HAIER's SLEDGEHAMMERS AND REFRIGERATORS by E.H. Edersheim

“Mr. Zhang, the CEO of Haier, learned the criticality of customers when Haier was still owned by the Communist party and he was a Haier salesman in Japan. He recalls that customers despised the poor quality refrigerators he had to sell, and the company went bankrupt. In 1984, he took the company over.

His first act was to go to the plant floor with a sledgehammer and have every employee strike a fridge. At the time, the refrigerators were worth more than the annual salary of each employee.

Mr. Zhang explained, ‘You are in control of the quality. I need to know that you will never make a bad refrigerator.’ He then asked the employees to visit customers and make that promise, as he borrowed money from the community so he could meet payroll.

From that day forward—employees were accountable and the customer at the center of decisions at Haier.”

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HAIER's SLEDGEHAMMERS AND REFRIGERATORS by E.H. Edersheim

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