? What decision would your father make?’

The company was founded by my grandfather and raised by my father. It was up to him to lead the company after his father fell ill.

Something caught his eye as he pondered. A wooden model boat was displayed in a decorative cabinet on one side of the conference room.

Im Jin-yong remembered his grandfather when he was a child, carving out trees to make model ships. Then his grandfather sat him on his lap and said:

“A corporation is like a ship of Theseus.”

At the time, he didn’t know what that meant.

It was only later that I became aware of the term Theseus’ Paradox.

The ship theseus and the young men of Athens returned on had thirty oars. The Athenians preserved the ships.

Wooden boats rotted over time.

When the planks rotted, they were removed and a new plank was laid, and when the oar rotted, a new oar made of wood was inserted.

After preserving the ships for 1,000 years and replacing them one by one, it became difficult to find the original parts.

At this point, the Athenian philosophers posed this question.

Is this ship the same as before, or is it a different ship?

Objects can be replaced one by one until the originals completely disappear, and nevertheless appear to be original.

The same goes for companies.

Seosung Electronics was created after the Korean War. At that time, the technology was transferred from a Japanese electronics company to assemble white home appliances.

None of the employees who worked at that time remain today. None of the products produced at that time are currently being produced. Headquarters and factories have also moved several times.

People have changed, products produced have changed, and locations have changed. Everything has changed, but Seo Sung Electronics is still Seo Sung Electronics.

Then, what can define Seoseong Electronics as Seoseong Electronics?

In an instant, I felt my mind cleared. When the complicated entangled thoughts were put together, a way was revealed.

All the executives were looking at his mouth.

Im Jin-yong looked around them and said.

“As of today, we will discontinue the L6. Announce that you will refund all sold products and provide sufficient compensation to consumers who want to exchange them.”

For a moment, there was a commotion among the executives.

Discontinuation was the worst choice I could even imagine.

All products sold so far must be refunded, and future sales must also be abandoned. The deterioration of the corporate image will also be unavoidable.

“No matter how much money you lose, you get it back. But when a company loses credibility, that’s it. We have lost the trust of our customers by making a problematic product. And again, we lost trust by recalling the problem without fixing it. This is our last chance.”

His voice was calm, but his tone was firm.

In the midst of silence, President Cho Dong-jun stood up.

“I will prepare the presentation right away.”

* * *

1:40 p.m.

An emergency press conference was held at Seoseong Electronics’ Gangnam office building.

Dong-Jun Cho, president of the IM division, stood in front of the reporters.(Read more @ wuxiax.com)

He read the manuscript he had prepared with a sad expression on his face.

“Seosung Electronics has decided to stop selling and exchanging the L6. Although the cause and detailed inspection are currently in progress, we have made this decision considering the safety of our customers as our top priority. Customers who are currently using the L6, please turn off the power immediately and exchange or refund. We deeply apologize once again for causing great inconvenience and concern to our customers, customers, and partners who have trusted and loved L6.”

Everyone was shocked by the expected discontinuation announcement.

Reporters rushed to ask questions.

“Who’s decision?”

“How much do you think the loss is?”

“Are there any countermeasures after discontinuation?”

President Cho Dong-jun calmly responded to reporters’ questions.

So far, more than 6 million L6s have been sold, with an estimated sales of 70 million units.

If all of this is refunded, a loss of 6 trillion won will occur even with a simple calculation. Considering the cost of recall and inventory disposal, the financial loss is even greater.

In addition to the loss of expected future profits, the decline in market share in the smartphone market, corporate image, and the decline in reliability were even bigger losses.

Experts predicted that Seosung Electronics’ losses would reach at least 20 to 50 trillion won from this incident.

At the end of the press conference.

Individuals turned from buying to selling, and as foreigners and institutions started selling off programs and then sold programs, the stock price of Suseong Electronics reached its lower limit.

There were no more buy orders and only sell orders piled up one after another.

When Suseong Electronics, which accounts for the largest portion of the index, plummeted, the KOSPI index fell by more than 100 points in an instant, and a sidecar was triggered, causing trading to be suspended.

The KOSDAQ also could not avoid the aftermath. Although Suseong Electronics was not included in the index, IT-related parts stocks were crowded.

In a situation where Seosung Electronics was hitting its lower limit, there was no way for small and medium-sized enterprises to supply them to Suseong Electronics.

Related parts stocks all at once hit the lower limit.

The KOSDAQ has a much higher proportion of individuals than the KOSPI.

As individuals went on a sell-off, even pharmaceutical and travel stocks, which had nothing to do with this incident, began to plummet.

The KOSDAQ also triggered a sidecar, and trading was suspended for 5 minutes.

Sidecars are sometimes triggered on the KOSDAQ, but it was the first time since the financial crisis that a sidecar was triggered on the KOSPI.

After 5 minutes, trading resumed, but the crash could not be stopped. Rather, everyone threw the stock out of fear that it might fall further over time.

The KOSPI index fell -6.3% from the previous day’s closing price, and the KOSDAQ index fell to -8.7%.

It was the beginning of Black Tuesday, which will later go down in the history of the Korean stock market.