Haier culture is deeply branded with China culture, but Haier's management is by no means Chinese. Haier management not only has a distinct combination, but also is breaking through the traditional values and moving towards a global company. The Internal Contradictions of Confucianism and the Limitations of Haier Culture Zhang Ruimin is a thinker. But before Haier's internationalization, the Haier culture constructed by Zhang Ruimin showed great limitations. This limitation is caused by the internal contradiction of Confucian culture. This is not Zhang Ruimin's personal problem, but reflects the confusion of China's cultural modernization. Haier culture before internationalization was really dominated by Confucian culture. However, Haier did not reach the highest level pursued by Confucian culture. This is the fate of history, just as Confucius' ideal was not fully realized in China society for two thousand years. Confucian culture has three levels: first, it pays attention to group values and "harmony of values"; Second, "benevolence-oriented"; Third, emphasize moral cultivation and pursue "being sage inside and king outside". Confucian culture is undoubtedly one of the best cultures in the world, and it is still valuable today. However, this ancient value system has insurmountable internal contradictions. Confucian culture not only pays attention to group value, but also tends to authoritarianism. This feature of Confucian culture has created Haier's strongman culture. Vanke has built a mature team of professional managers, and Lenovo has made a perfect succession plan, but Haier's fate seems to be in the hands of Zhang Ruimin alone. In addition to President Yang Mianmian, the outside world hardly knows the names of other leaders of Haier. Haier's first criterion for selecting cadres is obedience, followed by talent. These are the embodiment of strongman culture. Therefore, the Confucian culture that pays attention to group values not only creates a unified situation of Haier, but also makes Haier's power highly concentrated. This culture and the innovative spirit that Haier needs as a science and technology enterprise must be contradictory. In this case, it is difficult to achieve the goal of "harmony is precious". In recent years, a large number of senior managers in Haier have lost, indicating that Haier's cohesion is declining. Confucian pursuit of "benevolence" also contradicts its hierarchy. Under the strict hierarchical concept, the Confucian "benevolence" is not only different, but also often restricted by blood and geography, thus creating a parent culture. There is a sense of superiority in "father loves filial piety" and "brothers, friends and brothers". In the traditional family in China, which is dominated by this kind of family culture, family affection is sometimes stifled by majesty, the younger generation often lacks the right to speak, and the tense atmosphere often makes "love" lack lubrication. Haier is filled with such an atmosphere. Therefore, although Haier adopted the practice of naming inventions after employees to show respect for individuals, it still could not change its overall depressing atmosphere. The realm of "inner saints and outer kings" has not been realized in Haier. Haier's serious management style has led to a typical "curse culture", and it has become a common phenomenon that superiors curse subordinates. Many college graduates have just arrived in Haier and are looking for another job because of the rudeness of the managers. Managers' swearing is far from reaching the realm of "being king within" and treating subordinates as servants, which simply does not reflect the taste of "benevolence". Although Confucius did not advocate that superiors could abuse subordinates, strict hierarchy created this kind of "benevolence" that was rudely trampled. All this is caused by the internal contradictions of Confucian culture. Of course, Haier's popular "curse culture" is related to Haier's extraordinary work pressure. In recent years, Haier has been shouldering the goal of hitting the top 500 in the world, and almost every employee is under invisible pressure. Haier is like a pressure cooker. I felt breathless as soon as I entered. The pressure is great, and everyone has a big temper. In order to change the rude management style, Haier began to carry out a period of smiling service activities on 200 1, requiring every employee to smile when talking with others. But this did not play a fundamental role. In fact, the frenzied impact on the world's top 500 enterprises has made Haier deviate from the core of the Confucian spirit-the golden mean. Zhang Ruimin once said that only those who don't care about their families can be called entrepreneurs in China. This fighting spirit is admirable, but it should not be advocated. In the case that the Confucian culture itself is incomplete, it is obviously more difficult for Haier to practice Confucian ideals on the premise of deviating from the Confucian core doctrine of the mean. In fact, although Confucian culture should not be abandoned by enterprises in China, it is impossible to build a corporate culture with core competitiveness