In Search of Our Destiny - Chapter 199

Seeing how Ji-Won was keeping silent, seemingly lost in thought, the Senior Director got even more upset.

“Director Kang Ji-Won, what answer should I give if the management asks why Team 1 from the Planning Department was late in submitting their proposal? Can you tell me what excuse I can give to this shameful state of things?”

“For now we are trying to find a replacement for the previous location, along with changing the concept as needed. So, we hope it won’t get to the point of having to miss the deadline. The worst case scenario, we’ll have everything ready by tomorrow evening, everything except for the signed contract.”

“And how is that any better?” The Senior Director almost shrieked, his eyes bulging from anger. “Without a contract signed between the company and the accommodation representative everything else will be worth nothing. You’ll merely have a concept, but without a touristic location to actually implement it in.”

“I’m well aware of that, sir. But it’s still better than not submitting the new project proposal at all.” Ji-Won retorted firmly.

He and the Senior Director glared at each other for a few seconds, before the older man eventually deflated.

“Ah, what am I to do?! I was even on the list for a promotion. I was so sure I would get it by the end of the year. If your team ends up losing this month’s quota, it will look so bad on my record! Then all my dreams of advancement will be over. Under these circumstances, I should be lucky enough to keep my current job for a while longer.”

Having to bear witness to the middle-aged man’s lamenting, Ji-Won felt his headache worsening. He closed his eyes, letting out a long sigh. He needed to continue keeping his cool in front of his senior, otherwise it could turn worse. As he could see, the Senior Director wasn’t a very reasonable person, so provoking him might bring even more trouble to the entire team.

“Don’t worry, sir.” Ji-Won spoke after a while, opening his eyes. “Even if the worst happens and we miss this deadline, I’m sure the Chairman won’t hold you directly responsible for our mistake.”

There was a well concealed sneer in Ji-Won’s voice as he said all that. When he finished speaking, he got up and walked towards the door.

“If that is all, sir, I will take my leave now. Rest assured, I will keep you informed of our progress.”

Immediately after that, Ji-Won walked out of the Senior Director’s office and returned to his own department.

In the end, seeing how they couldn’t come up with a new and better concept, Ji-Won’s team decided to stick with the old one. All they had to do was adapt it to the new location.

Thus, for the remainder of the day, Su-Jin, together with Yeon-Ah put together a new list of locations and different types of accommodations they could use for their project. After the list was done, Ji-Won and Seo-Jun took over. The two of them made plenty of calls, trying to set up meetings with the owners of those guest houses.

During this time, Jung Seok worked on the numbers, trying to figure out which place would be more advantageous for their target groups, while also allowing their company to achieve a bigger profit margin.

When it was finally time to clock out, the entire team looked dejected. Even though Ji-Won had managed to talk to a few owners, most of those people were either out of the city on business, or away on vacation with their families.

Therefore, they simply couldn’t feel hopeful at all, especially since they had to meet face-to-face with those people if they ever wanted to have a chance to sign a contract.

“This is crazy. I still don’t understand why they would require the proposal to also have an agreement signed. Isn’t it hard enough to create a touristic package from scratch?” Seo-Jun huffed angrily.

“Indeed, we’re the Planning Department, after all, not the Sales Office.” Su-Jin chimed in.

“There’s no use bickering about it.” Yeon-Ah sighed. “I heard before that it was a special task assigned by the upper management in order to evaluate the team’s overall results.”

Hearing that, Su-Jin’s chest was taken over by a mixture of indignance and curiosity. As such, she immediately turned towards the only man who was in a position to give her answers.

“Director Kang, is that really true?”

“Mn.” Ji-Won hummed. “It’s true that this task was special. Apart from coming up with a new, innovative concept and including it in a complete touristic package, we were also supposed to sign either a contract or an initial agreement with the owners of the accommodations we wanted to work with.”

“But it shouldn’t be our job to do that. Handling documents like contracts and whatnot shouldn’t fall in our responsibility.” Su-Jin disputed.

“And it’s not our responsibility, not entirely at least.” Ji-Won said.

Then, seeing Su-Jin opening her mouth to argue, he quickly raised a hand to stop her before continuing his explanation.

“The legal team is the one who ultimately drafts the final contracts and agreements. We only make provisional ones. After carefully discussing the offer with the owners and reaching an agreement with them, we can move from the concept stage to the implementation phase of the project. Following all that, the legal team will use all the information we give them in order to draw up the final documents.”

“I understand now. But even so, this shouldn’t be done by the Planning Department in the first place. We should be responsible solely for creating the concepts and maybe having the future profit accounts figured out.”

Su-Jin kept muttering in an undertone, her eyebrows gradually knitting together into a frown.

Seeing her looking so aggrieved, Ji-Won couldn’t stop a small smile from spreading on his lips.

At the same time, his mind wandered.

‘What would she think if she were to find out that this unreasonable task has been assigned because of me? The agreement with my father stated that my team and I should be able to demonstrate the feasibility of our concept, as well as to prove the potential profits that can be expected once the project is implemented.. So, in order to have our project approved by the management, we will also need a written document to attest that the owner of a certain guest house is willing to sign a partnership contract with Kangji Tourism.’