Byeong chul Kim of Misung Commercial Co., Ltd.
Chapter 1. Starting out a lifelong journey in the wig industry with no knowledge whatsoever
Since 2014, BNB Magazine has been publishing memoirs from the veterans of the beauty industry to promote sharing their stories and lessons that could allow our readers to address the current issues in the industry today. Unfortunately, we’ve been on hiatus during the pandemic. Now we’re finally bringing it back.
The new memoir will feature Byeong chul Kim, former President of Misung Commercial Co., Ltd. Mr. Kim was one of the earliest members of the company which has a high reputation in the wig industry and is often called the “Wig Talent Academy.” He only retired last year after his 50 years of decorated career. Fifty years of service is easier said than done. His story spans two continents and weaves the long history of the Korean wig industry. This true to life memoir is written based on the facts and events personally told by Mr. Kim.
Former President Byeong chul Kim at the current headquarters building of Misung (located in the redevelopment area of Wonhyo-ro 1-ga, Yongsan-gu, Seoul)
From a coal briquette company to a wig company
In 1967, my first job after military service was at Samcheonri coal briquette company. I had to take an entrance exam consisting of various subjects including Korean language, essay, general knowledge, history, and even the abacus operation, and I remember writing an essay with an unorthodox argument of ‘let’s make briquettes that are free from carbon monoxide poisoning’ because at the time the newspapers were full of briquette gas poisoning accidents. Anyway, I joined Samcheonri as a member of the 7th open recruit group, beating a pretty high competition rate of about 7 to 1 at the time.
I started with a new employee orientation at the Seongdong factory and worked for five years at the headquarters and various factories within the Samcheonri Group, including the Imun factory and the Susek factory, as well as at Samcheok Tanjwa, an affiliated company. Then, in 1972, a life-changing event happened. When Samcheonri Group acquired wig company Misung, I suddenly became an employee of a wig company overnight. This was Act 1 of my life in the wig industry. When I say “50 years of service,” I’m referring to the number of years that I’ve worked solely for Misung, excluding my years at Samcheonri.
Samcheonri briquette factory in Imun-dong, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul ©MBC News
Old Samcheok Tanjwa mining station building ©Maeil Business Daily
When I started at Misung, my knowledge of wigs was literally none. All I knew was that wigs and briquettes were both black, but when I got there, wigs weren’t actually black. There were many different colors. To make matters worse, most of the previous employees had left the company, so there was no one to help out with a smooth transition for the job. I was first assigned to materials management. You can imagine the frustration of figuring out how to manage materials when you have no idea how a wig is made or what material is used. I felt like I was literally thrown overboard. In the spirit of grasping at straws, I organized an informal industry group which was called Gaza club.
From Seoul Trading Company(STC), which was the largest wig company at the time, to Dana Trading, Samjeong C&T, YH, Mibang, and more, I organized a gathering of my peers at different companies. We named it ‘Gaza’ taking the first syllables of Gabal(meaning wig in Korean) and Zajae(materials), and we shared information on how to run the materials department efficiently. I was in the most desperate situation, so I constantly went to Guro-dong, where many wig companies were located, to get information and exchange materials. Over the following years, I learned a lot of practical skills through Gaza. Perhaps those of you in the wig industry, particularly with the materials management experience in the 1970s, might still remember the Gaza club.
Guro Industrial Complex, home to many wig factories © Geumcheon-gu District Office
So while I was scrambling for knowledge, the company went through several changes. In the early days of the acquisition, we didn’t have the technical foundation to take orders right away, so we had to rely on subcontracting for a while. But after we hired Yongsung Choi, who had been in charge of technology at STC, we began to build a production system that works.
At that time, Misung produced and exported products to Japan rather than the United States, which had distinct advantages and disadvantages. The downside was that the buyers for goods heading to Japan were quite picky, so you need to produce products with a near-perfect finish. So we had to put a little more time and effort into it. On the other hand, it also led to a great advantage of having a production system that focuses on the quality of products. I think the reason why Misung wigs have been recognized for their quality for so long is because of this quality-focused foundation from the beginning.
