manufacturing practices after those responsible for innovations The company also has no problem putting young people in charge if they perform. Haier to be very focused in continuously improving its productivity to survive in a competitive market.
After Zhang's dramatic demonstration of intent, product quality eventually improved to the extent that Haier became the first company in China to be certified under international standards such as ISO 9001, an essential when entering the international market. Changing attitudes is extremely difficult," Zhang has said. "You can have a company culture and any group within it has its own community. If you cannot change the community, you cannot change the company environment. It's not just changing the thinking It's also maintaining it. We work on this every day."
Overseas, Zhang has also shown sensitivity to local thinking. Refrigerators manufactured at Haeir's plant in South Carolina carry "Made in the US" labels. He has also set up an R&D center there to study American consumer tastes. "We can talk about culture, about the ways Chinese do things, but in the end, we have to respect Western ways in their market, or we will fail," Zhang said.
The Haier Group now has 50,000 workers worldwide and the culture they work under is unrecognizable when to the company whose few employees once urinated on the floor of the Zhang's lead in instilling new has been a key in change.
Carlos Ghosn is another leader unafraid to go against the norms of society. In his case, it was entrenched Japanese attitudes that were the challenge when he was appointed to head the ailing Nissan Motors group in 1999. At that time, Ghosn, educated in France and a former top Michelin manager was executive vice president of the Renault Group. Renault had taken a 37% (now 44%) stake in Nissan. The Japanese car giant's financial performance had to improve or it could die.
As chief executive, Ghosn needed to do some very un-Japanese things to effect a turnaround. Hecutstaff and suppliers and introduced accountability. Many thought that such actions, compounded by his inability to speak Japanese, would make him unpopular. Instead, Nissan returned to profitability and Ghosn, who promised to quit wasn't successful, has received many accolades. His success in Japan also led to his appointment as head of the Renault group in Europe, a job he held at the time of writing, simultaneously with his Nissan post.