Two days later.
I visited Captain Kang's office.
Just like the planning director, I had also instructed Captain Kang to investigate the head of the Seoul taxi union.
"Were you able to gather any information?"
"To collect data, not only I but all of my staff spent the entire day riding around in taxis. Thanks to that, we managed to collect quite a lot of intel. To summarize it briefly… 'The Seoul branch chief is a son of a bitch.'"
It was the first time I'd heard Captain Kang use such harsh language.
He had encountered countless villains while working with me, but I'd never seen such an intense reaction from him before.
"He must be quite the scumbag to make you curse like that."
"He's worse than the military. For starters, he treats taxi company employees like unpaid laborers. He docked someone's pay just for attending his mother's funeral, and he funnels high-paying long-distance calls to his cronies. He's a parasite living off the backs of taxi drivers."
"Docking pay for going to a funeral? That's absurd."
"He comes up with ridiculous excuses to cut wages. And it turns out he's pocketing the deducted pay himself."
It made no sense.
As the head of the Seoul taxi union, he should naturally be standing up for the taxi drivers.
Rejecting Taewoo Group's offer and siding with KS Telecom now seemed less like a decision for the benefit of the drivers and more about his personal gain.
"So who is this guy to have so much power? I know he oversees the call dispatch companies, but how did he get to that position?"
"His name is Cha Bong-hoon. He's the son of the CEO of the largest taxi company in Seoul. He joined the union specifically to help his father take it over. Then he formed a cartel with the local taxi companies and turned the union into his own personal kingdom."
"If the taxi union is a kingdom, then the taxi drivers must be treated like peasants. He's filling his coffers by exploiting their labor and slashing their wages."
Even as I said it, the metaphor felt childish.
But for the drivers actually suffering under these conditions, nothing about this was childish.
They had to put up with this petty tyranny—not just for themselves, but for the sake of their
families too.
"You could even say the smaller taxi companies are victims in all this. Cha Bong-hoon is
collecting bribes from them as well."
"Is that even possible?"
"If they don't pay up, he threatens them with strikes or uses the call dispatch companies to cut off their business."
I wasn't the type to empathize with things that didn't concern me.
Before my regression, no one ever showed me empathy when I was struggling. That's how I
became this way.
So what if there's no empathy?
What mattered was that Cha Bong-hoon was interfering with what I was trying to do.
"If we destroy the system where call companies monopolize dispatches, Cha Bong-hoon's power will crumble."
"That's true, but right now the chances of that are close to zero. Taxi drivers and small companies who felt wronged have tried to create new call companies before, but none of them lasted more than a few months under pressure from Cha Bong-hoon's cartel."
Cha Bong-hoon already held overwhelming power.
No matter how many people banded together to fight him, they were crushed by the cartel he
controlled.
They didn't call it a cartel for nothing.
A cartel is unbeatable by sheer numbers alone—that's what makes it a cartel.
And the best way to destroy a cartel… is to crush it with an even bigger one.
"We need to change the system where call companies monopolize dispatch work."
"Are you thinking of acquiring one? Even if you do, as long as Cha Bong-hoon holds power,
there's no way to use it effectively."
"Why do call companies have power in the first place? It's because people call taxis through
them. So if we create a way to call taxis without going through the call companies, we can
destroy Cha Bong-hoon's power in one blow."
"Is that even possible?"
Before the regression, call companies were relics of the past.
Smartphone apps made calling a taxi much faster and easier.
I had assumed that such services would emerge on their own in due time.
Back then, if Taewoo Group had entered the taxi dispatch service market, we would've been
accused of expanding too aggressively.
"Hm, Captain Kang—you might have to become the CEO of a taxi dispatch startup."
"Me? I don't have the ability to run a company. Especially not one in the taxi industry—I don't know anything about it."
"Taewoo Group will handle the business operations and systems. You just need to deal with people, which is what you're good at."
That was the strategy to avoid criticism of overexpansion.
If Taewoo Group led the effort directly, it would become an issue. But if we installed a front man and merely pretended to consult the company from the sidelines, no one could object.
"Still, I'm not confident I can bring in sales as the company head."
"Don't worry about revenue. It doesn't matter if we operate at a loss—in fact, I'd prefer it. Turn a profit and it'll just attract unnecessary attention."
We needed taxi data, not revenue.
There were countless other ways to make money, and Taewoo Group already had numerous subsidiaries bringing in hundreds of times more revenue than a taxi dispatch service ever could.
"If profit isn't the goal, then what should I focus on when running the company?"
"Our goal is to get as many taxi companies and drivers as possible using the dispatch service. As you probably know, the taxi union isn't exactly a pushover. There could be violent protests or retaliation."
