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

It's six o'clock on Monday afternoon.

At the end of another tug-of-war, Chen Qing sent away the team of Westeros system and signaled to Lee Kun-hee, the president of Samsung who came to show up because of Chen Qing's attendance. Lee Kun-hee also waved to drive away the negotiators on Samsung's side and asked: "Ms. Chen, is there anything wrong?"

Chen Qing looked at Lee Kun-hee opposite the large conference table and spoke in a serious tone: "President Lee, my boss is interested in long-term interests, so he doesn't care about your intentional delay in the negotiation process for short-term interests. However, December 31, this is the deadline. I hope you can remember it?"

A sense of anger and frustration flashed through Lee Kun-hee's heart, and she showed nodded slightly on the surface: "Ms. Chen, I understand."

"This is just a reminder," Chen Qing said: "There is another serious matter. I have talked with President Zheng of Hyundai and President Cui of SK today. This Wednesday, I hope that the three of you will announce the layoffs together. This is the key to the recovery of the Korean companies through this crisis. They have all agreed, President Lee, are there any problems here?"

"Ms. Chen, layoffs are something that needs careful consideration. They are related to the livelihoods of many people. It only takes two days to do so. It is too hasty and we need to plan in detail."

"The plan can be done later. What I need is the statement of the three of you companies," Chen Qing refused to give in and stared at the Samsung leader opposite: "President Li, in fact, your current delay and slowness in corporate structure adjustment. Everyone understands the specific reason. In my opinion, these thoughts are very inconsistent, and my boss even disdains to argue with you. Because these delays and delays hinder your own development pace. The boss told me about his personal experience.

During the development of the Westeros system, he never struggled with these edges and corners, but kept moving forward quickly, which is where the Westeros system is today. We have talked about the prospects of Hyundai, Samsung and SK with the Westeros system more than once. Your doubts are understandable. However, it would be very stupid to slow down your pace because of this. Finally, the boss has enough patience, but I don’t. Therefore, President Li, Wednesday, can it be?"

Feeling the aggressive and sharp eyes of the girl opposite, Lee Kun-hee, who has always been strong, has a sense of dodging.

The two of them stalemate for a few seconds, and Lee Kun-hee finally compromised: "Okay."

"Very good," Chen Qing's cold and solemn expression just now instantly faded away, and she smiled: "President Li, if nothing unexpected happens, I will return to China this weekend. That's right, my hometown is in Suzhou, and Samsung Electronics' Chinese headquarters is also in Suzhou. Why not send a delegation to China with me this time, and everyone will discuss the expansion of Samsung Electronics' Chinese business on the spot. What do you think?"

Lee Kun-hee sighed in her heart and said lightly: "You can discuss this with Jin."

Lee Kun-hee is talking about Kang Jin-kiu, the president of Samsung Electronics.

Lee Kun-hee can understand why Chen Qing suddenly said this.

On the one hand, we need to announce the layoff plan, and on the other hand, we need to expand our business in China, which seems a bit contradictory.

Actually not.

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

Chen Qing made this request, in addition to attracting investment for her hometown, she also pushed Samsung Group to start substantial structural adjustments as soon as possible.

After Chen Qing said goodbye with satisfaction, Leonardo Lee was still sitting in the empty conference room.

Lee Kun-hee remembered last year.

Following Simon Westero's fantastic trip to China, he also visited China and publicly expressed his concerns about South Korea's overheating economy and his dissatisfaction with the radical economic policies of the Kim Yongsan authorities at a press conference at the Diaoyutai State Guest House in Beijing.

After South Korea joined the OECD to advance to the Wealth Country Club last year, Kim Yongsan also put forward the slogan of entering the top five in the world in 2005.

Now, this slogan is a joke.

The result of Kim Yongsan's radical economic strategy was that South Korea, which has maintained a trade surplus for decades, began to show a deficit in the past few years. However, in 1996, South Korea's trade deficit reached US$22.4 billion, thus consuming a large amount of South Korea's foreign exchange reserves. This is why when this financial crisis came, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore, ranked the bottom three in the four Asian little dragons, all easily survived with their strong foreign exchange reserves. Instead, South Korea, which was the top, almost fell into an abyss of no return.

At this time, he was forced to sign a bailout agreement with the IMF, and the media and the public just shouted that South Korea had lost its economic sovereignty. However, most people don’t know what it contains.

Lee Kun-hee understands.

Even though Lee Kun-hee chose to be a hero for the sake of family foundation, as a Korean who is also not lacking in nationalism and patriotism, his heart is also painful.

Because of the systemic risks hidden in the South Korean economy in advance, even if Samsung Group had to follow the trend to expand its debt, before the crisis, among the top ten chaebols, Samsung Group's overall debt-to-asset ratio had exceeded 300%, it was actually a very low level.

If it weren't for the clear sniping of the Westeros system, Samsung wouldn't need to transfer control of the foundation of Samsung Electronics, the group.

Now, Lee Kun-hee only hopes that the Westeros system can keep its promises, help him win Kia, and allow Samsung to enter the automotive business smoothly. Moreover, he has made up his mind that even if he completely abandons Samsung Electronics, the Lee family must firmly control the automotive business.

Two days after Monday's conversation, on Wednesday, December 3, Hyundai, Samsung and SK, three chaebols, issued announcements on group structural adjustments at the same time.

Of course no one was so stupid that he clearly used the 'lacking announcement' statement.

Just like Samsung.

The relevant report is called "Samsung Group's Business System Innovation Plan", and Lee Kun-hee also specially renamed his direct secretarial team to the "Structural Adjustment Committee".

However, look at the content.

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

There is no need to talk about other terms that are high-sounding or implicitly implicit. But these two items are just that, everyone understands what the so-called innovation plan means. In vernacular, Samsung Group plans to lay off 30% of its employees in 1998 and launch large-scale salary cuts to reduce the group's operating expenses by 50%.

The entire Samsung Group, including Samsung Electronics, Samsung Life, Samsung Products, Samsung Automobile and other subsidiaries, has a total of 130,000 employees, of which only Samsung Electronics has 58,000, which is nearly half.

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

Behind 40,000 people are 40,000 families.

Even employees who are lucky enough to stay will face significant salary cuts.

The other two companies, Hyundai and SK, planned layoffs in the announcement are comparable to Samsung, both of which are around 30%.

Even if a large number of South Korean companies go bankrupt in the past year, South Korea's current unemployment rate is only 6.1%. It is hard to imagine what the situation would be if all companies followed giants such as Samsung and Hyundai to lay off employees at the same scale, so that the overall unemployment rate in this country reaches 30%.

You should know that the unemployment rate in Eastern Europe is about 30% of the unemployment rate in countries with completely collapsed economies.

Therefore, the announcements of the three companies were just released, which immediately caused criticism from many media, and the Blue House and several candidate presidents also expressed strong concern about the matter.

In the end, it will not help.

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

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Previously, we were worried about the pressure of public opinion. Even if the IMF agreement had already banned major layoffs for enterprises, many companies did not dare to lay off employees rashly. Now, giants like Hyundai, Samsung, and SK have taken the lead in doing this. What are the concerns about everyone?

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

By Friday, unemployed people gathered again in front of the Blue House. This time, the demonstrators did not attack their boss in vain, but pointed their finger at the IMF again. Some even pulled out a very ‘creative’ banner and reinterpreted the IMF as ‘I’m Fired’ to express their dissatisfaction.
Chapter completed!