On January 31, Eastern time, Fortune magazine announced the list of "World's Most Admired Companies" in 2023, and Haier Smart Home has been on the list for 6 consecutive years, which is also the only Chinese company on the list in the field of home appliances.
Unlike the Fortune Global 500, which mainly evaluates the market indicators of enterprises, the selection of "World's Most Admired Companies" focuses more on the overall strength of enterprises. It is reported that the list is selected by more than 3,700 judges, including global business leaders and corporate executives, directors, and analysts, from 9 key indicators of enterprise innovation ability, ability to attract talents, enterprise asset utilization, social responsibility, management quality, financial soundness, investment value, product and service quality, and global competitiveness.
Awarded the "World's Most Admired Company" for 6 consecutive years, why has Haier Smart Home been unanimously recognized by many parties in the highly competitive global market? This is inseparable from its continuous leading comprehensive competitiveness, especially the global brand influence built by its own brand. Different from the industry's OEM, globalization and export earnings, Haier Smart Home has chosen the road of independent brand creation, and has achieved the localization of trinity and the globalization of high-end brands, thus achieving the world's first.
First, high-end first.
Global independent branding: only a brand can be appreciated.
"Global competitiveness" is one of the most important indicators for the selection of the most appreciated companies. An enterprise must first have its own brand in order to be "seen" and "appreciated" in the world market. Haier Smart Home is the best illustration of this.
Independent brand creation is the foundation of Haier Smart Home's global leadership. In the 90s of the last century, domestic enterprises set off a tide of going overseas, but most of them chose the road of OEM export to earn foreign exchange, because the OEM threshold is low and it is easy to obtain immediate profits and scale. However, Haier Smart Home adheres to long-termism, insists on creating a global independent brand, and embarks on this "difficult but correct road" with high risk, large investment and long return cycle.
Initially, Haier Smart Home adopted a gap product strategy, that is, to provide products that were not made by local brands, but which were demanded by users, and successfully "went global". Since then, it has built a brand loved by local users through the layout of the "trinity" localization model, and successfully "walked in".
At present, Haier Smart Home has entered nearly 200 countries and regions around the world, serving 1 billion user households, and Haier has also achieved the 15th consecutive crown in the retail sales of Euromonitor International's global large-scale household appliance brands. A more concrete set of data is: at present, China's home appliance production has accounted for 56% of the world's total, but the share of overseas Chinese brands is only 85% in this 8Of the 5%, 62% is contributed by Haier. This also means that for every 10 Chinese brand home appliances seen overseas, 6 are Haier.
In addition to bringing its own brands to all over the world, Haier Smart Home has also implemented a high-end brand strategy around the world, established a global high-end brand cluster, and achieved "going up". In 2023, the global home appliance market will be under pressure, and Haier Smart Home will achieve market leadership in various regions through "global brand synergy".
In China, the high-end brand Casarte has been laid out ahead of schedule, achieving a 10-fold growth in 6 years, and its share continues to increase on the basis of absolute first; In the U.S., GE Appliances continued to transform into a high-end company, becoming the No. 1 major appliance company in the U.S. for two consecutive years. In Europe, Haier Smart Home has had the fastest market growth rate for 8 consecutive years, and its market share growth rate has continued to rank first. In Oceania, Haier Smart Home outperformed the industry, and Fisher & Paykel ranked first in the New Zealand white goods market; In Japan, Haier + AQUA dual-brand white electricity share TOP1.
By serving globalization and promoting globalization with localization, Haier Smart Home's global brand leadership has also helped it achieve steady financial growth and boost investor confidence. According to the data of the 2023 semi-annual report, Haier Smart Home's overseas business achieved revenue of 669200 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 88%。Benefiting from its excellent performance, Haier Smart Home has also been trusted by investors.
Layout** brand: to provide users with a borderless smart life.
Haier Smart Home can become a mainstream brand in mainstream countries and markets around the world, not only because it has chosen the right path to create its own brand. With the increasingly fierce competition in the industry, many companies will choose to continue their growth with "first-class war", but Haier Smart Home has always adhered to high-end and provided users with the ultimate experience of first-class value. With the change of user needs, Haier Smart Home has launched the world's first smart home appliance integrated customized scene brand Three-winged Bird, and firmly changed the ecological brand to provide users with one-stop services covering all kinds of life needs. Creating the best user experience with the "first-class brand" strategy is also an important reason why the jury appreciates Haier Smart Home in terms of product quality and service.
High-end brands are the foundation of the best experience of the product. Haier Smart Home has laid out 7 high-end brand matrices around the world, without brand category shortcomings, and can provide users with the best products and the best technology, so that the experience "exceeds expectations". For example, in response to the problems of easy flavor and dryness of ingredients stored in traditional refrigerators, Haier refrigerators pioneered magnetically controlled cold fresh technology, which realizes the fresh aroma of chilled meat for 10 days and the juice loss rate is 0; In view of the pain points such as the difficulty of drying and drying large clothes, Casarte washing and drying integrated machine pioneered 3D perspective drying technology to solve the problem of thick clothes being unable to dry at one time.
