233. the contract carefully
Amazon is an e-commerce company founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos.
Amazon started as an internet bookstore founded by Jeff Bezos and his wife.
As soon as it opened, Amazon, which had a small success, became widely known by being featured on the front page of Wall Street in 1996, and in the middle of 1997, the following year, it eventually succeeded in going public.
Listed at $18, Amazon’s stock soars to a maximum of $2,000 later, and as a result, Jeff Bezos later has personal assets exceeding about 200 trillion won, making him one of the world’s richest people.
Just looking at this, it goes without saying that Jeff Bezos is an outstanding manager and an economist.
However, apart from him, Hoyoung did not like him very much.
‘Market control through monopoly, and serious in-house environment don’t fit my business philosophy at all.’
There are probably many reasons why Amazon has been so successful, but the biggest ones are two. The first is that it controls the suppliers, not the consumers.
After monopolizing the market at a low price, if suppliers raised the unit price, they had strict controls such as removing them from the Amazon site rankings, or completely blocking the purchase of books by authors who made remarks they did not like.
Of course, thanks to that, consumers can buy products at very low prices.
And thanks to the massed consumers, the market share grows, and the larger market share brings greater control.
Hoyoung never liked this kind of control.
In the short term, the market may appear to be buoyant because consumers can enjoy cheap goods and content.
However, as the number of producers who do not receive fair results increases, it is obvious that the quality of content will gradually deteriorate in the long run, and the ecosystem will eventually be destroyed.
And the second was the treatment of employees.
Hoyoung basically believes that he cannot do everything alone.
In particular, it was believed that the larger the company, the larger the organization is because each and every small member exists.
It was also thought that the best efficiency was achieved when each person demonstrated the best ability and creativity in their position.
However, Amazon’s in-house environment had major problems, even at first glance.
In the future, the number of Amazon employees will reach a huge number of 600,000, but ambulances are called dozens of times a month, and various safety accidents such as overwork and electric shocks have not stopped, and even using the bathroom for too long or getting sick Penalty points were imposed for leaving early because of illness or even chatting with colleagues during work, and when the points accumulated, they were even fired immediately.
Later, half-jokingly and half-seriously, the saying that it is cheaper to call an ambulance to transport a worker who collapsed from heat stroke than to turn on the air conditioner at a distribution center spreads like a buzzword.
However, the reason why Hoyeong went to see him was simple.
‘If I intervene now, I will be able to keep him in check.’
And he sees Amazon itself as quite positive.
Some say the advent of Amazon brought the end of offline logistics companies.
Toys R Us, Peirish Sauce, and Gymboree had about a thousand stores in the United States, but all of them went through the process of closure, and this was not just a few companies, but most of the companies with offline stores.
However, Hoyoung thought that this phenomenon was not because of Amazon.
‘The future in which the Internet develops and online transactions are activated is inevitable. Changes in the market will change in that way anyway, and Amazon has played a role in driving that.’
It was Hoyoung who thought that even if it was not Amazon, the second Amazon would have appeared and played the same role.
So, Hoyoung thought that the problem was not with Amazon, but with Jeff Bezos.
“President. It looks like we’ll be arriving at Seattle-Tacoma Airport in a little while.”
Hoyoung woke up from his thoughts as he heard Miru’s voice taking care of him.
Yesterday he had finished his work with Noomo Media’s executives, had a heavy drink for the day, and boarded a plane to Washington.
Glancing at Smith, he was asleep, as if the aftermath of yesterday still lingered, even though it was a short flight of less than two and a half hours.
“Miru, when exactly was the day Smith was supposed to meet with Jeff Bezos?”
“It’s 2 p.m. the day after tomorrow.”
“Then you will have time tomorrow.”
“That’s right.”
Hoyoung asked Smith to negotiate with Jeff Bezos this time.
This time, it was because there was no need to make a big deal.
The picture Hoyoung drew was a simple proposal to give Jeff Bezos, who is trying to establish an e-book reader company somehow, even though he can’t afford it, to give Numo Media and demand an amount of Amazon shares equal to its value.
If you say you get additional investment there, you can give more.
That’s why Smith’s condition was important, but fortunately, it seemed that Smith’s condition would have time to fully recover tomorrow.
Hoyeong looked at Smith again and smiled.
It was because it reminded me of the Smith of yesterday, who lamented that Ho-young came to the United States and came out of the house and had a drink.
‘Do you want to go out of the house like that when you get married?’
Hoyoung suddenly had an idea.
And naturally, when I thought of marriage, I thought of Su-min, who was waiting for Ho-yeong in Korea.
‘It’s a marriage…’
The more Hoyeong met Sumin, the more he felt that she was a very comfortable person.
Su-min understands Ho-young, who is always busy, and tries not to burden him.
Of course, there were times when he complained about whether he liked his job better than he did, but it was only a momentary complaint and he didn’t mean it.
‘If I live with someone, it must be Sumin, right?’
Hoyeong had almost no experience of living with anyone other than her parents during the nearly 50 years of her previous life and over 10 years of this life.
In the early days of H&H, I almost lived with my seniors in the computer research club room, but strictly speaking, it wasn’t like living together.
