Chun Min-jung had already perfected the remote meeting system.
She even took out her laptop and gave me a demonstration. Aside from a minor image quality issue, there was nothing left to improve.
"You're telling me you made this for remote work?"
"Actually, I made it for employees who leave work on time. At 6 p.m., all the office power gets cut off, so they have no choice but to head home. But if they still have work to finish, they need a way to communicate from home — hence the video conference system."
That was just how Chun Min-jung was.
Whenever faced with an inconvenience, she always found a solution.
When I told her to study English, she built a translation program.
This time, when I told her to leave work on time, she created a remote meeting system so people could keep working from home.
"Do you think the employees will like it? I doubt anyone enjoys working from home after they've already clocked out."
"Really? I thought it was a system they absolutely needed."
"Not every employee is a workaholic like you, Ms. Chun."
If this remote conference system was rolled out as it was now, there was a high chance that, just as she wanted, employees would keep working from home after hours.
That wasn't the reality I envisioned — so I would have to impose one more restriction.
"We'll need to block supervisors from contacting subordinates personally after work hours. If they must reach them, they'll have to go through headquarters using the system."
"But public, work-related contact should still be allowed, shouldn't it?"
"If an employee is receiving work-related messages after they've gone home, can you really call that the end of their workday? I believe the clearer the boundary between work and personal time, the better the overall productivity."
Many companies overseas already had such a system in place.
Of course, in finance and IT — much like here in Korea — overtime was practically a daily routine, and many employees continued working even after officially leaving.
But that didn't mean we had to follow suit.
If we were to be the best company in the world, we needed a corporate culture worthy of that title.
"Do you know what people have always said about Taewoo Group?"
"That we're the number one conglomerate in the business world?"
"They actually say 'The Military Academy of Big Corporations' more often. It means that if you're from Taewoo Group, you're recognized anywhere as someone who works exceptionally well. It also means our workload here is far heavier than at other companies."
For anyone who had Taewoo Group on their résumé, finding a new job was never an issue.
Other major corporations competed to recruit our people.
But it was time to shed that outdated image.
"Wouldn't high workloads naturally lead to better results?"
"Come here for a moment."
I walked over to the window and called Chun Min-jung.
She came to stand beside me and looked down from the glass.
"How does it feel — looking down from the top of our new headquarters?"
"People look like ants from up here. And it feels like the sky is closer than the ground."
"Can you feel the difference compared to the old headquarters?"
"It's so different, there's no comparison."
"It's not enough for just the building to change. Corporate culture, image — everything has to change if Taewoo Group is to keep growing."
Chun Min-jung reluctantly nodded.
As expected, someone with such a severe case of workaholism was not easy to persuade with mere words.
Still, she understood what I meant — and even if she didn't fully agree with me, she would still act according to the direction I wanted.
"I'll add a few more features to the remote meeting system. I'll include a function that requires headquarters' approval for after-hours use, and one that redirects such activity to overtime processing."
"Just adding that much will make employees welcome the system. They'll finally be able to work from home in the true sense."
"Starting this month, I'm thinking of having employees who work from home use the remote meeting system."
"Go ahead and do that. And once you've made all the necessary adjustments, launch it to the public so that companies outside Taewoo Group can use it as well."
We needed to secure a foothold in the remote meeting market quickly.
Of course, there were already several platforms built on remote conferencing or video chat systems.
But none had yet solidified their position.
If we created a remote meeting system based on Taewoo Group's superior video and audio capabilities, dominating the market would be no challenge at all.
"To launch the remote meeting system officially, we'll need to improve image and sound quality, as well as add more features."
"You just focus on building the core structure, Ms. Chun. Leave the video and image quality updates to the professionals. And also, prepare to officially launch the anonymous workplace communication platform, 'BlaBla.' It's far too valuable a system for only Taewoo Group to use."
"Then I'll head back to the office right away and start the modifications!"
She looked like an artist unwilling to unveil a work she deemed unfinished — perhaps this is what that would resemble.
Without even offering a proper goodbye, Chun Min-jung rushed downstairs to her office to refine her creations — both BlaBla and the remote meeting system.
After work,
I stopped by Captain Kang's office.
"You're working late."
"The new headquarters is great and all, but it's too tall for its own good. Having to ride an elevator down a hundred floors before I can even leave for the day… such a waste of time."
The new building was equipped with high-speed elevators.
They could get to the 100th floor in just fifty seconds — state-of-the-art technology — but still, it often felt like considerable time was being wasted.
"Well, everything has its pros and cons, doesn't it?"
"I considered moving my office to a lower floor, but that would inconvenience the staff, so there's no helping it. Anyway, we should start ramping up the presidential election project in earnest."
"We've already been warming up for it since the beginning of this year — carefully boosting Governor Choi Jae-seok's profile on social media and portal sites."
With two months left until the election,
pushing too hard too early could have backfired, so we'd been fanning the flames just enough to create a light breeze.
"So the real polling begins now."
"Yes. Looking at the latest survey results, the race is extremely tight."
Captain Kang had obtained poll results that hadn't yet been released to the media.
