NOVEL NEXT 10
“Is this the material I requested?”
Ryu Tae-hwa, newly appointed as the branch manager of the Seongnam branch, was turning the place upside down from early morning.
“Yes, that’s correct.”
As the deputy branch manager and a few PB team employees placed boxes full of documents on the table in the branch manager’s office, Ryu Tae-hwa stood up and approached them.
“Thank you for your hard work.”
At Ryu Tae-hwa’s words, the deputy branch manager nodded to the employees who had brought the boxes with him, and they bowed their heads in greeting before leaving the branch manager’s office.
Sitting down and looking at the documents, Ryu Tae-hwa opened his mouth without taking his eyes off the papers, feeling the gaze upon him.
“Deputy Branch Manager, aren’t you going to leave?”
At Ryu Tae-hwa’s question, the deputy branch manager, who had been standing with his hands politely clasped, looked at Ryu Tae-hwa with a bewildered expression.
“Ah, I had something to ask…”
Even as the deputy branch manager spoke, Ryu Tae-hwa didn’t so much as glance at him. After a moment of hesitation, the deputy branch manager opened his mouth.
“May I ask why you requested all these documents?”
At the deputy branch manager’s question, Ryu Tae-hwa finally raised his head.
“Because this is the Seongnam branch that I’ll be leading from now on. I need to know how the branch has been operating until now.”
“So you’re going to review all these documents?”
“Yes. Is there a problem?”
At Ryu Tae-hwa’s question, the deputy branch manager sighed and opened his mouth.
“I’m sorry, but to my eyes, it looks like you’re trying to find fault with what we’ve been doing and hold the employees accountable.”
Though his position might be lower, the deputy branch manager had been with the company longer than Ryu Tae-hwa. So he thought it would be okay to say this much.
“Deputy Branch Manager.”
“Yes, Branch Manager.”
“Did you speak like this when Branch Manager Heo Jin-tae was here too?”
When Ryu Tae-hwa asked, the deputy branch manager was too flustered to say anything. He had been caught off guard.
“You didn’t, did you? If you had, the branch wouldn’t be in this state.”
Ryu Tae-hwa looked at the deputy branch manager with a smile.
“So why are you speaking to me like this? Is it simply because I’m younger than you and joined the company later?”
There was a smile on Ryu Tae-hwa’s face, but from his tone, one could sense his disbelief at the current situation.
“B-Branch Manager… I was just worried about your relationship with the employees becoming strained…”
“I understand. I know what you mean. Actually, I like people like you who give me advice.”
Ryu Tae-hwa, still smiling, continued speaking.
“But the intention shouldn’t be impure.”
“I’m sorry. That wasn’t my true intention.”
“Attitude inevitably comes out in one’s tone. I don’t care what you think of me, but…”
Ryu Tae-hwa continued talking to the deputy branch manager as if he had made up his mind.
“Please be careful even when giving advice.”
“Yes, I understand. I’m sorry.”
“And to answer your question…”
Ryu Tae-hwa placed his hand on the box of documents on the table and looked at the deputy branch manager.
“It’s simply to understand how the branch has been operating until now.”
“Simply…”
“Yes, I understand that you can’t comprehend why I’m looking at all these materials just to understand that.”
“…”
“I’ve asked the employees to follow strictly enhanced rules, and I have no intention of working comfortably myself. These are past matters, and I have no intention of holding employees accountable for things approved by the previous branch manager.”
The deputy branch manager suddenly felt ashamed. He felt he might have misjudged Ryu Tae-hwa.
“So please don’t worry too much.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No need. It was good advice. Now, may I get some work done?”
At Ryu Tae-hwa’s question, the deputy branch manager bowed his head in greeting.
“Please call if you need any help.”
“I will.”
As Ryu Tae-hwa nodded, the deputy branch manager left the room.
“Sigh…”
Ryu Tae-hwa sighed and loosened his tie. He hadn’t expected the problem he was most worried about to surface on the very first day.
“Still, I need to establish a clear hierarchy for their comfort too.”
The deputy branch manager was Ryu Tae-hwa’s senior and had been with Yuseong Investment Securities for a long time.
He thought that even if it was uncomfortable, he needed to draw an appropriate line so that things would gradually become more comfortable, even if it was uncomfortable at first.
Ryu Tae-hwa quietly looked at the documents strewn before him.
“There’s so much.”
Muttering to himself, Ryu Tae-hwa began to read through the documents with a determined expression.
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“He’s completely by the book.”
Meanwhile, Dokyung was having lunch with Choi Woojin.
Recently, the two had been eating lunch together every day.
“I heard from my classmates at headquarters that he’s completely by the book.”
Choi Woojin was explaining about Ryu Tae-hwa, who had been appointed as the new branch manager this morning.
“They say he became the youngest team leader in the WM Division’s Strategic Business Department. Apparently, Vice President Sim Ju-won really likes and treasures him.”
A team leader was equivalent to a senior manager in a regular company. As the manager of a practical team, they led the practical work while supervising 5-7 employees.
“The youngest team leader? That’s impressive.”
“They say he’s the youngest in our company’s history? And you know the Leaders branch in Gangnam, right?”
Yuseong Investment Securities’ Leaders branch was the only VVIP-exclusive branch in all of Seoul’s Gangnam district, dealing with clients with assets of over 1 billion won.
“Yes, I know it.”
“Ryu Tae-hwa was in charge of managing the Leaders branch, and he significantly increased the number of clients. Last year, they had the most transactions attracting funds over 1 billion won among all securities firms.”
