Two corporate culture case stories

Introduction: What is corporate culture? In simple terms, it is understood as culture. Culture must be believed in and based on universal acceptance and recognition. And gradually it became a belief. Below are two corporate culture case stories I brought to you. I hope they will be helpful to you.

Part 1: Two corporate culture case stories

1 Haier’s business model focuses on service and quality. Haier has become a representative of Chinese enterprises in the world with an almost perfect image. Haier CEO Official Zhang Ruimin has only four words to explain the "Haier phenomenon": speed and innovation. At the end of 2005, Haier announced that it had entered the global brand strategy stage, which was the fourth turning point in Haier's strategy. However, after Haier chose a new round of offensive, its innovation path seemed to have undergone some changes. As Jeffrey Moore said, it is not that large companies do not innovate. On the contrary, the number of innovations carried out in large companies is sometimes staggering, but they are not necessarily directly linked to economic purposes. At present, Haier applies for an average of 1.8 patents every day, produces a new product every day, and 1.5 innovations make Haier the sixth largest white goods manufacturer in the world. However, there are various signs that Haier Group, which started with white goods and has always focused on white goods, is being overtaken by its opponents. In the 2006 China Technology Top 100 list, Haier ranked 89th, down 61 places from the previous year. In 2005, Haier's main business revenue was 16.509 billion yuan, while the other two major home appliance giants in the market, Gree, were 18.248 billion yuan, and Midea was 21.313 billion yuan. In terms of net profit, Haier was 239 million yuan, Gree and Midea were respectively. 508 million yuan and 382 million yuan; the difference in return on net assets is even greater, Haier is 3.5%, Gree and Midea are 18.72% and 12.48% respectively. At the same time, Haier's internationalization process is not as rapid as expected. Haier's goal is to succeed in the three major markets of the United States, Europe, and Japan. These three major markets focus on channels, design, and quality respectively. Can Haier be successful? There are currently no signs of a successful breakout. Haier has overcome human inertia through business process reengineering, but now, can Haier overcome the inertia accumulated in its innovation process and successfully upgrade to the international version?

2 Lenovo’s business model? Team building, Setting strategies and leading teams? Lenovo's core team regards the company as its destiny and forms the all-powerful core competitiveness of Lenovo. This has always been the management mantra that Liu Chuanzhi tells everywhere. It sounds sensible, but in fact it is completely wrong. ?Leaving within 2 hours? Early spring, March, is the season of recovery for all things. Lenovo employees have to use a massive layoff to concretely demonstrate "Lenovo's new power". Many loyal Lenovo employees did not expect that when they were invited into the conversation room, all their Lenovo-related IC cards had been invalidated, and they had to leave within 2 hours?! One employee lamented that "Lenovo is not a home". Asking a very pointed question: "Leaders make strategic mistakes, but employees must bear them." Lenovo's senior management remained silent and allowed the media to comment.

Liu Chuanzhi finally came to the forefront in mid-April. In an interview with a reporter from China Youth Daily, he admitted that Lenovo did have some strategic mistakes that were borne by its employees. Companies should sincerely say sorry to their employees. ?The responsibility for layoffs really lies with the leadership? But when the conversation changed, another truth came out: it is impossible to run a business without laying off employees, and elimination is necessary to ensure the normal development of the company. Liu Chuanzhi said that, as a Chinese enterprise with an annual turnover of US$3 billion, Lenovo is an international medium-sized enterprise and must firmly move towards the goal of becoming a large international enterprise. Although Lenovo, led by Yang Yuanqing, suffered setbacks in moving towards its predetermined goals from 2001 to 2003, the board of directors believes that it has made breakthrough attempts in business diversification and increased investment in technology, which is important for formulating new three-year goals. Providing useful lessons at a modest cost. ? In this way, an issue related to the life choices of thousands of people was covered up by an understatement of "the cost is not big".

