ABSTRACT
China is no longer only about labor-intensive products such as toys, and using foreign brand names for exports; China is a major player in product lines that are still mass produced in industrialized countries, such as home appliances. Chinese manufacturers have started exporting under their own brand name and have set up production on US soil, just like the Haier Group did in the past. Formally called Qingdao General Refrigerator Factory (located in the east coastal city, Qingdao, Shandong Province), the firm had less than 800 workers and was more than $10 million in debt in 1984, when Haier’s CEO Zhang Ruimin aged 35 years, joined the company. By 2004 Haier Group had become one of the worlds’ top five producers of household appliances, with 30,000 employees and more than $12 billion in revenue. Haier grew overseas the hard way. It first entered developed markets, such as Germany and the US, where it began selling refrigerators under its own brand name in 1999. In 2000, the company built a $40 million industrial park in Camden, South Carolina. In 2002, Haier purchased a landmark building in Manhattan for its US headquarters, and later it built an office outside Wal-Mart’s Bentonville, Arkansas, base. The achievements are attributed to CEO Zhang’s goal of creating a global brand. “Now even the government is paying attention to developing China’s own famous brand,” says Zhang. “It is not whether you want to or not. It is a must for Chinese companies, because we feel the pressure from the market.” In a recent issue of Newsweek (9 May 2005), Zhang was called the Jack Welch of China.