Dokyung nodded as if he remembered.
“Ah, so that’s why last year the company…”
“Right, they distributed rice cakes. You remember?”
It was unforgettable. There weren’t many times when gifts were distributed from headquarters to branches except during holidays.
“Yes. I remember receiving a set of high-quality rice cakes.”
“Well, anyway, it was that big of an occasion. Attracting high-net-worth individuals had been dominated by Taesan for nearly 10 years.”
Of course, it wasn’t an official record, but it was called number one based on records separately investigated by the media.
“Ryu Tae-hwa led that, and he apparently insisted on strictly by-the-book sales practices.”
Dokyung listened intently to Choi Woojin’s words, seeming interested.
It was very difficult to operate strictly by the book in sales. It seemed contradictory that the number of clients increased when sticking to principles clearly meant less benefit for the clients.
“That’s interesting.”
“He apparently saw that the excessive entertainment culture had been ruining the company.”
At Choi Woojin’s words, Dokyung grinned. Branch Manager Ryu Tae-hwa was truly an intriguing character.
“Anyway, from then on, he banned excessive entertainment and insisted on thoroughly understanding the clients’ needs.”
“That’s good. After all, the Leaders branch wouldn’t have that many clients to manage anyway.”
“Right. So when they focused on thoroughly meeting the clients’ needs, the clients liked it even more than being entertained at fancy bars and readily entrusted their money.”
“But while there are clients who like that…”
As Dokyung was about to speak, Choi Woojin snapped his fingers.
“That’s exactly what I was going to say. Conversely, there are clients who don’t like that. Now that the PBs who used to entertain them and cater to their whims no longer do so.”
“I guess so. Since their conveniences have decreased…”
“So a client who was upset about this explicitly demanded favors from a PB.”
No matter how wrong the previously provided conveniences might have been, from the client’s perspective, it would have felt like benefits were being taken away.
“So the PB, after suffering for a while, reported it to the Leaders branch manager, who then reported it to Ryu Tae-hwa.”
“And of course, he refused.”
“Right. Ryu Tae-hwa personally stepped in to refuse, but it turned out that this client was a big player who had brought friends to entrust funds to the Leaders branch.”
Dokyung shook his head as if he could picture the outcome.
“You can guess how it went, right?”
“Yes. I suppose he cut off dealings, including his friends.”
“That’s right. When about 10 billion won of funds managed by the Leaders branch left at once, it became a problem.”
Despite Ryu Tae-hwa making the right choice, the company disciplined him.
In the end, it was no different from seeing Ryu Tae-hwa’s choice as against the company’s interests.
“The decisive factor was that the 10 billion went straight to Seonjin Securities. That’s what really ticked them off.”
Seonjin was the second-ranked securities firm that Yuseong Investment Securities wanted to catch up to. Seonjin was also moving aggressively to prevent Yuseong from threatening their position and to catch up with Taesan, the top-ranked firm.
“Poor guy.”
Dokyung nodded at Choi Woojin’s words. It was disappointing that he had to receive such treatment despite making the right choice.
“So what he said to me this morning was his usual conviction.”
“That’s right. The reason I’m telling you this is because I think you need to understand.”
“Yes. It’s correct. I’m an operations team employee, so I should do operations team work.”
If Dokyung were to cause any trouble while working with Choi Woojin, the company would have to clean up everything.
There was a clear difference between cleaning up something within the scope of work and cleaning up an incident caused outside the scope of work.
“For the time being, I think it would be good for both of us to be a bit more careful, Assistant Manager Choi Woojin.”
“I guess we should…?”
As Choi Woojin spoke with a hint of regret, Dokyung nodded.
It was an even more regrettable situation for Dokyung himself, but their actions could be irritating to the new branch manager.
“But since he’s by the book, he’ll recognize your abilities, Dokyung-ssi. He won’t do things like Heo Jin-tae did.”
At Choi Woojin’s words, Dokyung nodded, feeling a glimmer of hope in his heart.
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“Are you okay about this morning?”
The senior colleague sitting next to Dokyung asked as he returned to the counter after lunch.
“Yes, I’m fine. It was the right thing to say.”
“Still, it would have been better to say it privately… It’s not like you did anything wrong, you saved the company.”
“Come on, it’s enough that you recognize that, sunbae.”
At Dokyung’s words, the senior colleague laughed and patted Dokyung’s shoulder.
“This is why I like you, Dokyung-ssi.”
Dokyung responded to the senior’s words with a smile and began preparing for the afternoon’s work.
Bzzt- Bzzt-
Just then, his mobile phone on the desk began to vibrate, and Dokyung picked it up with a pounding heart.
[Have you confirmed our perfect hit rate? This is the VIP service.]
Dokyung burst into laughter from the first line of the message.
While it was clearly different from illegal leading rooms, the content wasn’t much different.
[Recommended stock: Misung Technology]
[We are the VIP service working together to achieve your dream.]
‘Misung Technology?’
Unlike last time, this was a recommended stock, not a stock to watch out for. That meant it was going to rise…
‘It’s recommending a mid-cap for the first time.’
Unlike the previous two stocks, Misung Technology was a mid-sized company listed on the KOSPI.
Dokyung immediately began typing on the computer keyboard in front of him, searching for Misung Technology on the trading system.
“Hmm…”
“Is that the stock you’re focusing on these days?”
As Dokyung raised his head from looking at the trading system, an elderly man was standing there, smiling.