Haier

——A Letter to Entrepreneurs

Each advancement and period of prosperity that society has had cannot be separated from breakthroughs in technology. Each period when civilization has developed rapidly cannot be separated from an emancipation of thought from old ideas. The internet has allowed digital technology to flourish, and we are once again standing at the crossroads of our times. At a critical juncture where Big Industry is turning each individual into a cog in the wheel, time has moved onto a different path. The internet has brought about "zero distance", "decentralization", and "distributedness", which have then taken us into an era full of opportunities and challenges, an era where everybody is an entrepreneur. 

After thirty years of innovation and development, the Haier that started out as a factory collective on the verge of bankruptcy, has turned into the top-ranked Global Major Appliances Brand of today. Each day, hundreds of millions of people use Haier products. Each day, hundreds of thousands of Haier products are shipped to the global market. Advancements in industrialized society have allowed Haier to become what it is today, have allowed Haier to take just thirty years to walk the path that companies from developed countries took a century to walk. We have caught up to our role models, and at the same time, are now not able to depend on their valuable experience in the future. We are now faced with new challenges, and are left with only one weapon that has not been discarded, the eternal spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation. 

The Tang dynasty emperor, Emperor Taizong, once asked his court officials what was more difficult, starting a business or maintaining that business. He thought that while starting a business was difficult, maintaining it was even more difficult. Haier's corporate culture has an answer to this question. If starting a business and maintaining a business are separated from each other, then there will never be a correct answer; the only way out is to keep on starting businesses, and not just maintain businesses. 

The archenemies of the entrepreneurial spirit are the experience and mental inertia of one's past success. The Tao Te Ching says, "Overcoming others is strength, mastering oneself true power." The key to Haier's cultural DNA is being self-critical. 

The company is this way, and so is each individual worker. This is because in the internet era, each person is their own personal CEO, and each person should become an entrepreneur.

 Entrepreneurs and businesspeople might seem similar, but there is a world of difference in the essence of who they are. Businesspeople are still focused on the company; entrepreneurs are focused on their users. The mission of the businessperson is to create perfect products and services; entrepreneurs are focused on creating the best experiences for their users. Businesspeople use size and profits as a yardstick to measure success; entrepreneurs are guided by their users and fans. Businesspeople use management and control to wield power; entrepreneurs rely on self-organization. A businessperson's success is dependent upon tens of thousands of people; each entrepreneur's success can come from a single innovation. This is why it is said that "a thousand sutras have arisen from a single speck of dust".

Entrepreneurs. This is what we call you when you start a business on the Haier platform.

Thirty years are so light, like a mustard seed, easily flicked off one's fingertips. Thirty years are so heavy, like the mountains, difficult to break up. The difference is only whether you are a company manufacturing products, or a platform that creates entrepreneurs. Haier has chosen to transform from a closed, bureaucratic organization, into an open entrepreneurial platform; to transform from a walled garden, into an evolving ecosystem that harbors thousands upon thousands of organisms.

Entrepreneurs. In your entrepreneurial passion, I hope you see in Haier an entrepreneurial sandbox.

 When the company first started, we contributed Haier products. Thereafter, we provided Haier services. Today, we give to society an open Haier resource, providing entrepreneurs a Haier entrepreneurial platform.

On the surface, Haier opened the U+ Smart Living API so every single entrepreneur can work off it to extend existing or develop new products for it.

On a deeper level, Haier is opening up a supply and demand resource so that every supplier and user can participate in Haier's entire process to build value in user experience.

In essence, Haier has created a new mechanism for innovation, where opportunities are equal and results are fair, and we are now calling all stakeholders to build together, enjoy together, and win together.

In 2005, Haier started exploring and trialing a new model whereby the employees are aligned with a single goal to create value for the customer. We have whole-heartedly given up the single-minded pursuit of traditional measures of success all for this goal. We are entering new territory and have no role models to follow, and are willing to endure the doubts and criticism of others. However, what we have given up, we have not given up lightly. What encourages us to persevere is not the prospect of success, but rather the search for the spirit of our times.

In 1994, Haier celebrated its tenth anniversary. At that time, I wrote an essay entitled, "Haier is the Ocean". Today, I would like to say that Haier is a cloud. No matter how far the ocean stretches, there will still be boundaries. No matter how small a cloud is, it can still touch the multitudes.

Open up, open up, keep on opening up. Today, Haier's entrepreneurial cloud platform has already conceived and given birth to hundreds of microenterprises run by entrepreneurs. These entrepreneurs are not just Haier's employees who have left the company to pursue entrepreneurship, but also includes contractors out there who are using Haier's platform. They deserve respect, and they deserve to win. I would also like to thank all of them. This is because the transformation of Haier into an entrepreneurial platform is also a form of entrepreneurship. Haier as a platform is not the Haier with thirty years of history, but a newborn babe, a rising sun. To each entrepreneur that uses Haier's entrepreneurial platform, you are not just entrepreneurs using the platform, you are also the builders of the platform.

I salute you, entrepreneurs! I salute this great entrepreneurial era!

30 days to go before the HGEC and Haier's 30th anniversary celebration

（Editor: Haier New Media  Zhou Xiaoming)