26: Chapter 26 Team Expansion

Just after the CU limited edition kimchi noodles hit the shelves, Chairman Wang Shunyi discovered a new problem—there weren't enough people.

It wasn't the kind of shortage where you're "a bit busy today but it'll be fine tomorrow." It was that they were working overtime until 11:00 PM every night, yet the work still piled up, like the ever-increasing semi-finished products on a factory assembly line, never-ending.

Zhang Junhao was handling the production line, raw material procurement, and equipment maintenance all by himself. Sometimes, he'd get a call from Park Jung-hoon in the middle of the night saying the machines had stopped, and he'd have to crawl out of bed and rush to the factory. It was even more extreme for Park Min-ji; social media, influencer collaborations, ad placement, and offline events—she was carrying it all on her own. Once, when Chairman Wang Shunyi returned to the office after 10:00 PM to pick up something, he saw her asleep at her desk, her phone still lit up, displaying a half-written marketing plan on the screen.

He stood by her side for a while, not wanting to wake her, then took off his jacket, draped it over her shoulders, and quietly turned off the lights before leaving.

The next morning, he called Zhang Junhao and Park Min-ji into the small conference room.

"We've grown too fast recently," Chairman Wang Shunyi said, getting straight to the point. "Our product line has expanded, and our channels have grown, but the team is still at the size it was when we started. Your workloads have reached their limit; if we keep going like this, your health will collapse first."

Zhang Junhao leaned back in his chair, rubbing his temples, dark circles under his eyes. "On the production line, raw material procurement, production scheduling, and quality control are all piled on me. Whenever Park Jung-hoon has equipment trouble, I have to rush over. Lately, I feel like I've done a little bit of everything, but haven't done anything well."

Park Min-ji also opened her notebook, which was densely packed with to-do items. "It's the same on the marketing side. Social media needs daily updates, influencer collaborations need negotiation, ad placements need monitoring, and offline events need to be managed. One person simply can't handle all of this. Plus, with the new product launch coming up, I'm afraid I'll make a mistake."

Chairman Wang Shunyi nodded and pushed a piece of paper to the center of the table. On it were listed five positions: one marketing specialist, one procurement specialist, one quality control specialist, one customer service specialist, and one administrative assistant.

"Let's hire these five first. We should set the salary a bit above the industry average. Our company doesn't have much of a reputation yet, so we have to use compensation to attract talent."

Zhang Junhao glanced at the budget and said nothing. There was still money in the account; they could afford it.

Less than a week after the job postings went up on several job sites, the inbox was stuffed with nearly two hundred resumes. Chairman Wang Shunyi, Zhang Junhao, and Park Min-ji spent an entire afternoon screening them and eventually selected twenty people for interviews.

The interviews were scheduled for Saturday, running from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM. The small conference room in the office was temporarily converted into an interview room. On the table were bottles of mineral water and a few samples, and in the corner, two unopened boxes of fire chicken noodles were stacked.

The first person to come in was a young woman, twenty-five years old, with short hair, wearing a dark gray knit sweater, holding a kraft paper folder in her hand. She bowed slightly upon entering before sitting down.

"Ms. Choi Min-ju, right?" Chairman Wang Shunyi flipped through the resume. "A graduate of Yonsei University with a major in Communication, and you previously interned at an advertising agency."

"Yes, President," she said. Her voice was quiet but clear. "At that company, I was mainly responsible for social media management and content creation. I wrote a few posts, and the one with the highest engagement exceeded 500,000 views."

"Then, in your opinion, what areas of our company's social media operations could be improved?" Park Min-ji asked.

Choi Min-ju thought for a moment, not rushing to answer. She glanced at the pack of fire chicken noodles on the table and then said, "Shunyi Foods has very good content quality, but the interactivity could be strengthened. For example, we could do more user-generated content campaigns, letting consumers film their own videos or write reviews, which the company then reposts. This saves on content costs while bringing us closer to consumers. Also, we could try live-stream shopping. Young people nowadays really go for that."

Park Min-ji looked at Chairman Wang Shunyi and nodded slightly.

"What are your salary expectations?" Chairman Wang Shunyi asked.

"The industry average is fine," Choi Min-ju paused. "I value development opportunities more. Shunyi Foods is growing so fast, and I feel I can learn a lot here."

After the interview, Park Min-ji put a checkmark on the resume.

The second person to come in was the procurement specialist candidate, Li Dongxu. He was thirty-two, wearing a dark blue jacket, with his hair cut very short, looking sharp. He had previously worked in procurement at a food trading company for five years and knew the prices and channels for various raw materials like the back of his hand.

"Mr. Li Dongxu," Zhang Junhao asked him, "if we wanted to reduce the procurement cost of konjac powder, what ideas would you have?"

"Konjac powder is mainly imported from China, and currently, it goes through agent channels, which adds two to three layers of markup," Li Dongxu said. He didn't speak fast, but every sentence hit the mark. "If we can connect directly with Chinese manufacturers and handle the import ourselves, we could reduce costs by at least 15 percent. When I was at the trading company, I had contact with several Chinese suppliers and could try to reach out to them."

Zhang Junhao turned to look at Chairman Wang Shunyi, his lips moving as if to say, "This one is good."

