Autonomous Innovation: The Soul of Haier - Decoding Haier's R&D Strategy

Author: Liu Jinxian
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features: Every employee at Haier faces the market, and every employee is also a market, embodying the unity of producer and consumer. Running one's own business has become the operational principle of Haier people. In addition to personal efforts in learning, thinking, and innovating, employees must also leverage their family, relatives, friends, and classmates to borrow "external brains" for innovation. This is commonplace and habitual at Haier. To mobilize employees' family members for innovation, Haier has specifically developed the "Employee Family Suggestion Form" and distributed it to every employee's family member. Suggestions were then evaluated, and "Outstanding Rationalized Proposal Family Members" were even hired as Haier's "external employees." Jiang Xile, the father of Jiang Cheng, a workshop employee from the Quality Inspection Department of Haier's Business Division, is one of Haier's "external employees." Clutching Haier's honor certificate, Jiang Xile said excitedly, "Thank you, Haier, for giving me this honor. It is a lifetime honor for me. As Haier's 'external employee,' I will continuously contribute my modest strength to brainstorm and strategize for Haier, worthy of the honor Haier has bestowed upon me." Jiang Xile wants to compete with his son, to see who, as an "employee" of Haier, performs better.
P234 The second company of the Laundry Division of Haier's Washing Machine Business Unit, panel employee Wang Baoyun, visited her hometown to see her 75-year-old father. She mentioned a recent problem: the bottom of the panel sample piece protruded, making it easy to scratch when placed flat on a table. Initially, they found a foam pad to solve the issue, but the foam was prone to getting dirty, which was not in line with the refined on-site environment. Baoyun's problem sparked a discussion among the family. The retired father from the third clothing factory in Qingdao suggested, "You can wrap the foam in velvet!" The suggestion was unanimously approved, and the father immediately took on the task: "You go to work, and I'll handle this!" The next day, Baoyun gave her father the dimensions, and the elderly man quickly made the velvet cover. Returning to the factory with the exquisite cushion base, everyone praised it. But what about cleaning the dirty velvet? Baoyun told her father about this issue again.
When she came home after work the next day, Baoyun saw her father, with his hair streaked with gray, wearing glasses and stitching a zipper one needle at a time under the light. At that moment, her sister came out of the kitchen: "To make your cushion base easier to remove and wash, Dad specifically asked me to buy two zippers. He's been working on them for a while, just afraid he won't sew them neatly!" Dinner was already ready, but the elderly man refused to eat: "I have to finish sewing quickly so I can take it back to the factory tomorrow!" Later, the father switched the zipper to Velcro for easier removal and a better look. Only after finishing the cushion base did the elderly man finally sit down to eat with the family, smiling, "Everyone praises you for doing a great job!"
Baoyun promptly reported the results, and her father was overjoyed, his enthusiasm soaring! "I'll make one for each of the other factories too! I'll measure the dimensions of the other factories tomorrow." Around the dinner table, the family chatted and laughed about Haier. With employees and families like this, how could Haier not be victorious in every endeavor?
P235