The next big leap came when Bong-sang Lee, who had been working at the headquarters, came to head the wig department at Misung. With his meticulous management style and great interpersonal skills, he played a very important role in Misung. With his excellent interpersonal skills, he strengthened sales and secured more orders, and as orders were secured, the productional foundation could back the enhancement of research and development, which provided the impetus for the company to return to its original shape. He was quickly promoted from manager to executive manager to CEO in recognition of his work. Under CEO Lee Bong-sang, Soo-kang Hong was in charge of production, Byung-jik Jeon was in charge of development, and I was in charge of management, and an interesting thing was that we rotated the positions of production manager and management director once a year. Hence, I was given the opportunity to experience production, and Mr. Hong, who was in charge of production, was given the opportunity to develop his management skills. It was a radical program at the time, but looking back, I think it was a great idea to grow talent.
Unconventional ways to manage employees
No matter how well you improve management efficiency, it’s your production line workers who make the goods that buyers receive. Techniques are one thing, but the desire to build a quality product is another, and the challenge is how to promote the desire. It’s hard to get employees together for training sessions in the midst of their busy work hours. Even then, what can be said to motivate them?
After much deliberation, we connected speakers to the first, second, and third floors of the factory. From the third floor, where the main departments are located, we would broadcast the policies and guidelines to the entire staff while the department heads would take note of the details and implement the changes. Fortunately, it worked well and created an atmosphere where we all strived to improve quality. To top it all off, we added one more morale-boosting and efficiency-boosting gimmick: a live music show by Mr. Jeon.
A wig factory at work ©The Korea Economic Daily/Kongnamul Newspaper
The wig manufacturing process is divided into as few as seven and as many as nine steps, ranging from hackling to double needling, setting, capping, fixing, hand-knotting, and styling, with each process varying in difficulty. Therefore, controlling the pace of each production step to meet deadlines was of utmost importance to the wig factory. Especially for those taking part in the late stages of the production, there was a lot of overnight work after the other departments finished their work on time. Sometimes we play music to keep employees awake, but the thing that worked even better than a studio-recorded album of professional singers was a live show where the employees took the microphone and sang.
Mr. Jeon, the head of development at the time, willingly took on the difficult task. Late at night, when the production floor was in full swing, he would go up to the unlit third floor by himself to sing songs and take requests for songs, like a DJ in a music cafe. “The next song is a request from Kim of the set department … Please Stay With Me by NamJean.” We still reminisce and laugh about it when we see each other.
With tight deadlines, we sometimes had to work all-nighters the night before the company-wide picnic. The tricky part was that some employees had to leave for personal reasons. Their reasons were plain and simple.
“My grandmother is not feeling well and I need to make her a meal.”
“My parents are working, so there’s no one to make my younger siblings breakfast…”
When a skilled labor is missing, the production is disrupted, so office workers rolled up their sleeves and stepped up. “Okay, then you figure out how many meals we need to prepare and also have a driver on standby. I’ll call the cafeteria right away!”
Now the cafeteria workers had to stay overtime, the production line was fully staffed, and office workers delivered meals to the production worker’s homes. We were early adopters of the recent trend of “early morning delivery”.
There were days when I couldn’t get home. By the evening, the crew chiefs would realize, ‘Our boss isn’t going home tonight’ and they would quickly put together two or three desks in the office and lay blankets for a makeshift bed. Sometimes they’d let me sleep in one of the employee dorms on the fourth floor.
The four-story Misung Commercial (to be redeveloped)
When everyone’s passion was boiling hot
Don’t kick the burnt briquettes. Have you ever been burning hot for anyone?
It’s a poem by Ahn Do-hyun, titled ‘I ask you’. If you ask me, I can confidently say that I was. I moved from a briquette company to a wig company and burning hot with my passion through the career. In the 1970s, when Korea’s economy was just bustling and wigs were a major export, everyone was working hard and proud to be the fuel of the country’s export industry. The reputation of “Made in Korea” spread around the world thanks to the work of these young female workers. To the production line workers of that time, who are probably busy being someone’s mother by now, I send my thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Wig factory workers (Source: Democracy Movement Memorial Project)
There was no need for labor negotiations because we were working as one team. Ironically though, we were selected as an outstanding company by the Ministry of Labor’s Labor-Management Council to present its best practices. And on the day of the presentation, the baton came to me because my boss had a sudden schedule change.
The president of the company told me “You’ve got to fill in for today’s presentation.” And I was just stunned.
Continued in the next issue
