Background
Zhang Ruimin was born on January 5, 1949, in Laizhou, Shandong, China to a working class family in Qingdao, Shandong; his parents were employed in a local garment factory.
瑞敏 张
Zhang Ruimin was born on January 5, 1949, in Laizhou, Shandong, China to a working class family in Qingdao, Shandong; his parents were employed in a local garment factory.
As a youth, Zhang was swept up in the Cultural Revolution and like many other students, he joined the Red Guards as the movement cascaded across the country. He visited Mao's birthplace and attended rallies in Beijing since all schools had been closed, and when the movement was finally disbanded, he was able to avoid being sent down to the countryside. Due to the widespread upheaval, Zhang was unable to attend university (most having been shut down); instead, he began his career in obscurity at a state-run construction company in Qingdao in 1968.
After a short stint as deputy manager of the Qingdao Home Appliances Company from 1981 to 1984, Zhang was named director of the Qingdao Refrigerator Factory on 26 December 1984, the fourth person appointed by the Chinese bureaucrats to run the small, ailing, and collectively-owned factory, which had debts of 1.47 million yuan ($182 759). Under his leadership and unique management philosophy, the company has since grown to become what is now the Haier Group, China’s leading home appliance brand, and one of the world’s largest home appliance makers, with a distribution presence in over 100 countries.
Zhang began the turnaround of the company in 1985 with an order to destroy 76 defective refrigerators. ‘The real problem was that workers had no faith in the company and didn’t care. Quality didn’t even enter into anybody’s mind,’ recalled Zhang. After a customer complained, he lined up all the defective models on the factory floor, and told those responsible to smash them. ‘The message got through that there is no A, B, C, and D quality,’ he noted, ‘There is only acceptable and unacceptable’ (BusinessWeek, 1999). Zhang was famed for wielding a sledgehammer himself, and the tool is now preserved for its symbolism in Haier’s museum. His remarkable act of destruction impressed upon all his employees that poor quality would not be acceptable under the new management. In 1991, Qingdao Refrigerator was renamed Qingdao Haier Group, borrowing and transliterating the last syllable of its German partner, Firmengruppe Liebherr. Zhang Ruimin stayed on as general manager, but he concurrently enrolled himself at the University of Science and Technology of China to study towards a master's degree in business administration; he graduated in 1994. He was named the chief executive officer of Haier Group (the company had dropped "Qingdao" from the name) in 1993.
One of his first steps was partnering with Liebherr, a German appliance maker that became a key source of technology. It was also the inspiration for Haier’s name, a Chinese approximation of the German original. To instill a sense of pride and improve productivity, Zhang reinforced his personal message with an aggressive Western-style quality control program, linking key employees’ pay to sales of their products and banning workplace drinking. His management philosophy is a blend of international management principles and Chinese wisdom, with innovation and excellence at its core. To enhance brand awareness and market growth, Zhang put forward his ‘brand strategy,’ established a market-chain management system, and directed his company towards a path of rapid development.
In 1976 he became a member of the Chinese Communist Party.
As one of China’s most politically influential businessmen, Zhang in 2002 became an alternate member of the Central Committee of the 16th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party.
Competing globally in the tough home appliances market, Zhang’s philosophy is ‘Always Cautious, Always Meticulous,’ and he believes Haier should accept talented people from around the world to attain its ambitious goal. Receiving an MBA from the Chinese University of Science and Technology, Zhang is the current secretary of the Party Committee, chairman of the board, and CEO of Haier Group.
Zhang Ruimin is married and has one son. His wife keeps a low profile and previously worked as a party secretary at a textile factory in Qingdao. His son studied business at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Zhang is known to abstain from drinking alcohol.