Afterward, they interviewed the quality control specialist, the customer service specialist, and the administrative assistant.

The quality control specialist was a twenty-seven-year-old woman named Zheng Yilin, a food science graduate who had worked at a testing agency for two years. She took a flashlight and a thermometer and examined the pack of fire chicken noodles on the table from start to finish, not even missing the evenness of the seal.

The customer service specialist was a twenty-three-year-old woman, Park Hyo-jin, with an outgoing personality, a sweet smile, and a way of speaking that was comfortably warm. She had worked as customer service for an e-commerce platform for half a year, was familiar with backend operations, and knew how to calm down angry customers.

The administrative assistant was the only male candidate, Kim Tae-min, twenty-six years old. He had studied administrative management and had worked as an assistant at a trading company for two years after graduating. During the interview, he had basically memorized the information on the company's official website, even getting the founding date right.

By the time the interviews ended, it was almost 7:00 PM. The three of them sat in the conference room with a pile of resumes and scoring sheets spread out in front of them.

"Marketing specialist, Choi Min-ju," Park Min-ji spoke first. "Her way of thinking aligns well with mine, and her execution should be good."

"Procurement specialist, Li Dongxu," Zhang Junhao said. "He knows the business, and he has supplier resources, so he can get to work as soon as he arrives."

"Quality control specialist, Zheng Yilin. Her expertise is solid, and she is meticulous." Chairman Wang Shunyi drew a circle around Zheng Yilin's name. "Customer service specialist, Park Hyo-jin. Administrative assistant, Kim Tae-min. Send out the offer letters to these five people on Monday."

No one had any objections.

On Monday morning, all five people started work. The original three from the company, plus the five new hires, a total of eight people, filled that small conference room to capacity.

Chairman Wang Shunyi stood in front of the whiteboard, with no notes and no slides.

"Welcome to Shunyi Foods," he said, bowing first, then looking up and scanning the room. "Among you, there are old friends who have been with me since the early days of the start-up, and there are new colleagues here for their first day today. But I hope that from today on, we will all be one family."

He paused for a moment, and the fluorescent light above the whiteboard hummed.

"The idea behind Shunyi Foods is very simple—to make better-tasting instant food. It sounds easy, but it's not simple to do. The market changes every day, competitors are watching us, and consumers' tastes are becoming more and more demanding. But I believe one thing—as long as we don't make garbage, consumers won't abandon us."

He glanced at Zhang Junhao, who nodded slightly.

"Starting today, I want everyone to remember three things. First, quality is life. No matter how urgent it is, we cannot trade quality for speed. Second, the consumer is boss. Before making any decision, think first: what would the consumer think? Third, this company doesn't have that many levels. If anyone has an idea, come directly to me; no need to beat around the bush."

There was a moment of silence in the conference room, and then Choi Min-ju raised her hand.

"President, may I ask a question?"

"Go ahead."

"What exactly is your plan for the future of Shunyi Foods? Have you thought through the short-term, medium-term, and long-term?"

Chairman Wang Shunyi looked at her and smiled. He had thought about this question many times in his heart, but he had never discussed it in detail with anyone.

"Short-term—fully penetrate the channels of CU and GS25, so that anyone who wants to eat fire chicken noodles can buy them at any convenience store. Medium-term—enrich the product line; we can't rely on fire chicken noodles as our only leg to stand on. Long-term—" He paused, looking out the window. "I hope Shunyi Foods can go beyond Korea, to Japan, to China, to Southeast Asia. I want consumers in more countries to know that there is such a company in Korea that makes instant food."

No one spoke in the conference room. But Chairman Wang Shunyi saw that Kim Tae-min, sitting in the corner, had his eyes light up, Choi Min-ju was rapidly jotting something down in her notebook, and Zheng Yilin's lips were slightly curled upward.

After the meeting, the employees went to get familiar with their workstations. Chairman Wang Shunyi walked over to Park Min-ji's desk, where she was giving instructions to Choi Min-ju, their heads close together looking at the computer screen.

Once Choi Min-ju left, he sat down next to her.

"Minji."

She turned her head to look at him, a strand of hair slipping from behind her ear.

"What is it?"

"There's something I want to tell everyone."

"What is it?"

He hesitated for a moment, but still said it: "About us. I want to make it public."

She froze for a moment, then lowered her head, her fingers unconsciously tapping on the keyboard twice. After a few seconds, she looked up, a faint flush on her face.

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure," he said. "The company is stable now, and the team is slowly coming together. I don't want to keep hiding it anymore. And—" He paused. "I think if everyone finds out, it won't be a big deal."

She looked at him for a moment, then nodded gently. "Okay. Let's make it public then."

He held her hand; her hand was a bit cold, but she didn't pull it away.

"Thank you, Minji. You've worked hard during this time."

She didn't speak, just turned her hand over and interlaced her fingers with his.

Outside the window was the dusty street scene of Seongdong-gu. Downstairs, a truck was unloading cargo, the thud, thud, thud sound drifting up bit by bit. In the office, new employees were making phone calls, keyboards were clattering, and the copier was humming as it spat out paper.

These sounds mixed together, noisy and chaotic, but Chairman Wang Shunyi felt that this was the most beautiful sound he had ever heard.