Values & Philosophy
To become a national brand is not enough
To some enterprises, it’s not necessary to go abroad to build a name brand. However, Haier believes that in a globalized era, it’s not possible to build a globally recognized brand without going abroad to learn from international players and get improved.
To become a national brand is just not enough. When Haier set up its first plant in the United States, there was an article with a title of A Caution to Zhang Ruimin, to the effect that it’d be difficult for Haier to make its way into the United States while others fail to do this. The caution was surely out of nice consideration. It’s known the United States has the highest labor cost. Why did Haier still want to go? It’s because of WTO. We had no choice.
Some would say China is the world’s workshop and even people from the United States set up plants in China. Isn’t it weird that Haier’d do the different thing? These people have confounded two concepts. When a foreigner sets up a plant in China, he has everything except for market resources and cheap labor in China. A domestic enterprise on the contrary has nothing but cheap labor and is thus in an inferior position to compete with new comers in financing or technology. Foreign investors will take advantage of cheap raw materials and cheap labor and present a threat against Chinese industrialists.
Therefore, Haier setting up plant in the United States is kind of a result of reverse thinking. Haier will acquire the state-of-the-art technology and the financial support in US market. The process of localization finally makes a brand competitive in the local market and as a localized brand Haier will gain the initiative in world market.