by Doug Kirkpatrick
An Overview
A hungry dragon is stirring in the Far East. Its name is Haier.
In the fall of 2012, I visited Haier (pronounced “higher”) headquarters in Qingdao, China to meet its legendary Founder and CEO, Zhang Ruimin, its Cofounder Ms. Yang Mian Mian, and other key leaders to discuss and debate the theory and practice of organizational self-management.
Accompanied by Leighton Gao, senior manager of Haier’s Corporate Culture Center (and interpreter extraordinaire), my hosts arranged a tour of the Haier heritage center, where visitors are greeted by a giant sledgehammer—symbol of Haier’s birth in 1984. Walking through the center and reflecting on Haier’s journey, one feels the power of their story from humble origin to global business legend.
According to Haier’s website, in 1984 young entrepreneur Zhang Ruimin took a post as Director of Haier’s precursor, the Qingdao Refrigerator Factory. At the time, the company was drowning in debt and only produced about 10,000 refrigerators each year, with terrible quality. Workers were so unkempt and dysfunctional that Zhang had to stop them from urinating on the shop floor. In frustration, he lined up 76 refrigerators, handed out sledgehammers, and issued a command to the workers: “Destroy them!” Zhang himself smashed one of the defective refrigerators to drive home his key point: the existing culture must be demolished and replaced.[1] Out of this primal act of catharsis, the modern Haier Group was born.
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Doug Kirkpatrick is the author of Beyond Empowerment, The Age of the Self-Managed Organization. He is an organizational change consultant, TEDx and keynote speaker, executive coach, writer, educator, and SPHR.
He played the first season of his business career in the manufacturing sector, principally with The Morning Star Company of Sacramento, California, a world leader in the food industry, as a financial controller and administrator. He now engages with the Morning Star Self-Management Institute, Great Work Cultures, The Center for Innovative Cultures and other vibrant organizations and leaders to co-create the future of management. Contact Doug at Twitter @Redshifter3.