Chapter 25 S.M. Entertainment's Invitation
Jiang Shu stayed on the campus of Seoul Arts High School for over an hour, not because he only wanted to stay that long, but because he ran out of business cards.
He had brought thirty business cards in total, and all of them were given out.
The frequency of familiar faces appearing at Seoul Arts High School was much higher than at Hanlim Arts High School, which might be related to him going to Hanlim Arts High School on the first day of school, but no matter what, both schools yielded him significant gains.
Jiang Shu reluctantly left the main gate of Seoul Arts High School; if he hadn't run out of business cards, he could have stayed there all day!
"Next time, I need to keep more business cards in the car."
It's quite a loss of face for an entertainment company's Chairman to personally go out and scout, but that's only relative to normally developing entertainment companies. A company like DM Entertainment, which has just escaped the brink of bankruptcy, has no right to talk about losing face.
Let's focus on survival before worrying about appearances.
Back in the car, he opened his phone and browsed the messages Choi Ji-yeon sent him.
IVE's explosive popularity didn't just affect the group; it was an all-around boost for the company.
It's difficult for a company without a standout group to be taken seriously by job applicants, after all, people don't know when you might go bankrupt, and a company without market competitiveness will eventually fail.
Although IVE's sudden rise in popularity has only been for a few days, it's not enough to cause a massive hiring wave, but there are always some opportunists willing to take a chance at this time.
Even if these people are a tiny minority of applicants, they caused the number of people applying to DM Entertainment to soar.
The various departments that DM Entertainment lacked personnel for were also rapidly expanding. Entry-level staff were quickly being filled, but there was still no clear direction for the vacant mid-to-high-level positions.
Choi Ji-yeon: Chairman, other positions can wait, but the Art Director cannot remain vacant indefinitely.
Art Director...
Jiang Shu raised a hand to rub his temples. He wanted to find one too, but there were no suitable candidates.
This is a high-level position that oversees all music-related matters for the company's artists, from debut to comeback. It has been vacant since DM Entertainment was established last year, simply because there were no suitable candidates.
An excellent Art Director provides a very strong boost to a company's idol groups. Similarly, a useless Art Director can be devastatingly detrimental to a company's idol groups.
Better to have nothing than something bad; that was Jiang Shu's thinking.
Jiang Shu: I'll temporarily act as Art Director.
Choi Ji-yeon: Understood.
He placed his phone on the passenger seat and leaned back, staring blankly ahead in thought.
"One group isn't enough," Jiang Shu murmured.
IVE can carry the banner, but just one IVE isn't enough.
A company wouldn't debut two girl groups simultaneously, because two girl groups appearing at the same time would inevitably lead to resource cannibalization.
The company only has so many resources. Who do you give them to? If you give them to one, the other won't have any. You can't spend so much effort creating two groups, only to heavily promote one and have the other play a supporting role, can you?
Are you sick?
Isn't it better to concentrate resources and heavily promote one group?
But this theory doesn't apply to a company like DM Entertainment.
DM Entertainment doesn't have many resources; most of them are resources that IVE attracted themselves. The only thing the company can provide is songs. IVE's debut song didn't even have a music video; they truly debuted with nothing.
This 'nothing to lose' situation, where they have nothing to lose, actually gave DM Entertainment the confidence to aggressively debut new groups.
I have no resources, so naturally, there are no problems with resource allocation to worry about.
"But we can't rush," Jiang Shu thought, considering IVE's debut music video, which was currently being completed. For a short while, there was no need to debut a new girl group to clash with IVE.
Firstly, he didn't have many trainees available. Secondly, IVE's double-C bond still needed time to solidify. Debuting a new girl group after the popularity of these two S-tier cards was completely stable would be the correct approach.
He couldn't just debut new groups mindlessly because he had nothing to lose. DM Entertainment didn't have that much money right now either.
IVE is on music shows every day, and each appearance costs tens of millions (korean won)!
"Let's see how many people come," Jiang Shu thought about the thirty business cards he handed out today. Even if one-tenth of them came, it would be fine.
It's unrealistic for everyone to come; DM Entertainment doesn't have that strong an appeal.
"Everything is difficult at the beginning," Jiang Shu muttered, gripping the steering wheel with both hands, feeling a bit troubled.
DM Entertainment currently had no one to share the burden with him. He had to figure out solutions to all the problems himself. Really...
Why is being a boss more tiring than being an employee?
"Because in~ a thousand years later~ ~"
The ringing phone on the passenger seat interrupted Jiang Shu's thoughts. He reached over and picked up the phone from the passenger seat.
Unknown number.
Before, he wouldn't answer unknown calls. But after handing out so many business cards, Jiang Shu usually answered unknown calls now. What if it was a trainee?
He answered the call.
"Hello, who is this?"
"Hello, may I speak with Chairman Jiang Shu of DM Entertainment?" A voice that sounded somewhat familiar to Jiang Shu came from the other end of the line, but he couldn't recall who it was at the moment.
"This is he."
"It's good that it's Chairman Jiang." The voice on the other end chuckled, "I am Li Xiuman. There's something I'd like to discuss with Chairman Jiang in person. I wonder if Chairman Jiang would be interested in coming to our company?"
Jiang Shu froze in place.
Who?
Li Xiuman???
"Are you Chairman Li Xiuman of S.M. Entertainment?"
"It's me."
Jiang Shu was even more bewildered.
The head of an industry leader suddenly called him, the Chairman of an entertainment company at the bottom of the industry, and invited him to S.M. Entertainment to discuss something?
Something's off!
Jiang Shu didn't have much fear of Li Xiuman. After all, he used to curse Li Xiuman a lot when he was a fan, so even if he appeared in front of him in person, expecting him to be overly respectful wasn't realistic.
"What do you want with me, Chairman Li?"
"I'd like to make a deal with DM Entertainment. Let's meet and discuss the details."
A deal?
What could DM Entertainment possibly have that Li Xiuman would be interested in?
It seems there really is something...
Jiang Shu unconsciously rubbed his thumb and forefinger together.
IVE!
His own little Fufu had just debuted and risen to prominence by stepping on S.M. Entertainment's Rainbow Girls. The only valuable thing DM Entertainment had that Li Xiuman would be interested in was his own precious little Fufu.
Although Li Xiuman could say whatever he wanted, there was no way Jiang Shu would sell IVE, which had Liu Zhimin and Zhang Yuanying. But Jiang Shu still planned to go to S.M. Entertainment.
If I found an invincible Yuan Shen in YG, wouldn't it be reasonable for me to find a Ning Yizhuo in S.M. Entertainment?
"Okay." Jiang Shu immediately agreed, having thought of this.
IVE was impossible to sell, but exploring a new dungeon was also excellent.
"Good, I'll be waiting for Chairman Jiang at the company," Li Xiuman said with a smile.
"No problem."
After a brief exchange, he hung up the phone and saved Li Xiuman's number.
Looking at the number with the note "Li Xiuman," Jiang Shu smiled.