“Chief. Shall we do some shopping tomorrow?”
“Shopping?”
“yes. What···. I can go alone.”
“no. I still need something.”
“okay. Then we will go together tomorrow.”
Hoyoung smiled.
And after a while, the plane carrying them arrived at the airport, and Hoyoung and Miru woke up Smith and headed to the hotel.
.
next day.
At first glance, Smith may seem sloppy, but in terms of work, he was also thorough.
Before Hoyoung even talked about it, he first asked if he wanted to be in the best condition for tomorrow’s meeting and if he didn’t have to participate no matter what schedule he had, and Hoyoung readily agreed.
Then, Hoyeong and Miru left the hotel.
Seattle was a big city, so there were many large department stores and shopping malls, and Hoyoung and Miru entered the biggest one they could see without having to research any prior information.
“Chairman, what are you buying?”
“Me? Well···. Who is the manager?”
“haha. I came to buy a present for Heejin. I was thinking of buying a bag.”
Hoyoung nodded.
Miru and Heejin met better than expected.
At first glance, the two may seem incompatible.
However, Heejin, who looks strong on the outside but has a deep heart, and Miru, who looks like a very stiff office worker, but actually has a caring heart and a playfulness, so it was a good pairing.
“Chairman, won’t you tell me?”
“Oh, I want to take a look at the accessories.”
“Oh, is it? What accessory?”
“I’m thinking of buying you a ring.”
When he heard the word ring, Miru’s eyes widened slightly.
“Chairman, by any chance…?”
“Oh, no. I was just thinking about coupling.”
Hoyeong waved both of her hands and said, and Miru laughed pahahaha, as if that face was funny.
“By the way, Chairman, there is the most important thing before buying a ring.”
“Is it important?”
Miru said with a spleen expression.
“I don’t think the president is ready to present the ring yet…”
“Ready. Do I need any other preparations to buy a ring?”
Hoyoung, who answered as if he didn’t know anything, was cute, but Miru smiled.
Normally, Hoyoung has a serpentine inside of him that makes you wonder if he’s really this age, but sometimes he looks naive at times like this.
He spat out a single word.
“Do you know the size of Sumin’s ring?”
“Oh no.”
In an instant, Hoyeong’s expression was devastated, and Miru burst into laughter.
Thanks to that, people passing by looked at the two once in a while, but neither of them cared.
.
Thanks to Miru’s appropriate advice (?), Hoyeong was able to avoid wandering around the jewelry store, and eventually decided on a necklace and earring set for this gift.
Until now, Hoyoung had been indifferent to such things, so he had never gifted Sumin with simple souvenirs or gifts, but since Hoyeong had never given such a full-fledged gift, he was somewhat excited.
A full day passed like that, and the next evening.
Ho-young heard the good news from Smith, who had been to Amazon’s headquarters.
“boss! You’ve been waiting for a long time, right? The conversation is over.”
“smith! It’s been a lot of trouble. Did Jeff Bezos accept our offer?”
“haha. no. I don’t know how people will hear me when I say this, but he’s such a wonderful person. He really sees through our proposal completely and takes it all from the worst to the best.”
“I heard that he has the personality to cross even stone bridges, but that seems to be true.”
“yes. However···.”
Smith looked at Hoyoung again with admiration and continued.
“Everything was as the boss said.”
“haha. okay?”
“yes. We immediately agreed to swap all of our shares in Noomo Media and 20% of our shares in Amazon. However, I was really conservative about further investment.”
“He must have thought that his management rights should not be shaken by any chance.”
“yes. So, I was very reluctant to make additional investments and shares. However, our second offer was accepted.”
Hoyoung smiled and recalled the second suggestion he had given Smith.
‘In exchange for an investment of $150 million, you receive a 31% non-voting stake in perpetuity…’
If you listen to this far, Hoyoung’s investment will be an opportunity for Jeff Bezos to further solidify his management rights. If a whopping 31% of the voting rights are tied up, this is because one share has 1.3 times the effect than usual. In this case, it was obvious that Jeff Bezos, the majority shareholder, would have the best advantage.
Moreover, Jeff Bezos, whose stock price dropped 20% in one week because of Lehman Brothers’ negative report on Amazon.com, would have welcomed the huge investment of $150 million with open arms. Except for the one word that followed.
‘…However, if Amazon’s stock price falls below $10 per share, voting rights can be exercised as an emergency situation.’
Jeff Bezos would have snorted at this clause.
Even if 20% evaporated, that’s Amazon at over $900 a share.
It was obvious that such an Amazon would never ever drop below $10, let alone $100.
‘But, that day will really come.’
With the start of the IT bubble burst in 2000… In 2002, Amazon’s share price fell to an all-time low of $6.
However, the only person who knew this future was Hoyeong.
“Anyway, you worked hard. Now go in and rest. Then, can I just go to the Amazon headquarters to sign?”
“yes. Just like today, it will be 2pm tomorrow.” “Haha. Okay. Shall we stop by for dinner then?”
“yes. I’ve been waiting for that talk. I feel like the skin on my stomach is going to stick to the skin on my back.”
Hoyoung happily left the hotel with Miru and Smith.