A three-year plan opens up a series of new strategic areas. In the first and second years, some situations will emerge. Is it the right path? Should we continue to move forward? However, Lenovo’s management team has to wait until the three-year period. After it was over, the decision was made and a large number of confused employees were laid off. Why couldn't Lenovo find out earlier that it had deviated from the target and correct it earlier? Is this an accidental phenomenon or a necessity? A friend told me another story to clarify my doubts. One day a few years ago, the top executives of Digital China were a little complacent. Introduce a practical management expert inside and out, ask him to talk about his impressions, and look forward to the other party's sweet words of praise. Experts shook their heads and said, "Digital China is a small company worth 1 billion US dollars. This company does not have the minimum error correction mechanism of a modern company." When the mobile phone business suffered a loss of 10 million yuan, no one cared. When the loss was 50 million yuan or 100 million yuan, no one cared. It was not until the loss of 140 million yuan that all aspects could no longer survive, and someone called a halt. This is not normal. ?The words of experts make people uncomfortable and no one is taken seriously. As a result, the same story keeps happening again in the Lenovo Department. Mass layoffs are the latest version of this rendition, and reveal more problems. The core competitiveness is management? The question I am concerned about now is that this goal was already discovered in 2001 and 2002. According to Lenovo's management team and company foundation, it is no longer possible. Why was it not revised in time? How could Lenovo, which is good at management, not be able to achieve this goal? They have to wait until the end of the planning period before casually saying that most companies will make adjustments to their goals? If they can't figure out a big strategic issue earlier, what else can make them take it to heart? A responsible person How can a responsible management team and a responsible board of directors not ask? What are they waiting for? What are they delaying? Who are they competing with? Is there any political purpose to be achieved while waiting?

"Building a team, setting a strategy, and leading a team" has always been Lenovo's management experience that Liu Chuanzhi tells everywhere. Lenovo's core team regards the company as its destiny and forms Lenovo's all-powerful core competitiveness, which sounds reasonable. Repeat the same words several times, and you will begin to believe them to be true. Liu Chuanzhi said boldly both inside and outside the company many times: Lenovo has plenty of experience and funds. It will take more than ten years to cultivate several small Lenovos. ? Determine the strategy, this is what Liu Chuanzhi wants to decide. Chapter 2: Two corporate culture case stories

Haier eats? Shock fish?

In the past 10 years since the early 1990s, Haier has merged with 18 companies. And both turned losses into profits.

In these mergers, the targets of Haier's merger are not high-quality assets, but what Haier values ????is not the existing assets of the merger targets, but the potential market, potential vitality, and potential benefits, just like Buy options in the capital markets instead of buying stocks. Among Haier's 18 merger cases, 14 of the merged companies suffered a total loss of 550 million yuan, and the assets that were finally revitalized were 1.42 billion yuan, successfully achieving the goal of low-cost expansion.

People usually compare mergers between enterprises to "fish eating fish", or the big fish eating the small fish, or the small fish eating the big fish. And what kind of fish does Haier eat? Haier people believe that what they eat is not small fish, nor slow fish, nor sharks, but "shock fish". What is "shock fish"? Haier's explanation is: the body of the fish is not rotten, which means that the company's hardware is very good; while the fish is in a state of shock, it means that there are problems with the company's thoughts and concepts, causing the company to stagnate. Once this kind of enterprise is injected with new management ideas and has a set of effective management methods, it can be quickly activated. From an international perspective, mergers and reorganizations between enterprises can be divided into three stages.

First is "big fish eats small fish", the main form of mergers and reorganizations is large enterprises annexing small ones; then "fast fish eats slow fish", the trend of mergers and reorganizations is that capital moves closer to technology, new technologies Enterprises merged with traditional industries; then there was "shark eating shark". At this time, "eating" no longer meant that one party defeated the other, but what we often call the so-called "strong alliance". The theory of eating "shock fish" provides a realistic basis for Haier to choose merger targets. National conditions determine that Chinese enterprises cannot copy foreign models when engaging in mergers and reorganizations.

Due to institutional reasons, small fish do not realize their smallness, and slow fish do not realize their slowness. Each relies on its own interests and enjoys itself, lacking enthusiasm and initiative for mergers and reorganizations. So you won't be allowed to eat live fish, and you will get upset if you eat dead fish, so you can only eat shock fish.

Comments:

1. Eat "shock fish"

"Shock fish" is an image metaphor of Haier for the merged companies. The companies that are willing to be merged by others are all companies whose production is difficult to maintain. Among the companies that are about to go bankrupt, some companies have better equipment performance and can divest their debts, just because the property rights are unclear, no one is responsible, or the management is poor. The resulting low efficiency, Haier Group believes that "shock fish" can be merged. Another group of companies that are about to go bankrupt, Haier Group considers them to be "dead fish" and must not be merged, otherwise it will lead to problems for the parent company. One of the main reasons why Haier Group has not been dragged down by mergers and acquisitions during its rapid expansion, and the merged subsidiaries are full of vitality and their economic benefits continue to improve, is that it has a good grasp of the shock fish. ?This principle.

