Haier

Fortune lists Asia's 25 Most Powerful People in Business.Haier CEO Zhang Ruimin.. Staff: On August 9, Fortune released the 2004 list of Asia's 25 Most Powerful People in Business, and Haier CEO Zhang Ruimin was placed 6th. The top 5 are Fujio Cho of Toyota Motor, Nobuyuki Idei of Sony, Li Ka-Shing of Hutchison Whampoa, Carlos Ghosn of Nissan Motor and Jong-Yong Yun of Samsung Electronics. Fortune editorial note wrote: Zhang wants to make Haier China's first truly global brand. He has made a good start. When Zhang took control of Haier in 1984, it was a decrepit, money-losing refrigerator manufacturer, little known beyond its hometown of Qingdao. Zhang brought discipline to Haier's factories and used profits to buy up other badly run state-owned appliance makers. Today Haier is China's leading manufacturer of home appliances, and with 2003 sales of nearly $10 billion, it recently overtook GE as the No.4 white-goods manufacturer in the world.