only by relying on Confucian culture in the modern business environment. Confucian culture not only has internal contradictions, but also conflicts with modern commercial civilization in some aspects. Therefore, it is unrealistic to thoroughly practice Confucian culture in modern enterprises. In fact, Haier did not really realize the Confucian group view. Although the power is highly unified, Haier's team spirit construction is seriously lacking. In Haier Group, every post and every employee has specific indicators. People at the same level in different departments will be assessed every month, not the team. At the same time, at the weekly and daily meetings, every employee in the same department is evaluated and encouraged from the advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, employees of Haier Group have formed such values: as long as individuals do their own work well, they will be rewarded and promoted, and the company will not assess my ability in teamwork. After Haier implemented the internal market-oriented operation mode based on the market chain, it further aggravated the position of this value in the minds of employees. The market chain treats different processes within the group as upper and lower processes: the next process is the customer of the previous process, and the salary obtained by the previous process is directly subject to the evaluation of the quality of its products and services by the next process. This practice intensifies employees' sense of division, taking their own departments and their own work as the highest goal, regardless of teamwork. Haier's values are also prominent in new product development. Haier's product development department rarely discusses with the marketing department and the production department, which leads to many new products that consumers don't really need, which leads to waste of resources. The lack of team spirit is essentially that Haier has not successfully established a corporate culture based on "benevolence". During most of the period when Confucian culture ruled China, collectivism was seriously eroded by gang struggle and separatism. In fact, due to the inherent contradiction of Confucian culture, Confucius himself and later China society failed to reach the height of Confucian ideal. From the limitation of Haier culture, we once again realize the imperfection of Confucian culture. Beyond Chinese management: Haier's mixed management model makes Haier a benchmark enterprise in China not only because of Confucian culture. Although Confucian culture has left a deep imprint on Haier's corporate culture, this is not the reason for us to label Haier with Chinese management. In fact, Haier's management model is the integration of European, Japanese, American and China management, which is a typical hybrid. When Haier decided to set up a joint venture with foreign enterprises in the early days, the negotiators included several companies with similar technologies in Japan, Italy, Germany and the United States. Finally, Zhang Ruimin thinks that the rigid, rational and serious work style of the Germans can better promote the transformation of Haier's cultural concept, so he chose Liebherr, Germany as a joint venture partner. This will have a decisive influence on the formation of Haier culture in the future. The rigorous procedure, standard and rational operation mode and concept in Haier culture are deeply branded with German culture. This is also related to the profound influence of German culture on Qingdao. In the process of development, Haier has also absorbed the ideas of Japanese enterprises, such as "love society as home", "team spirit" and "industry serving the country". Haier's spirit of sincere unity, selfless dedication and pursuit of Excellence permeates the factors of Japanese corporate culture. Haier also fully absorbed American management concepts, encouraged the pursuit of personal values, "I will give you as many stages as you can flip", and created a mechanism of "self-design, self-expression and self-creation" for employees. Haier also implanted the straightforward criticism and ruthless rational spirit in American culture into corporate culture. /kloc-if a cadre is criticized in writing for three times in 0/year, he will be dismissed. It is also common for Haier to criticize by name. This culture of Haier is completely different from the "face culture" advocated by China management. Haier also abandoned the concept of seniority and boldly used young talents. Among Haier's nearly 20,000 employees, the average age of managers is under 30. Haier's service concept of "the customer is always right" is also the embodiment of American corporate culture. Haier's "OEC management method" is the product of cultural integration of the United States, Japan, Europe and China. "OEC management method" is a management system that makes progress day by day, and controls and cleans everyone, every day and everything in an all-round, all-round and whole process, so as to achieve "daily sorting, daily cleaning and daily improvement". Every day, everything in the enterprise is managed by someone, so that it is controlled without