Haier: ecosystem leadership

Abstract

Purpose

Given their immense value-creating potential, ecosystems?and whether to build, buy, or join one?have become a top agenda item in boardrooms around the world.

Design/methodology/approach

Haier, a highly successful Chinese multinational corporation has developed an effective set of practices for managing an emergent, ecosystem-based business model.

Findings

The Haier case illuminates the unique challenges of leading a sprawling, ecosystem-based enterprise that must continually evolve.

Practical/implications

Haier employees fall into three categories? platform owners, microenterprise owners and entrepreneurs.

Originality/value

As a strategic innovator, Haier grouped its independent microenterprises into “Ecosystem Micro-Communities” (ECMs) of loosely connected, multi-disciplinary capability clusters organized around end users.

Citation

Schoemaker, P.J.H. and Kuhn, J.S. (2021), "Haier: ecosystem leadership", Strategy & Leadership, Vol. 49 No. 5, pp. 16-22. https://doi.org/10.1108/SL-09-2021-0087