2. Low-cost expansion

Haier Group started with refrigerators. Now, in addition to drum washing machines, washing machines, air conditioners, freezers, small household appliances, etc. are all developed through mergers and acquisitions. of. Haier's overseas holding-type mergers are a typical case of low-cost expansion. For example, in December 1995, Haier used an investment of 22 million yuan to transfer 300 million yuan of assets from Lan Boxi Island Company. In the contract to merge the washing machine factory of Amity Electrical Appliances Group in March 1997, its original debts were stripped off and assumed by Amity Group. The remaining effective assets of Haier Group were only 29.28 million yuan held by Shunde Haier Group. After the products are produced, the loan of the Electrical Appliance Co., Ltd. will be repaid in three equal installments over three years with the profits from Haier shares. This will achieve a 60% controlling stake in Shunde Haier Electrical Appliance Co., Ltd. The essence is that Haier Group passes the merger to the merged company. The other party borrowed capital to achieve control. Haier did not spend a penny to expand the production scale of washing machines to achieve economies of scale. This is a typical international "leveraged merger" method. In the contract to merge Laiyang Electric Iron Factory in July 1997, Haier Group invested 11 million yuan in tangible and intangible assets such as technology, molds, and models, becoming the largest shareholder of Laiyang Haier Electric Co., Ltd. (holding 55%). Not only that, the contract also stipulates that in future sales revenue, Haier Group will withdraw 5% of the total sales revenue as trademark fees for using Haier's well-known trademark.

From 1998 to 1997, Haier Group’s corporate mergers went through three stages from high-cost expansion to low-cost expansion, namely, the purchase of full funds, the overall transformation stage; the investment of part of the capital, the input The management system stage; the stage of revitalizing tangible assets with intangible assets. From debt-based mergers to investment holdings; from loan-based holdings to the use of intellectual property investment holdings and the extraction of trademark fees; from large investment of funds to the use of trademarks and other intellectual property rights to revitalize the company's assets; less and less capital is invested, and the brand The utility is getting bigger and bigger, the more funds are mobilized, the faster and faster the low-cost expansion is. The reason why enterprises merged by Haier are willing to be merged by Haier Holdings is mainly due to Haier's market development ability, market reputation and brand effect. After being merged by Haier, they will have a way out.

3. Use Haier’s culture to assimilate employees of merged companies

Since 1995, Haier Group has formed a Haier culture with its own characteristics. When merging companies, it is First inject Haier culture. When Haier Group merged with Hongxing Electric Co., Ltd., it sent only three people to each merged company. These three people have profound Haier culture and genes. They want to bring Haier's culture and Haier's management system to the company. The merged enterprise has enabled the employees of the merged enterprise to achieve a completely different ideological and conceptual transformation. Without a unified corporate culture, Haier's unified management philosophy and innovative spirit, the benefits of Haier's management will not be possible.

4. Combination of constant modules and variable modules

In the management of merged enterprises, Haier Group flexibly combines the constant modules in Haier's management philosophy with the specific local conditions. The combination arouses the creativity of employees of the merged enterprise.

The so-called immutable module is a metaphor for Haier spirit and Haier management system. The so-called variable module is a modification of Haier's specific management methods for merging companies in different regions. No matter which company is merged, Haier's spirit of "dedication to serve the country and pursuit of excellence" and a complete set of quality management systems including self-inspection, mutual inspection, and evaluation cannot be changed. However, each region and each enterprise has its own specific circumstances, and its management methods have their own characteristics. A company like "Shock Fish" is not without merit, it has its own advantages. When Haier managers go to any merged company, they first look for its strengths. Then, based on a typical example, they ask employees to analyze and find their own shortcomings. Then they select cadres through competition and make use of local excellent management. Employees manage the enterprise, so that the majority of employees have a sense of crisis and a sense of belonging and identity, making them realize that as long as they work hard in the enterprise, they will have a future and higher and higher incomes. ;