In the past 37 years since its establishment, Haier Group has grown from an insolvent collectively-owned factory on the brink of bankruptcy into an ecosystem giant leading the world in the IoT era.

At the general election of the 8th Haier Staff Assembly on Nov 5, the company's founder Zhang Ruimin volunteered not to participate in the nomination of new directors, creating a new succession mechanism enabling the sustainable evolution of an ecosystem enterprise.

File photo of Zhang Ruimin [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

In order to avoid fluctuations during leadership succession, which are not uncommon under bureaucratic management models, Zhang has successfully transformed Haier into a self-organizing, self-driven, and self-evolving ecosystem enterprise through 16 years of exploring the Rendanheyi model.

What Zhang left to the future is an immortal ecosystem where everybody can be an entrepreneur. Haier's new succession mechanism aims to further help its every ecosystem to boom, lead the way and exponentially expand its ecosystem value.

Staff representatives expressed tremendous confidence in the future and praised Zhang's outstanding contributions over the past 37 years.

He created a global enterprise. Under the leadership of Zhang, Haier developed from the Qingdao Refrigerator General Factory with a turnover of 3.48 million yuan ($543,924) and a deficit of 1.47 million yuan in 1984 into a global giant with a turnover of over 300 billion yuan and profit and taxes of over 40 billion yuan. Haier Smart Home, one of the group's listed companies, ranks among the Fortune Global 500.

He created a world-class brand. Haier has been ranked as the No 1 Global Major Appliances Brand by Euromonitor International for 12 consecutive years. On this basis, Haier's IoT ecosystem brand has been recognized by BrandZ as the only ecosystem brand among the Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands.

He created a leading management model. First proposed by Zhang in 2005, Rendanheyi has become a leading management paradigm in the IoT era after 16 years of continuous exploration and iteration.

On Sept 17, 2021, Zhang and Eric Cornuel, president of EFMD, jointly signed the first certificate of the RDHY International Management Innovation Certification System, making Haier the first Chinese company to establish an international standard for management models and creating a new era in which Chinese enterprises no longer just follow international standards but also develop their own.

He started an entrepreneurial culture. Zhang's contribution reflects his goal of maximizing human value and promoting an entrepreneurial and innovative culture in Haier. He advocates that every ordinary employee have his shot to become an entrepreneur and his own CEO, making meaningful explorations into value co-creation and common prosperity.

The 8th Haier Staff Assembly also elected the new management committee and board of directors: Zhang was invited to be the honorary chairman of the board; Zhou Yunjie was elected as the new chairman of the board and appointed CEO; Liang Haishan was appointed president. Zhou and Liang both joined Haier after graduating college in 1988. They started from grassroots work and made their way up to multiple positions in the group. Prior to the new appointment, Zhou served as vice chairman of the board and president, and Liang as vice chairman of the board and executive president.

The new board of directors thanked Zhang for his outstanding contributions and said that the Rendanheyi model founded by Zhang leads in the direction that all Haier employees strive for. On the basis of this leading model, all of Haier's entrepreneurs worldwide shall unswervingly implement Rendanheyi, achieve their goals and make Haier's ecosystem brand a beacon among other sectors and industries.