Byeong chul Kim of Misung Commercial Co., Ltd.
Chapter 2. As if it’s “my own company”
Mr. Kim sat down for an interview at Misung Commercial Co. in 2024
Since 2014, BNB Magazine has been publishing memoirs from the veterans of the beauty industry to share their stories and lessons with a belief that they are the clue to solve today’s problems. We continue our coverage of Byeong chul Kim, former President of Misung Commercial Co., Ltd. His long journey in the wig industry, which began as a founding member of one of the most prestigious names and lasted about 50 years before he retired last year, is a story that spans two continents and touches many aspects of the Korean wig industry. Here comes the second part of the story, vivid from his own narrative.
Presenting for Labor-Management Council training as a substitute
The late 1970s is when the framework for the labor-management council in the Korean industry was built. With the rapid economic growth in the 1960s and 70s, companies with 50 or more employees were required to form a labor-management council to meet once a month to promote collaboration and contribute to national economic development by promoting the common interests of labor and management through participation and cooperation. The Department of Labor, the oversight agency, has regularly conducted audits for the council meetings.
A labor-management council meeting in the 70s and 80s © Korea Institute of Advanced Study
Misung, which had about 400 to 500 employees at the time, was also subject to the labor-management council requirement. But how can you sit down and have a labor-management council meeting when the production lines are always busy running nonstop? On days when there were on-site audits, we issued emergency alerts.
“Today is the day of the Department of Labor visit. All group leaders, finish up your work and gather in the conference room!”
In front of the auditor, the company’s management and work group leaders put on serious faces and pretended to have a labor-management council meeting. The meetings always went smooth, with everyone with one objective, to fool the auditors.
But, lo and behold, the acting was so good that the company was selected as the most successful company for the labor-management council. In addition, the local office of the Department of Labor contacted us to present our best practices at a worker-management council training, and CEO Bong-sang Lee accepted the invitation to deliver the presentation personally. But on the day of the training, a major schedule conflict came up, and I got blindsided.
“Assistant Manager Kim, you ought to fill in for today’s presentation.”
“What?! How do you expect me to roll with no preparation or any material?”
He laughed and said so casually, “Just go and talk to them. That’s how we run our labor-management council meetings anyway?”
I rushed to the local Department of Labor office with no idea what to do. When I walked into the lecture hall, there were more than 150 labor representatives from various companies in Mapo and Yongsan districts in addition to government officials. My legs were shaking.
“The next presentation is by Misung Commercial. Today, on behalf of the CEO, someone who is actually working on the manufacturing floor is going to deliver the presentation.”
“Good afternoon. I’m Kim Byeong chul, Assistant Manager at Misung Commercial…”
I met the gazes of hundreds of eyes, and my mind went blank for a moment. Eventually, I realized it was best to be honest.
“You selected us as an exemplary company for the labor-management council, but we don’t really have the council meetings. We just act as if we do.”
My confession, made in front of a roomful of Department of Labor officials, stunned everyone. In the midst of it all, I continued my speech.
“We don’t have a labor-management council meeting once a month, but instead we have a daily conversation between the employees and the management. Why would we need a monthly council meeting when the executive and management offices are always open for talks and suggestions from every employee? We put on a show for having a scheduled meeting when there’s an audit, but we are kind of always in the meeting.”
As I began to explain Misung’s management and communication with employees in the production line with real life examples, there was more to say than expected. For many years I’ve been with the company, it was like my home. For nearly 60 minutes, I talked nonstop.
“It’s a factory, why wouldn’t you have complaints regarding the work conditions and everything. Why wouldn’t you have gruntled employees? But we’d talk about it, we’d fix it, and that’s how we got to today’s Misung. We are constantly improving, and we will continue to do so.”
Thunderous applause erupted, and I could finally relax. Even now, I don’t know where I got the courage to do that without any preparation.
The real struggle came later that evening. A few hours after returning to work, the gate security office called.
