Hollywood Hunter

In the headquarters building of the Samsung Group in Mugyo-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul, less than two kilometers away from the Blue House.

It's six o'clock on a Monday afternoon.

At the end of another day of see-saw, Chen Qing sent away the Westeros system team, and signaled to Samsung Chairman Li Jianxi who also came to show up because of Chen Qing's attendance, Li Jianxi also waved away the negotiators on Samsung's side, and asked: " Miss Chen, what's the matter?"

Chen Qing looked at Li Jianxi who was on the opposite side of the wide conference table, and said in a serious tone: "President Li, my boss is looking at long-term interests, so I don't care about your intentional delay in this negotiation process for short-term interests. However, on December 31, This is the deadline, I hope you will remember?"

Anger and frustration flashed in Li Jianxi's heart, and he nodded slightly on the surface without showing any emotion: "Miss Chen, I understand."

"This is just a reminder," Chen Qing said, "There is another important matter. I have already talked with Chairman Zheng of Hyundai and Chairman Cui of SK today. This Wednesday, I hope that the three of you will announce the layoff plan together. The key to recovering from this crisis. They have all agreed, President Li, do you have a problem here?"

"Miss Chen, layoffs are a matter that needs to be carefully considered. It is related to the livelihood of many people. There are only two days. It is too hasty. We need to plan in detail."

"The planning can be done later, what I need is the opinions of the three of you," Chen Qing refused to give an inch, staring at the opposite head of Samsung: "President Li, in fact, your current delays are still related to the adjustment of the corporate structure." Everyone understands the reason for the delay in development. These thoughts are very low-level in my opinion, and my boss doesn’t even bother to care about you. Because these delays hinder your own development. The boss told me about his A personal experience. During the development of the Westeros system, he never struggled with these corners and corners, but kept moving forward at a fast pace. This is how the Westeros system is today. We have talked about more than Regarding the prospects of Hyundai, Samsung and SK under the support of the Westeros system, your doubts are understandable. However, it would be foolish to slow down your pace because of this. In the end, the boss has enough patience. But I didn't, so, President Li, Wednesday, can you?"

Feeling the aggressive and sharp eyes of the girl opposite, Li Jianxi, who has always been strong, felt a little dodge.

The two stalemate for a few seconds, and Li Jianxi finally compromised: "Okay."

"Very good." Chen Qing's cold and serious expression just now melted away instantly, and she smiled: "President Li, if there is no accident, I will return to China this weekend. That's right, my hometown is Suzhou. It just so happens that Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. The Chinese headquarters of Samsung Electronics is also in Suzhou, so how about sending a delegation to China this time, and discussing the expansion of Samsung Electronics' business in China, what do you think?"

Li Jianxi sighed inwardly, and said lightly: "You and Jin Qiu should discuss this matter."

Li Jianxi is talking about Jiang Jinqiu, the chairman of Samsung Electronics.

Li Jianxi can also understand why Chen Qing suddenly said this.

It seems contradictory to announce the layoff plan on the one hand and expand the business in China on the other hand.

Actually not.

Samsung Group’s next major layoffs, taking Samsung Electronics as an example, will mainly abolish Samsung Electronics’ local team and its product factories in South Korea. Not to mention the business that will be completely cut off, the products that are planned to be retained, such as TVs, mobile phones, etc. etc., the production line will be further transferred to countries and regions such as China and Southeast Asia in order to minimize costs.

Chen Qing's request was not only to attract investment for her hometown, but also to push the Samsung Group to start substantive structural adjustments as soon as possible.

When Chen Qing left with satisfaction, Li Jianxi was still sitting in the empty conference room.

Li Jianxi thought of last year.

On the heels of Simon Westeros' much-anticipated trip to China, he also visited China, and at a press conference at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, he publicly expressed his concerns about the overheating of the South Korean economy and his disapproval of the radical economic policies of the Kim Young-sam administration. dissatisfied.

After South Korea joined the OECD last year and was promoted to the rich country club, Kim Young-sam also put forward the slogan of entering the world's top five gdp in 2005.

Looking at it now, this slogan is simply a joke.

