GuShiio.com ① When Lei Jun responded to the cheers of media reporters with his trademark smile, the camera caught a focused man in a dark suit behind him-Zhou Yunjie, Chairman and CEO of Haier Group, setting off a storm on social media.
② Zhou Yunjie responded to this matter in his circle of friends, saying that he readily accepted the ridicule of netizens, and revealed that he had communicated with Lei Jun to discuss the future cooperation between Haier Ecology and Xiaomi Ecology.
“Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily”, March 8 (Reporter Huang Xinyi and Mao Mingjiang)“President Hai” became popular.
Recently, a chemical reaction between entrepreneurs quietly staged on the “Representative Channel” of the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. When Lei Jun, dressed in a light-colored suit, responded to the cheers of media reporters with his trademark smile, the camera captured a focused man in a dark suit behind him-Zhou Yunjie, Chairman and CEO of Haier Group.
This subtle expression, jokingly dubbed by netizens as “expectation with restraint”, has caused a storm on social media. Netizens matched the two people with the same frame with a “Dream of the Red Chamber”-style line that read “If I had known Lei Jun would come, I wouldn’t have come”. Some tech nerds even spliced Zhou Yunjie’s gaze with the Haier refrigerator advertisement,”Haier CEO is as cold as a refrigerator” The message was forwarded to more than one million within 24 hours, and some netizens even named him “President Hai”.
Later, Zhou Yunjie responded to this matter in his circle of friends, saying that he readily accepted the ridicule of netizens, and revealed that he planned to start opening accounts at the end of March and early April to better interact with netizens at a distance. Zhou Yunjie also revealed that he had communicated with Lei Jun to discuss the future cooperation between Haier Ecology and Xiaomi Ecology.
◇ When “i-people” entrepreneurs encounter Internet carnival
While this Internet carnival seemed to be paying attention, Haier Group showed a textbook-level public opinion response.
The official Weibo begins with “Let’s formally introduce our boss” and uses Jiugong Grid to show Zhou Yunjie’s daily routine inspections of the factory and discussions with employees; the Douyin account publishes a creative video made by Haier employees “I carry the banner for President Zhou”; The Weixin Official Accounts launched “36 Things You Don’t Know about President Zhou”, revealing the engineer’s manuscript of the helm who developed energy-saving refrigerators when he was young. Faced with netizens ‘calls to “debut with Haier Brothers”, Haier New Media Matrix jointly launched the #Find Haier Brothers in the New Era #activity, successfully transforming traffic into brand exposure.
“In fact, when netizens described me as a Shiba Inu waiting for my owner to be fed, I was discussing the deployment of a large industrial model with the R & D team.” Zhou Yunjie said with a smile in an interview.
This entrepreneur, who has always been low-key, also wrote in his circle of friends: “The imagination of netizens is a valuable productivity in the new era, and Haier will always open its arms to innovation.”
According to Haier’s brand department, its personal new media account was originally planned to be launched in April, but now it has been launched after the two sessions due to “surging public opinion.”
◇ He was the company’s first direct seller
Looking back at Zhou Yunjie’s growth trajectory, when he graduated from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in 1988, this young man from Shandong wrote in his cover letter: “I am willing to be a screw made in China.”
At the Qingdao Refrigerator Factory, he became Haier’s first direct seller, carrying thermometers and hygrometers to shopping malls in North China to record refrigerator operation data in different environments. This experience made him understand that “quality is not laboratory data, but the real user experience.”
At the age of 29, when he was in charge of a listed company, Zhou Yunjie showed a special photo in his inaugural speech: In 1985, Zhang Ruimin smashed the hammer of 76 defective refrigerators.”This hammer always hangs above the quality line.” The full-process quality traceability system he led established made Haier one of the first batch of China companies to pass ISO9001 certification.
After taking charge of Haier Electric in 2013, he promoted the iteration of the “one-in-one” model and restructured 60,000 employees into more than 4000 self-owned enterprises. This reform was included in the Harvard Business School case database.
