I first spotted the Chinese name “Haier” on a fridge in an American store about a decade ago. At the time, this seemed a potent symbol of global economic change. When I was a child in 1970s Britain, electrical appliances all tended to carry labels saying “made in Japan”, or “made in Korea” (or, on occasion, made in the US, or Germany).
Since then China has become famous — or infamous — as the factory of the world. The Haier company, whose headquarters are in the city of Qingdao, likes to bill itself as the world’s number-one maker of white goods. With more than $30bn of revenues, it has ousted Whirlpool to become the biggest global producer of home appliances. That “made in China” label, in other words, delivered ferocious success.
Recently, however, I have learnt that there is a second, more unexpected reason why the Haier name is a potent symbol of economic change. A couple of weeks ago, I met Zhang Ruimin, the company’s charismatic chief executive officer, at a Drucker Forum debate in Vienna. As he discussed his corporate strategy, Zhang nonchalantly revealed that the Chinese company had cut its staff by more than 15 per cent in the past couple of years, shedding 10,000 middle managers as well as many ordinary workers.