The result of Kim Young-sam's radical economic strategy is that South Korea, which has maintained a trade surplus for decades, has actually started to run a deficit in the past few years. In 1996 alone, South Korea's trade deficit reached 22.4 billion US dollars, thus consuming a large amount of South Korea's foreign exchange reserves. This is why when the financial turmoil came, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore, the bottom three of the four Asian tigers, easily survived with their strong foreign exchange reserves. On the contrary, South Korea, the top of the list, almost fell into the abyss of destruction.

At this time, they were forced to sign a bailout agreement with the imf, and the media and the public were only clamoring that South Korea had lost its economic sovereignty. However, most people didn't know what it contained.

Li Jianxi understood.

Even for the sake of the family foundation, Li Jianxi chose a person who knows current affairs as a hero, but as a Korean who also does not lack nationalism and patriotism, his heart is also painful.

Because the systemic risks hidden in the Korean economy were detected in advance, even if the Samsung Group had to follow the general trend to expand its debts, but before the crisis, even if the overall asset-liability ratio of the Samsung Group among the top ten chaebols exceeded 300%, it was actually very low. low standard.

If it were not for the clear sniping of the Westeros system, Samsung would not need to give up the fundamental control of Samsung Electronics, a group.

Now, Li Jianxi only hopes that the Westeros system can keep its promise and help

He took Kia and let Samsung enter the car business smoothly. Moreover, he also made up his mind that even if Samsung Electronics is completely abandoned, the Lee family must firmly control the automobile business.

Two days after the conversation on Monday, on Wednesday, December 3, the three chaebols of Hyundai, Samsung and SK simultaneously issued a group restructuring announcement.

Of course, no one is stupid enough to use the phrase 'layoff announcement' plainly.

Just like Samsung.

The relevant report is titled "Samsung Group Management System Innovation Plan", and Lee Kun-hee also deliberately renamed his secretarial team as the "Structural Adjustment Committee" for this purpose.

However, look at the content again.

The core of the innovation plan is that in 1998, Samsung Group will streamline 30% of its organizations and reduce 50% of corporate operating expenses.

There is no need to talk about other high-sounding or implicit clauses, but with these two items, everyone understands what the so-called innovation plan means. In the vernacular, the Samsung Group plans to lay off 30% of its employees in 1998 and initiate large-scale salary reduction measures to reduce the group's operating expenses by 50%.

The entire Samsung Group, including Samsung Electronics, Samsung Life, Samsung C\u0026T, Samsung Motors and other subsidiaries, has a total of 130,000 employees, of which Samsung Electronics alone has 58,000 people, nearly half.

A 30% layoff means that 40,000 people will lose their jobs in the next year.

Behind 40,000 people, there are 40,000 families.

Even the lucky employees who stay will face a substantial salary cut.

In addition, Hyundai and SK, the proportion of planned layoffs in the announcement is similar to that of Samsung, both of which are around 30%.

Even if a large number of South Korean companies have closed down in the past year, the current unemployment rate in South Korea is only 6.1%. It is hard to imagine what the situation in South Korea would be like if all companies followed Samsung, Hyundai and other giants to lay off employees on the same scale, so that the overall unemployment rate in this country reached 30%.

You must know that the unemployment rate in Eastern European countries whose economies have completely collapsed is about 30%.

Therefore, as soon as the announcement of the three companies was released, it immediately aroused criticism from many media, and the Blue House and several presidential candidates also expressed strong concern about this matter.

After all, it doesn't help.

With the influence of the three chaebols, the announcement of the so-called 'institutional reform' or 'structural adjustment' will inevitably trigger an inevitable herd effect.

I was worried about the pressure of public opinion before. Even though the imf agreement has lifted the ban on large-scale layoffs in enterprises, many companies did not dare to lay off employees in a big way after all. Now, giants such as Hyundai, Samsung, and SK have taken the lead in doing so. What scruples?

As a result, countless companies began to follow suit overnight.

By Friday, unemployed people had once again gathered in front of the Blue House. This time, the demonstrators did not attack in vain the employer that abolished themselves, but once again pointed the finger at the imf. Some even pulled out very "creative" The banner of IMF reinterpreted as 'i'm fired (I was fired)' to express dissatisfaction.

Unfortunately, this is still just the beginning.