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• Teaching Note | HBS Case Collection | April 2018

  Haier: Incubating Entrepreneurs in a Chinese Giant

  Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Jonathan Cohen

  Zhang Ruimin's change management efforts as CEO of Haier Group attempted to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship in the digital Internet of Things age. His transformational initiatives involving micro-enterprises and platforms aimed to create an ecosystem that would help the Chinese company achieve zero distance between employees and users, making it fast, agile, and responsive. This Teaching Note helps instructors teach the Harvard Business School case, Haier: Incubating Entrepreneurs in a Chinese Giant, presenting analysis of the case and a teaching plan to guide classroom discussions.

  Keywords: entrepreneurial ecosystems; entrepreneurs; entrepreneurial ventures; innovation; Innovation and Management; scaling; Global corporate cultures; global; cultural context; mainstream; platform strategies; ecosystem; digital; Internet of Things; Business Model; Change Management; Disruption; Global Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Leading Change; Business Strategy; China;

  Citation:

  Kanter, Rosabeth Moss, and Jonathan Cohen. "Haier: Incubating Entrepreneurs in a Chinese Giant." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 318-140, April 2018.  View Details

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | March 2018 (Revised April 2018)

  Verizon 2018

  Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Jonathan Cohen

  In 2018, CEO Lowell McAdam led efforts to transform Verizon through digital innovation, media acquisitions and integration, and changes to the company culture. He sought to manage change at the company as growth in traditional areas slowed, and position it as a leader in a 5G world.

  Keywords: Change; change leadership; management; change management; innovation; digital; Management; Leading Change; Innovation and Management; Acquisition; Integration; Telecommunications Industry; United States;

  Citation:

  Kanter, Rosabeth Moss, and Jonathan Cohen. "Verizon 2018." Harvard Business School Case 318-114, March 2018. (Revised April 2018.)  View Details

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | February 2018 (Revised April 2018)

  Haier: Incubating Entrepreneurs in a Chinese Giant

  Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Nancy Hua Dai

  CEO Zhang Ruimin must plan how to accelerate the growth of self-managed micro-enterprises. Platforms were Haier’s business platforms operating in five major sectors: white goods transformation, investment and incubation, financial holdings, real estate, and cultural industry. Platform owners incubated micro-enterprises on their platforms with the resources Haier had, but they were not the supervisors of micro-enterprises. His goal was to tear down the walls between the organization, shortening the time the company took to respond to users’ needs, with the ultimate goal of “zero distance” between employees and users. Haier had engaged in a series of organizational changes since 2005, the most recent of which started in 2012. His latest experimentation was turning Haier into a platform for entrepreneurship. Employees and those outside Haier could set up micro-enterprises on Haier’s platforms. Zhang thought Haier was on the right track, but the model had to prove itself in practice. He set a timetable: the micro-enterprises must reach the tipping point by September 20, 2018, which meant the micro-enterprise would have become a platform to which all resource providers would flock and stay loyal. There was no precedent of transformation like this anywhere. Would Haier succeed? What could Haier do to push the micro-enterprises to get to the tipping point?

  Keywords: China; microenterprise; entrepreneurship; appliances; platform; Change; innovation; leadership; Opportunities; Entrepreneurship; Market Platforms; Transformation; Innovation and Invention; Leadership; Growth and Development Strategy; China;

  Citation:

  Kanter, Rosabeth Moss, and Nancy Hua Dai. "Haier: Incubating Entrepreneurs in a Chinese Giant." Harvard Business School Case 318-104, February 2018. (Revised April 2018.)  View Details

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