CEO
Mr. Zhang Ruimin
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Zhang Ruimin, male, Han nationality, was born in 1949 in Laizhou City, Shandong province. He holds the title of senior economist and was awarded a MBA degree from the University of Science and Technology of China in 1995. He is now the Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO of Haier Group.
In 1984, Zhang Ruimin, back then the deputy manager of the former Qingdao Home Appliance Company, was appointed as director of the Qingdao Refrigerator Factory. By the establishment of the Branding Strategy, he led staff to seize opportunity to accelerate development, succeeded in transforming the small, ailing and collective-system-based factory with a total debt of RMB1,470,000 into what is now known as the Haier Group, China's top home appliance brand. Haier has witnessed a significant development, and gained worldwide recognition over the past 25 years, with global revenue of RMB124.3 billion in 2009 and rising reputation globally. In March, 2009, the Financial Times ranked Haier among the "Top 10 Chinese World-class Brands".
In management practice, based on his thorough understanding and successful incorporation of essentiality of Chinese traditional culture and modern western thoughts of management, by incorporating things of diverse nature, innovation to be a style of his own, Zhang Ruimin succeeded in creating the Haier culture boasting distinctive Chinese characteristics and competiveness orientation. From OEC management mode characterized by completing the work of today to harvest today's success and the market chain management system to the individual-order combination, Zhang Ruimin's consistent innovations in management have been widely and highly acknowledged by management professionals globally. Up to now, 16 case studies on Haier's business experiences involving merger, financial management and corporate culture have been conducted by Harvard University, University of Southern California, and Lausanne Management College, European Business College and Kobe University, with case of "Haier culture to activate the fish in shock" included into case library of commercial college of Harvard University and "market chain" management case included into EU case library. In the internet age, to response quickly to user's demand, Haier has made beneficial exploration into win-win culture characterized by individual-order combination. Specifically speaking, Zhang Ruimin has transformed the upward-pointing triangle organizational structure into a downward-pointing triangle structure and established business model of "Just-in-time model with zero inventory" based on the combination of virtual and physical network for the benefits of users.
In 1997, Zhang Ruimin won the Entrepreneur Award of the Year issued by Asia Weekly. In 1999, he was ranked 26th among the World 30 Most Respected Business Leaders by the Financial Times. In September, 2002, he was named as a Global Business Leader and the Outstanding Donator by the United Way International (UWI), being the only entrepreneur in China that has received the honor.
In August, 2004, he was ranked 6th among Asia's 25 Most Influential Figures in Business by Fortune, foremost among all Chinese entrepreneurs selected.In November, 2005, he was ranked 26th of the World's 50 Most Respected Business Leaders by Financial Times, being the only selected Chinese entrepreneur. In November, 2009, he was elected as one of the 40 Most Influential Figures of the Year in China by Business Week.
Zhang's goal is to gain global recognition for the Haier brand. According to the latest data released by Euromonitor--a world famous consumer market research institute, with a market share up to 5.1 percent, Haier ranks first among the brands of white goods all over the world and it was the first time for a Chinese company to be the number one brand in white goods industry. At the same time, the market share of Haier refrigerator and washing machine is 10.4 percent and 8.4 percent respectively, both ranking first in the industry. In 2006, Haier Group ranked first in Comprehensive Leadership among Enterprises in Mainland China in the Top 200 Asian Companies selected by The Wall Street Journal Asia, for the fourth time in a row.Haier has become an international brand, and its prestige is rising fast with its expansion into the international market.
Since the foundation of Haier 25 years ago, with the guiding concept of " Sincere Forever", Zhang Ruimin has always been assuming social responsibilities and devoting himself to social works for public welfare. Up to now, Haier has supported the construction of 129 Hope Primary Schools, produced the 212-episode Haier Brothers, a science education cartoon series, and adopted environment-friendly process from design to manufacturing as the only white-goods sponsor for Beijing Olympic Games. According to incomplete figures, Haier has donated capital and goods totaling over RMB 500 million for public welfare undertakings. In September 6, 2009, United Way International, an international charity organization granted Zhang Ruimin the honor as Global Business Leader and the Outstanding Donator. To cite Haier's great contribution to the Hope Project, the Central Committee of the Communist Young League and China Youth Development Foundation jointly granted Zhang Ruimin the Special Awards for Contribution to Hope Project in the Last Twenty Years.
Zhang Ruimin and his colleagues have successfully turned a small collectively-owned factory into a globally recognized multinational company. Now they are striving to meet the needs of users worldwide by product innovation, business model innovation and mechanism innovation and contribute to China a truly excellent corporate identity in the global market. They are going to keep enriching this identity, and contributing to the prosperity of the national industry of China persistently.