Haier

CEO Zhang met Ikujiro Nonaka, the famous Japanese Internet management expert on Nov. 17th. The two parties exchanged views on topics including “breaking enterprise boundaries to create knowledge” and “tacit knowledge creation through employee-user closeness”, etc.

Ikujiro Nonaka: I’ve been trying to raise a new management theory all the way. But Haier has left me behind with a new concept.

CEO Zhang: It’s better to let employees “deal with” the market rather than rack our brains to “deal with” and control them.

Ikujiro Nonaka: Haier’s management reform has closed the distance between employees and users, which enables it to better understand use demands so as to develop refrigerators and washing machines they need.

CEO Zhang: In the age of Internet, for any management mode, there are at least two problems to solve. First, enterprises should provide an open platform on which global resources can be gathered. Second, the traditional management should be discarded.

Ikujiro Nonaka: Some big companies seeking to strengthen innovation power by acquiring start-ups, but there is a contradiction between the two parties. Small companies fire before aiming, while it is a common case for big companies to get prepared first, then take aim and fire at last.

CEO Zhang: If a big company hopes to strengthen its innovation power, it probably has to overthrow its internal structure and transform to an innovation-fostering structure. The main challenge facing big companies now is keeping open up until when the so-called self cannot be sensed any longer.

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

(Translator-editor:Haier New Media Zhou Xiaoming)