National Economy Party candidate: 34%
Ruling party candidate: 32%
Opposition party candidate: 19%
Independent candidate: 12%
"Governor Choi Jae-seok is leading, barely, but still ahead."
"By only two percent. And I've heard there are talks about the opposition and independent candidates merging their bids. If that happens, the unified anti-ruling party candidate would get somewhere around 31% support."
One plus one equals two —
simple arithmetic even a kindergarten student could handle, but a formula that rarely worked in politics.
"Even if they do unify, it won't cause us much trouble. The merged candidate won't absorb all the support from the one who steps down. Governor Choi will take some of that share, ensuring at least the current gap remains."
"I agree. The bigger concern isn't the anti-ruling coalition but the ruling party candidate — they have overwhelming support from voters over sixty."
The current ruling party nominee was a heavyweight with considerable clout.
In the last presidential race, many had said the real contest was the ruling party's primary, and he had only narrowly lost to the current president.
On top of that, he carried strong political prestige.
As a result, he enjoyed a block of elderly support more solid than concrete.
"If we attack the ruling party candidate now, we'll just make his base rally around him stronger."
"You mean we'd provoke sympathy?"
"Exactly. That's why, this time, I suggest we try the opposite approach."
"The opposite approach… as in, simply not attacking him?"
Before my regression.
The turning point of the 18th presidential election had been the televised debates.
There, a candidate from a progressive party had said something that became so famous it was even used in comedy shows afterward:
"I came here to make sure they lose!"
It was meant literally — the progressive party's sole purpose that night was to bring down the ruling party's candidate through relentless attacks.
But that strategy failed.
Instead, it only had the opposite effect: solidifying the ruling party's base.
So this time, we had to make absolutely sure nothing like that happened if Governor Choi Jae-seok's chances of winning were to improve.
"Don't just stop at not attacking him — I want you to hold a revival meeting for him."
"You mean using social media and portal sites to publish complimentary articles about him?"
"Just publishing compliments isn't enough. I want you to praise him so excessively that anyone who sees it will think it's over the top."
Who dislikes being praised?
Praise also has a psychological effect on those who witness it.
That's why politicians often begrudgingly performed volunteer work — just to get that one line of positive coverage.
"But if we overdo the praise, wouldn't that end up helping the ruling party candidate?"
"You know the saying — politicians and celebrities are alike, right?"
"Yes. Since both live off public love and attention, they tend to behave in similar ways."
"In extreme fandoms, if they want to go after someone, they don't leave malicious comments — they leave over-the-top praises instead. When people read those comments, the reaction is usually, 'That's a bit much.' Politics works the same way."
In crude terms, it was the "over-glorification" strategy —
a deliberate tactic to elevate someone's perceived ability so absurdly high that it provokes a backlash.
"I see. We really need to go all-in on this strategy to generate that effect."
"Flood social media with it — and if necessary, get help from news outlets to push the glorification."
"But if we move like that, won't the opposition camp end up attacking the ruling party candidate mercilessly?"
"That's exactly what we want."
The more the ruling party and the opposition fought, the more it benefited us.
During such fierce battles, some supporters inevitably broke away, and they tended to migrate toward a neutral alternative — in this case, the National Economy Party.
"Ah, I get it now. The over-glorification strategy will stir resentment toward the ruling party candidate, and at the same time, provoke a fight between the opposition and the ruling party."
"Exactly. While those two slug it out, the National Economy Party focuses on calling for economic recovery — and wins people over."
This presidential race was like a tangled skein of thread.
Pulling too hard on one side would only make the knots worse.
We had to unwind it carefully, strand by strand, to reach the result we wanted.
***
A few days later.
I got a call from Dimon.
About once a month, Dimon would phone me — it had become a sort of regular report by now.
"TogetherWork is getting an absolutely explosive response. It's drawing a lot of attention in Silicon Valley and is hugely popular even in areas with sky-high rents."
"The financial industry must be showing some interest too."
"There's a frenzy of investors on Wall Street scrambling to put money into TogetherWork."
A goose that lays golden eggs.
From Wall Street's perspective, that's exactly how TogetherWork must appear.
What they didn't realize was that this goose laid rotten eggs, not golden ones.
"Let's keep teasing them a little longer. If you want to catch the biggest fish, you have to bait the hook properly."
"That's why I advised Beryl — the CEO of TogetherWork — to turn down all offers coming from Wall Street for now. He seems like quite a find. His loyalty is high, and he knows exactly what he should and shouldn't do."
Beryl, the farm heir.
But having cut his teeth on Wall Street, he knew how to read between the lines.
"As long as you point him in the right direction, he won't make any big mistakes."
"And there are signs the U.S. Federal Reserve is about to start scaling back quantitative easing."
"It's about time for tapering to begin."
"Tapering — is that a term as well?"
Had that word not been coined yet?
We called the gradual reduction of quantitative easing 'tapering.'
On second thought, I remembered — the term 'tapering' would only officially emerge the following year.
Reduction of quantitative easing.
The moment when the economies of the U.S. — and the world — would be shaken once again was not far off.