essay case 2
Issue: Haier Japan seemed to be successful with corporate culture integration into Japanese operation, but there is deep-rooted cultural barrier among Japanese employees.
Haier, one of the most variable brands in China, has grown rapidly and rose to the top position of global home alliance industry for only thirty-three years under the leadership of CEO Zhang Ruimin and his employees (Deresky PC2.11). The keys to success of Haier are its innovative management systems, including the ZZJYT, inverted triangle structure, and Individual-Goal Combination, and also international strategy that instill Haier’s culture and those management systems in local operations (Deresky PC2.11).
In 2002, Haier officially entered Japan when it established an alliance with Sanyo Electronic, and then in 2011, acquired Sanyo’s white goods business (Deresky PC2.15). Initially, Haier targeted of JPY7 billion, and ultimately it reached to JPY35 billion with the sales of Haier washing machine and refrigerator brand occupying third and forth place in the Japanese market (Deresky PC2.17). It was great achievement for Haier, and everyone did not doubt the success in Japan.
However, Du Jingguo, the manager of Haier’s Japanese operation had difficulty in its Japanese operation. Even he learned Japanese culture and language very well and he kept communicating with employees, it was difficult to integrate culture and innovate management system in its Japanese operation in the real meaning (Deresky PC2.11). Du faced a lot of cultural differences in Japanese operation. For Japanese employees, it was hard to accept the concept of the Individual-Goal Combination that receives rewards according to the contributions. In Japanese collective culture, they favor to receive same amount of bonuses (Deresky PC2.17). Also, the Japanese value of seniority interrupted to Haier’s ZZJYT, when Du pointed young men to the director, because the concept of seniority is one of the Japanese traditions and culture in human relationship (Deresky PC2.18). Moreover, when Haier acquired Sanyo, Du and his management team estimated that approximately 30 percent of employees might quit the company (Deresky PC2.18). Because of the lifetime employment culture, they were confused to join to new company, and work in different corporate structure.
Although Haier achieved great outcome of the sales, corporate cultural integration in Japanese operation is not successful. Japanese employee did not feel comfortable with Haier’s innovative management system due to Japanese tradition and culture. The issue that incomplete cultural integration with Haier and Japanese culture might expand to another issue. After Du leave from Haier Japan, the unique corporate culture, including the ZZJYT system, inverted triangle system, and Individual-Goal Combination might collapse in Japanese operation. Actually, the employees were anxious about the company’s prospect, after the 20 years later (Deresky PC2.18). Du creates the bridge between Haier’s corporate culture and Japanese employees, so it is important theme that consider how to integrate culture again for Haier Japan.
