Among the Chinese companies becoming fast household names among global players, Haier was one of the first to enter the word arena. Haier´s CEO Zhang Ruimin has put his bets early on quality, explains IMD professor Bill Fischer in The Corner, and that explains why he is winning now.
The Corner:
Zhang had it all figured it out, explains Bill Fischer Professor of Innovation Management at IMD business school in Lausanne, Switzerland. “Zhang thought at some point China would be a market where quality would be appreciated. He believed (in such market) there would be brands whose one of their features would be quality as a differenciator.”
And so, Zhang began to make small and progressive changes to develop a brand capable of fulfilling the promise of quality, always with the guarantee of an excellent costumer service. “He succeeded and foreign brands started coming into China to compete against Haier,” says Fischer. The ideal scenario for China would be that many local brands could achieve Haier’s reputation and capacity for innovation. And thus they’d become Ambassadors of a new made in China, most sophisticated and exclusive…
According to the philosophy behind Zhang’s vision for Haier, the quality of products is strictly linked to management. And therefore, product innovation is a logical outcome of management innovation, explains Fischer. Haier has now five innovation and R&D centers in China, Japan, Australasia, Europa and the U.S.A. intended to develop a global working ecosystem.
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