Can the future Of Haier remain vibrant?

On November 5, a high-profile personnel change occurred in The Chinese business community. Zhang Ruimin, founder of Haier Group, announced his resignation as chairman of the board and chief executive officer, Zhou Yunjie was elected as the new chairman of the board of directors and was hired as chief executive officer, and Liang Haishan was hired as president. The new Board of Directors invited Zhang Ruimin to serve as the Honorary Chairman of the New Board of Directors.

Zhang Ruimin is a representative of an era in China's business community, and he is also the founder of Haier, the world's first brand of white electricity. What impact will his voluntary resignation have on Haier? What new challenges will Haier face in the future?

37 years of continuous innovation

In 1984, Haier had a turnover of only 3.48 million yuan and a deficit of 1.47 million yuan, and by 2020, it would become a global enterprise with a global turnover of more than 300 billion yuan and a total profit and tax of more than 40 billion yuan. At the helm of Haier for 37 years, Zhang Ruimin's contributions are obvious to all. Haier Group's official website gave it high praise from four aspects: it has built a global enterprise, created a world-class brand, pioneered a leading business model, and created a maker culture.

Looking back at Haier's development history can highlight Zhang Ruimin's difference and value. Haier has achieved a turning point in development every time it faces strategic choices, which is inseparable from Zhang Ruimin's strong strategic foresight. When Haier transformed from the production of refrigerators to the diversification of white electricity, it caused controversy between specialization and diversification in the business community, and finally Haier achieved diversification as soon as possible, and led the diversification trend of the entire Chinese home appliance industry; when Haier "went out" with its own brand to open up the international market, it also caused controversy in the industry, and finally Haier first realized the transformation from "going out" to "going in" and "going up", laying the foundation for Haier to become a world famous brand; when Haier implemented the globalization strategy and set up factories abroad, It has caused countless public concerns, but it is this globalization strategy that allows Haier to achieve the goal of the world's first brand of white electricity.

In the innovation and reform of the management model, Haier's adjustment of the existing pattern has lasted for more than 10 years, and has been interpreted by the media as a "smashing organization" after "smashing the refrigerator". Zhang Ruimin implemented the "Nissin Nissin Nisso" management method in Haier, making Haier a leader in the home appliance manufacturing industry, and its original rendanheyi management model has enabled Haier people to continue to change, innovate and create value. It is based on the innovation of the management model that Haier launched the ecological brand strategy at the end of 2019. "Products will be replaced by scenes, the industry will be ecologically 'covered'", when Zhang Ruimin proposed this new concept of the Internet of Things era in 2018, many people were still unclear, and now the concept of "ecology" has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.

A forward-looking strategic perspective, an original management model, and the courage to dare to change are the valuable assets that Zhang Ruimin left to Haier. Whether or not we can continue to write brilliant at a high starting point is the biggest test for successors.

The legacy has already begun

Haier's successors, Zhou Yunjie and Liang Haishan, both grew up in Haier from the grassroots level after graduating from university in 1988, before zhou Yunjie served as vice chairman and president of the board of directors of Haier Group, and Liang Haishan served as vice chairman of the board and executive president of Haier Group.

The cultivation of management backbones and enterprise leaders is a long-term solution for Haier. In 2013, Liang Haishan, the A-share-listed Haier Zhijia, was appointed as the chairman of the company, and Haier Electric Appliances, which was listed in Hong Kong, was appointed by Zhou Yunming as the company's chief executive. In recent years, Zhou Yunjie has been responsible for haier group business, Liang Haishan is mainly responsible for haier zhijia business, and Zhang Ruimin has focused on the company model, business model and enterprise management model reform.

Zhou Yunjie has clear thinking and quick response. In recent years, under his leadership, the logistics sector within Haier has risen rapidly, and has been listed as a "Hurun Global Unicorn" for 3 consecutive years, and has now entered the independent listing process; and Shaohaihui, which was separated from the Haier home furnishing sector, was the first to create an ecological enterprise model, rapidly growing into an industry leader, and has now entered the independent listing process.

Liang Haishan is low-key and calm, and the officers are solid. In recent years, he has led the team to create Haier's high-end brand Casarte. Casarte has been at the forefront of the high-end home appliance market for 10 years and has achieved high growth for many years. With haier opening the ecological brand strategy, Liang Haishan has created a "three-winged bird" scene brand, with more than 1,000 "three-winged bird" offline stores nationwide, and at the same time, the internet of clothing and food networking have shown vitality.

What reassures Zhang Ruimin to resign is not only the maturity of the succession team, but also the fact that Haier has created a new ecology of everyone creating makers and endless life. Now that the 16-year-old rendanheyi model has been implanted in Haier's cultural genes, each employee is his own CEO, which is why Haier has emerged a new ecology and new "species" such as food network and clothing network, and this ecology is still evolving and iterating. Therefore, Zhang Ruimin said in a speech at the staff congress that today's Haier is no longer a traditional bureaucratic enterprise, but an ecological company, the company has set up the framework of ecological enterprises, but also continue to evolve forward, to promote the better development of the rendanheyi model.

Face the challenges of the future

For Haier, there are many challenges ahead. Some enterprises will face common problems: how to strengthen user stickiness in the Internet era, how to always walk in the forefront of the times, and how to safely and controllable the industrial chain supply chain. There are also Haier's personalized problems: "racing" on new tracks; "evolution" of new ecology, etc.

The industrial Internet is a new track that Haier has entered first, and it is also the general grasp of whether Haier can seize the opportunity of the Internet of Things era and replace the industry with a platform. Haier's platform in the field of industrial Internet, Kaos, brings together thousands of ecological resources and has bred 15 industry ecosystems such as molds and chemicals. At present, there are nearly 800,000 Káos link enterprises and more than 70,000 service enterprises.

However, on the issue of digital transformation of Chinese enterprises, there are generally three common diseases of not wanting to turn, unwilling to turn, and not turning, and how to "cure" these common diseases is an important challenge facing the KAOS platform. There are also industrial Internet platforms how to integrate more advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, how to share data under the premise of ensuring security, how to help small and medium-sized enterprises to solve financial difficulties, etc., are the "ceiling" that Kaos needs to break through.

Haier's ecological brand also faces problems. Although the "three-winged bird", the internet of clothing, the internet of food, etc. have been born, but they are only newborn calves, how to make these "calves" grow into "strong cattle" healthily, how to create more scene brands, so that the ecology continues to evolve, for Haier still has a long way to go.

Haier Group called this alternation between the old and the new as "Haier's first ecological enterprise inheritance new mechanism", Zhang Ruimin said in elaborating on this mechanism, Haier subverted the bureaucratic system, into countless small and micro, small and micro and then formed a dynamic ecological chain of small and micro groups. Chains are like small boats. Each ship, though small, had an adventurous spirit, and was the Columbus, who went on its own to find the New World. Each "Columbus" can also make a new "Columbus" without breaking, continue to look for a new continent, and build the barren New World into a prosperous ecology.

What these discourses depict is a picture of Haier's self-emergence, self-fission, and self-evolution: the self-emerging chain group explores new continents; the new chain groups that emerge from the fission re-explore and discover new continents; and the new world becomes an endless ecology, forming self-evolution. If this picture is realized, it will inject a steady stream of vitality into the enterprise.

Exploring such a mechanism full of vitality is Haier's own choice and people's expectations of Haier. Reporter Liu Cheng

Source: Economic Daily