"Then that's great news. That just happens to be my area of expertise."
Captain Kang actually looked pleased at the prospect of a physical confrontation.
He trained rigorously for two to three hours every day in conditions akin to real combat, and his physical ability far surpassed that of any union thug or hired goon.
"Today, we're going to acquire a small taxi company and one call company, then establish a legal entity. You'll be registered as the CEO of that new corporation. A few of your staff will report there with you. Taewoo Group will take care of the rest."
"Will I have to step down as head of the security firm?"
"No. You'll be running both companies simultaneously."
"Then I'll be the most successful among all my peers."
Captain Kang joked.
But the truth was, the business would grow far beyond what he imagined.
Not just among his peers, but among all his seniors and juniors too—he'd be the one running the biggest company.
After finishing my conversation with Captain Kang, I dropped by Taewoo IT to meet with Chun Min-jung.
I explained the taxi-hailing service I had in mind.
"So, you're saying we should create a service where people can simply hail a taxi through a
smartphone app," she summarized.
"Right. The current call-taxi system allows companies to manipulate job distribution, but what we want is a system that assigns rides based on a first-come-first-serve or distance priority. We'll also include upfront fare estimates and driver information so both drivers and customers are satisfied."
"It's doable. But for it to be fully functional, both taxi drivers and customers need to have
smartphones or similar devices."
There was no problem on the customer side—
Only those with smartphones would use the service anyway.
"Wouldn't it be possible to cheaply produce a device solely for the purpose of accessing the taxihailing service?"
"I'm not an expert in device manufacturing, but I'd say we could make one for about 30% the
cost of a smartphone. Alternatively, I can try developing a program that allows feature phones to access the service."
"Is it even possible to make feature phones compatible with smartphones?"
"It's not entirely impossible. Just like the current call services, we can insert an intermediary
server that converts smartphone data and transmits it to feature phones. It'll increase operating costs a bit, though."
Cost wasn't a concern.
This only needed to serve as a temporary solution for a few years—
Once smartphones became more widespread, we could pivot.
"Please go ahead with that approach. How soon can it be done?"
"Would it be okay if I integrate it with the existing navigation app? That would shorten the
development time and improve performance."
"Of course. There's probably no industry that needs navigation more than taxis."
"Then give me one month. If I were only making the smartphone app, I could finish in two
weeks, but making it compatible with feature phones will take about a month."
It was Chun Min-jung speaking, so I trusted her.
If anyone else had told me they could develop a smartphone app in a month, I would've accused them of trying to scam me.
But I'd already seen Chun Min-jung's capabilities with my own eyes—
There was no doubt in my mind.
While Chun Min-jung was working on the app,
I called in Lee Seok-jun, the ace of Taewoo Electronics, to the vice chairman's office after a long time.
Ah! He was promoted two ranks last year, so I should call him Manager Lee Seok-jun now.
"Vice Chairman! It's been a long time since I last greeted you."
"Manager Lee, you've been well, I hope? Now that you're a manager, you carry a certain
presence."
"Oh, no. Among the managers, I'm still the youngest. How could I have any presence?"
Lee Seok-jun was a typical engineer type.
He sometimes seemed a little absent-minded, and his speech was awkward, but his skills were undeniable. Especially when it came to making new devices using existing parts, he had a natural talent.
Thanks to him, we were able to make the first foldable phone, the InnoPhone.
He knew Taewoo Group's technology better than anyone else, and he was the perfect person to develop a temporary device for our needs.
"We want to make a device dedicated to the taxi-hailing app. How would you make it?"
"If it's a device that only runs a specific app without any other functions, I can definitely make it."
"I'll explain the necessary functions."
Since it was a dedicated device, a few extra functions had to be added.
This caused a conflict between price and performance.
Adding features raised the manufacturing cost, but if we left them out, the app's functionality would be compromised.
"Vice Chairman, do the device's display and memory really have to be built-in?"
"How else would you check information without a display? The memory is the same."
"Most taxis use navigation systems. If we use the navigation's display and memory, we can make a dedicated device at a very low cost."
"So, you mean to make it like an accessory that plugs into the navigation?"
"That's right. Creating an external device that plugs into the navigation system to run the app
seems like the best approach."
As expected, Taewoo Group had many talented people.
Manager Lee Seok-jun immediately found a solution I hadn't even thought of.
He might not be as much of a genius as Chun Min-jung, but he definitely qualified as a genius in his own right.
"Proceed with that plan. Use whatever resources you need — development costs, personnel,
facilities — and develop it as quickly as possible. Also, draft a plan for mass production."
"I will finalize all the plans within a month!"