“There are always three things in General Manager Zhou’s office: vernier calipers, circuit board samples and” Out of Control.” Li Huagang, vice president of Haier Zhijia, revealed.
This integration of precision manufacturing and ecological thinking is particularly evident in the three strategic transformations led by Zhou Yunjie: when he acquired GE Appliances in 2016, he insisted on retaining the American R & D team, but reversed the export of China’s smart home solutions; After taking over the baton in 2021, he proposed the “eco-brand” strategy to transform Haier from a product manufacturer into an ecological platform covering industrial Internet, general health and other fields.
◇ “Can withstand temptation and endure loneliness”
“Can withstand temptation and endure loneliness”, Zhou Yunjie often says, is a footnote to his management style.
When he was responsible for the construction of the South Carolina Industrial Park in 1999, Zhou Yunjie faced the suspicion that “going to build a factory in the United States would kill him” and achieved a localization rate of 90% in three years. Today, Haier has 10 major R & D centers and 122 manufacturing bases around the world, but it has always adhered to the red line of “exporting no less than 80% of its own brands.” The 2023 annual report shows that Haier’s overseas market revenue accounted for more than 53%, of which the high-end brand Casadi grew by 27% in the European and American markets.
When the Internet storm swept the manufacturing industry, he vehemently opposed public opinion and invested 5 billion yuan to build the Kaos Industrial Internet Platform. “The real intelligent manufacturing is not about replacing machines, but about empowering people with data.”
At the 2023 Davos Forum, the “Lighthouse Factory” case he showed surprised German Industry 4.0 experts: Haier reduced the new product development cycle from 6 months to 15 days through direct user manufacturing.
“He is like Haier’s product manager, always asking users if their pain points have been resolved? 39;”Patrick Koch, CEO of Haier Germany, recalled that Zhou Yunjie personally carried a decibel meter to the laboratory for 72 hours because local users complained about the noise of the washing machine. This engineer-style truthfulness has transformed into Haier’s hard power as the world’s number one brand of large home appliances for 16 consecutive years. As of 2024, Haier has led the formulation of 120 international standards, achieving a global layout of “for every 10 high-end refrigerators sold, 7 will come from Haier.”
In the eyes of the employees, this helmsman always maintains the rhythm of “patrolling the factory at 8 a.m. and resuming at 10 p.m.” On the eve of the Spring Festival in 2024, Zhou Yunjie wrote in a letter to all Haier people: “When I walked into the workshop 36 years ago, I never thought I would witness the transformation of Made in China from catching up to leading the way. In the next 36 years, we will create an ecological paradigm that the world will respect.”
Perhaps this is the collective portrait of China industrialists: they can not only bow their heads to polish every screw, but also dare to look up at the industrial galaxy.
◇ Haier needs a new IP
During the two sessions, the three suggestions submitted by Zhou Yunjie focused on “hard technology”: from industrial models to empower new industrialization to blood product supply chain guarantees, each topic directly points to the deep water areas of industrial upgrading.”
Traffic is like Haier’s ultrasonic technology. The key depends on whether it can be transformed into user value.” He made an analogy in a media interview.
At present, many entrepreneurs are leaving the field one after another to do self-media and traffic. Haier, on the other hand, appears to be relatively low-key. For example, this time Zhou Yunjie stood with Lei Jun, and even most of the public did not know his name.
As a brand that has been in existence for 40 years, Haier may also need an entrepreneurial image IP.
Zhou Yunjie has revealed in his personal circle of friends that he will soon open a new media account. Zhou Yunjie also responded to the media’s statement,”I don’t want to be an Internet celebrity”, just want to use the new media platform to better interact with consumers.”I hope that everyone may not remember me, but still remember Haier’s brand, Haier’s services, Haier’s products.”
Zhou Yunjie also revealed that he had communicated with Lei Jun.”I communicated with President Lei in the lounge and will also discuss the cooperation between Xiaomi Ecology and Haier Ecology in the future.”
