Haier's Internationalization Strategy and Haier's Management System

Haier Group Case Analysis
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Haier Group Case Analysis
1 What are the main features of Haier's internationalization strategy since the early 1990s?
Haier's internalization strategy in the early '90s has been deemed sloppy compared to other schemes applied by corporations seeking to enter the international markets. The company had a specific strategy for every foreign market segment, segmented primarily based on geographical aspects. For the U.S. market, Haier capitalized on retailers to market its products initially under the retailers' brand names and later Haier's brand name. The company leveraged large reputable brands like Walmart in entering the U.S. market (Grant, 2008). In South-East Asia, joint ventures with local companies were utilized as the entry strategy. Indonesia, the Philippines, and Malaysia were the most notable target countries in the South-East Asia region. For the European market, in particular countries like Germany, Netherlands, and Italy, Haier exported its appliances under its brand name. It also leveraged the strength of local partners such as Liebherr in Germany to drive sales (Grant, 2008). In the early '90s, Haier's posed as an export brand where entry into new markets was achieved by selling the company's brand name in foreign markets. This did not sit well with Zhang Ruimin, the company's founder, and eventually led to the adoption of new internationalization strategies ins the 21st century.
2. How does Haier's internationalization strategy differ from the pattern of international development typical of Western enterprises?
The uniqueness of Haier's internationalization strategy can be observed from several different perspectives. Most corporations seeking to enter the international markets often treat the consumers as a whole and often have a common goal of treating all the consumers equally. This is not the case with Haier's internationalization strategy. The goal with Haier is to be as quick as possible in meeting the local consumer demands. This gave rise to the other unique approach with Haier's internationalization strategy, where local markets dominate the global market. The localization strategy used by Haier ensured that the global market is split into several localities where products, information decisions, design divisions, and even industries are specifically designed to suit that particular market. The different local markets are integrated to form Haier's global market.
The process of internationalization often follows either of the two patterns: progressive mode and global start-up mode (Drášilová & Bašistová, 2018). Most enterprises tend to follow the progressive mode. In progressive mode, companies strive to address less challenging issues first before venturing into more complex issues. In the context of internationalization, enterprises enter into less challenging markets beyond the international boundaries. These markets mainly depict the same levels of economic strengths and have similar variables affecting the market. With the global start-up mode, the enterprise starts with the most challenging issue: entering the most developed markets with multiple variables influencing the m...