CHAPTER 5

Entrepreneurship by Innovation in Management. Yang Mianmian, Haier

The origins of Haier date back to the early 1920s, when a refrigerator factory was built in Qingdao to supply to the Chinese market. After the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the factory was taken over and turned into a state-owned enterprise.

By the 1980s, the factory had accumulated a deficit of over RMB 1.47 Million (about €147,000) and suffered from a dilapidated infrastructure, poor management, and a lack of quality control as a result of the planned economic system. Production had slowed to a trickle, rarely surpassing 80 refrigerators a ...