leakage; Everyone has the content of management control, and carries out the matters under his control according to the predetermined plan and working standards, and compares, summarizes and corrects the execution results with the planned standards every day, so as to control the current affairs of the development process of things and ensure the development of things to the predetermined goals. "OEC management method" absorbs the rigor of German culture, the delicacy of Japanese culture, the systematicness of American culture and other elements, and is a mixture of many cultures, and is by no means a simple Confucian culture. Globalization and Cultural Change of Haier On March 4th, 2002, Haier acquired the former Greenwich Bank Building in Broadway, New York as its North American headquarters, which indicated that Haier had established a localized brand image in the United States. On August 20, 2003, the advertisement of Haier neon lights lit up in the prime location of Ginza, Tokyo, Japan. This is the first billboard erected by China enterprises in Ginza, Tokyo, and it has also become a symbol of the rising influence of China enterprises overseas. At present. Haier Group is integrating international market resources through its own brand advantages. Haier Group has production bases in 30 countries, trading companies in more than 20 countries and its own R&D centers in 8 countries. In early 2006, Zhang Ruimin announced that Haier Group had entered the stage of global brand strategy. Haier Group's globalization strategy is essentially different from the previous internationalization strategy: the internationalization strategy stage is based on China, radiating the whole world, and the globalization strategy stage is to form its own brand in local countries. Internationalization makes Haier more deeply aware of the limitations of the original culture. Zhang Ruimin even said that internationalization made Haier face a completely different new starting point, which made it more and more difficult to do. The fundamental reason is that Haier culture cannot be transplanted internationally. Faced with the dilemma of internationalization, Haier has to formulate new enterprise spirit and working methods. Haier's original enterprise spirit was "dedication to the country and pursuit of Excellence", but now it is changed to "creating resources and enjoying a good reputation in the world". Among them, the former emphasizes taking China as a stronghold and radiating the whole world, while the latter emphasizes the spirit of globalization and transcending national boundaries. At present, in several major economic regions around the world, the promotion of Haier brand is accompanied by integration and innovation with local culture. In the United States, Haier freestyle wine cabinets have filled the gap in the American market and become a part of the fashion life of the middle class; In Europe, Haier inverter air conditioner won the reputation of "Energy Saving Star" in Europe; In Japan, Haier's washing machine products continue to maintain the top position of the most popular products in Japan's largest chain stores. In Haier Industrial Park, there is a small piece of green land with dozens of acacia trees. Since 2000, every time Haier's brand took root in a country, Haier people planted an acacia tree here. With the deepening of internationalization, Haier culture inevitably changes from national culture to international culture. Although there are many innovative factors in Haier's corporate culture, Haier's internationalization still faces obstacles that are difficult to break through. This is why Zhang Ruimin finds internationalization "more and more difficult". In fact, internationalization is very difficult, but "more and more difficult" shows that Haier does not have the first-class cultural change ability. Judging from some of Zhang Ruimin's remarks and the chronic diseases still existing in Haier culture, it is undoubtedly the traditional culture that makes him feel "more and more difficult". The internal contradiction of Confucian culture makes it difficult to achieve the goal it pursues. Therefore, although Haier began to inject new factors into Confucian culture from a very young age, it is still quite difficult to really change its concept. It is said that Zhang Ruimin only likes to read three books: Laozi, The Analects of Confucius and The Art of War. Zhang Ruimin's reading orientation undoubtedly bound him to a higher level. At present, Zhang Ruimin's exclusive position in Haier Group has not changed. Zhang Ruimin not only failed to work out a successor plan, but also did not believe that any successor could control Haier in the future. From Zhang Ruimin's irrational self-confidence, we can see that although Haier has surpassed the management of China on the whole, it may not be able to completely get rid of the negative influence of traditional culture within a generation. Therefore, Haier's China cultural brand has not only failed to show that Haier's management mode is Chinese management, but has become an obstacle to Haier's further development. On the road beyond Chinese management, Haier must go further.