Independent Innovation, the Soul of Haier: Decoding Haier's R&D Strategy

Author: Liu Jinxian
Publisher:
Publishing Date: Not available
Features: At Haier, every employee faces the market, and each employee is also a market—unifying the roles of producer and consumer. Operating oneself has become the guiding principle for Haier people. In addition to personal efforts in learning, thinking, and innovating, employees must leverage their family, relatives, friends, classmates, and other relationship resources to borrow "external brains" for innovation. This is commonplace and second nature at Haier. To mobilize employees' family members in 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 the Haier 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 one of Haier's 'external employees,' I will continuously offer advice and contribute my modest strength to Haier, worthy of the honor Haier has bestowed upon me." Jiang Xile wants to compete with his son, seeing who, as an "employee" of Haier, performs better.
P234 The panel employee Wang Baoyun from Company 2 of the Laundry Division 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, she found a foam pad to solve the issue, but the foam was prone to getting dirty, which was not in line with the refined work environment. Wang Baoyun's problem sparked a discussion among her family. Her retired father from the Qingdao Third Garment Factory suggested, "You can wrap the foam in velvet!" The suggestion was unanimously approved, and her father immediately took on the task: "You go to work, and I'll take care of this!" The next day, Wang Baoyun gave her father the dimensions, and he quickly made the velvet cover. Returning to the factory with the exquisite cushion, everyone praised it. However, how to remove and wash the dirty velvet became a new problem. Wang Baoyun told her father again. When she came home after work the next day, she saw her father, with gray hair under the light, wearing glasses and stitching a zipper one needle at a time. At that moment, her sister came out of the kitchen: "To make your cushion easier to remove and wash, Dad specifically bought two zippers for me. I've been working on them for ages, just afraid they won't look good!" Dinner was already ready, but the old man refused to eat: "I have to finish stitching quickly so she can take it back to the factory tomorrow!" Later, the father switched to using Velcro, making it easy to remove and aesthetically pleasing. Only after finishing the cushion did the old man happily join the family for dinner, saying, "Everyone praises your work!" Wang 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 about Haier with laughter.
With employees and families like these, how could Haier not be victorious in every endeavor?
P235