Anti-globalization sentiments have started occupying center stage in the political narrative, of late—signaling a pronounced focus on localization and rejection of seamless trade flows. The Brexit vote and the Trump presidency seem to have added further punch to this counter trend, sparking concern the world over. But will isolationism ever work in an increasingly connected world?
As the American presidential votes came in, we were in China. After hearing the news that Donald Trump was to be the new President, we boarded a bus in Qingdao on China’s Eastern seaboard. Our hour-long journey took us over the world’s longest bridge over water (the 26 kilometer Jiaozhou Bay Bridge) into what a slightly tired signpost announced as the National High Technology Industrial Development Zone. There, in the fast developing urban hinterland, we were welcomed into a state-of-the-art factory owned by the Chinese company Haier.
In the factory, workers were assembling air-conditioning units, one of the company’s many and varied products. Over 500 people work at this factory. It is what Haier describes as an interconnected factory where the flow of materials, products and orders is constantly monitored and displayed. This is mass customization, but with users participating in the manufacturing process.
Later we visited the Haier museum at its headquarters, testament to its incredible story over the last thirty years. In many ways, its story mirrors that of China. From a desperately uneconomical situation, Haier has grown into the world’s biggest home appliances maker and fastest-growing home appliance brand, as well as one of the largest non-state-owned enterprises in China. It has annual sales of more than $30 bn. Alex Osterwalder, author of Business Model Generation, believes that “Haier is right up there with Apple and Amazon” as a corporate benchmark for our times.
The people we spoke to in China replied with a shrug and a smile when we mentioned the American election. To them it seemed a distant, perplexing thing, hardly relevant to their lives.
This story is from the March/April 2017 edition of The Smart Manager.
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This story is from the March/April 2017 edition of The Smart Manager.
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