“People from Factory XXX came to see the president and the assistant manager, what should we do?”
Wondering what was going on, I invited them to our conference room, and they were the employees of another wig company.
“After hearing your lecture earlier today, we wanted to come and work at Misung too.”
Technicians are the most important asset of a wig factory. In particular, each factory was struggling to find skilled workers. When frequent poaching disrupted business, the wig factory managers had a meeting and made an unspoken pact to stop the aggressive hiring practice. The talents came to me on their own, but I had to let go of my greed because I could see how much it would hurt the other company. In addition, the head of production at the company was a close friend with whom I had been exchanging information on a regular basis. Without hesitation, I picked up the phone.
“What the hell did you do to get all your group leaders to come to my company? Come on over right now to get them and have a good labor-management talk!”
The wedding without a bride, almost
I jumped in and started working in the wig industry without much thought, and before I knew it, I was a 30-something bachelor. I’ve been working days and nights and over the weekends and never left the office, so I was out of touch with romantic relationships let alone planning a family. When I was thirty-five, I was introduced to my wife through a matchmaker, and we got engaged after just three dates and set a wedding date right away.
In November 1979, the wig factory remained open even as the country was reeling from the aftermath of the President Park’s assassination, and I went to work on the day of the wedding, hanging my ceremony attire in the dormitory. After lunch, at around 1:00, my boss asked me, “Kim, aren’t you going to the wedding?” and I quickly washed up, changed clothes, and headed to my wedding. The venue was the Ambassador Hotel in Jangchung-dong. Due to the rushed nature of the wedding, the ceremony was scheduled for an unusual 3pm. When I entered the wedding hall in a hurry, I was embarrassed to see that all the executives of Samchully, Samtan, and Misung, as well as my colleagues, were already seated, including Samchully Group Chairman Yoo Seong-yeon, who were to officiate. I gestured to the MC to get started.
“The ceremony will start now. Groom’s march!”
I hadn’t realized it fully because I was still at work in the morning, but as I walked down the aisle, I realized I was getting married. I stood in front of the altar and waited anxiously for the bride.
“Today’s highlight. Here comes the bride!”
But the bride didn’t appear while the Wedding March played several times. The guests turned around and started to make noise, and I, not knowing what’s going on, couldn’t help but feel embarrassed. The MC’s face looked taken aback.
After the Wedding March was looped back a few times, the bride in the wedding dress walked down the aisle with a rush. It turned out that the bride was getting her makeup done at an off-site salon, and I had signaled for the ceremony to begin without knowing. The wife, who arrived after the ceremony started, grabbed her dress and practically ran to the ceremony.
A wedding photo from 1979. Late Samchully Founder and Chairman Yoo Sung-yeon presided over the ceremony.
I was not the only one who went to one’s own wedding directly from worksite. Director Byung-jik Jeon, who I worked with, did the same thing a few years later. At the 2023 Trade Day ceremony, President Yoon Suk Yeol called out Chairman Jeon(now CEO of Koreana Co, Ltd) and praised him as “a man who worked on his own wedding day,” saying that such people have built the Korean economy today.
How could the company not do well with employees who have worked so hard? At that time, Misung’s employees worked hard not for someone else, but because it was their own. We went beyond responsibility and felt as if we owned the company.
I never thought of Misung as someone else’s company either. I worked hard because it was “my own company”, and it was natural for the company to grow with so many employees like me.
In less than a decade since its launch in 1972, Misung Commercial has moved into the top 10 wig manufacturers. A company that hadn’t even been on the radar has emerged as a major wig company in a few years. And now that it was in the top 5 in the industry, the company wanted to expand and eyed the African market. But I was against the plan, thinking it was reckless.
Nevertheless, in June 1983, I was asked to relocate to Africa. Two days later, I went to speak to the group chairman at the group’s headquarters. With a resignation letter in hand.
Continued in the next issue.