The core of scene branding is to make tailor-made smart scenes within reach. Three-winged Bird, the world's first smart home appliance home integrated customized scene brand, can realize active services for the whole house and all scenes, such as smart pillows can be linked to air conditioners, and automatically adjust the temperature, humidity, and clarity of the air when users sleep. In addition, Three-winged Bird can also provide "one-stop customized smart home" service, so that the smart home can be done in one step and at one time.
The significance of ecological brand is to keep users' smart life with the times. Haier Smart Home creates a smart life for users by building an unbounded ecosystem. At present, Haier Smart Home has built the industry's largest smart home scene ecology, and has the ability to provide "one-stop solutions" for users' various needs for clothing, food, housing and entertainment, and with the continuous expansion of ecological resources, users' smart life will also keep pace with the times.
While continuing to promote the first-class brand to bring users a borderless smart life, Haier Smart Home is also accelerating the realization of the whole process of digital service upgrades. By building a full-process digital service platform for users before, during, and after sales, Haier Smart Home realizes the full life cycle management of users, bringing an efficient and convenient smart service experience. At the 2023 Satisfaction China Conference, Haier Smart Home Service successfully won the "No. 1 in Industry Satisfaction in 2023".
Adhere to scientific and technological innovation: create the best experience for users.
Behind a world-leading brand, there must be world-leading scientific and technological support. Haier Smart Home is no exception. Different from the simple imitation and follow-up of the industry, Haier Smart Home has always adhered to original scientific and technological breakthroughs around user needs, and has become the pioneer and leader of industry trends through an innovation system based on the world and radiating the world. As a result, Haier Smart Home has received high votes in this "innovation capability" evaluation.
Specifically, Haier Smart Home adheres to leading technological breakthroughs with independent innovation, and has formed a global scientific and technological innovation system: including the offline construction of a global 10+N open innovation system, and the online layout of the HOPE innovation ecological platform, which can link more than 1 million first-class R&D talents around the world, give full play to the synergistic advantages of the global best chain, respond to market demand in a timely and efficient manner with manufacturing globalization, provide the market with products and solutions that lead user needs, and solve pain points and create the best experience for global users.
For example, in response to the needs of Chinese users for fresh and healthy ingredients, Haier refrigerators pioneered full-space fresh-keeping technology to firmly lock in nutrition; Considering the concerns of American users about mold and odor in the washing machine tube, Haier Smart Home has developed a washing machine that can be ventilated; In addition, Haier Smart Home has also launched A-level energy-efficient washing machines and ultra-thin TZ refrigerators designed for Japanese users in response to the energy-saving needs of European users.
At present, Haier Smart Home has 218 original technologies leading the industry, and it is No. 1 in patents, standards, industrial design and national recognition1。For example, in terms of patents, Haier Smart Home has won 12 Chinese patent gold awards, ranking first in the industry; In terms of standards, Haier Smart Home has led and participated in a total of 97 international standards, the most in the industry. In terms of industrial design, it has won a total of 6 international design gold awards, the most in the industry; In terms of national recognition, Haier Smart Home has won 16 National Science and Technology Progress Awards, accounting for two-thirds of the industry.
At the same time, in response to the user's demand for wisdom and convenience in the era of the Internet of Things, Haier Smart Home's scientific and technological innovation vision is also upgrading to "smart technology", and has achieved 10 consecutive championships of global smart home invention patents, realizing the "double leadership" of original technology and smart technology.
Global ESG Practice: Open up new growth space with high-quality development.
In the eyes of excellent investors, the comprehensive strength of an enterprise should not only look at the existing performance and results, but also pay attention to its long-term vision and forward-looking layout. That's why the list of the World's Most Admired Companies also includes ESG practices in the selection criteria, including corporate social responsibility, ability to attract talent, and quality of management, which can also reflect the forward-looking use of corporate assets.
As one of the companies with the widest coverage of ESG practices in the industry, Haier Smart Home has already raised ESG to a strategic level, and it has naturally received high votes in this regard.
Let's take a look at it specifically. In terms of management quality, Haier Smart Home has established a top-down ESG governance structure, which provides an organizational guarantee for the practice of ESG. In 2022, Haier Smart Home continued to reshuffle its board of directors, increasing the proportion of female directors to 223%, which is higher than the industry average according to the Stock Exchange; The proportion of independent directors increased to 444%, further enhancing the diversity and independence of the board.
In terms of social responsibility, Haier Smart Home has assisted the construction of 385 Hope Primary Schools and 1 Hope Middle School in China, making it the enterprise with the largest number of primary schools in the Youth League's Hope Project. Overseas, Haier Smart Home has also made long-term donations to local public welfare organizations and charities in the United Kingdom, Italy, Thailand, Pakistan and other countries, which has been widely recognized by the local society.
In terms of attracting talents, Haier Smart Home is continuously strengthening its employer brand building and enhancing its ability to attract, cultivate and retain talents. As a result, Haier Smart Home has also been listed on the 2023 UK Best Employers list, becoming the only Chinese home appliance company on the list, and GE Appliances has been certified as a Best Workplace in the United States for two consecutive years.
At present, Haier Smart Home's ESG practices have been recognized globally. Overseas, Haier Smart Home is not only the home appliance company with the highest MSCI ESG rating, but also the only home appliance company in China to be selected into the British "Earth Charter". In 2023, Haier Smart Home will once again appear on the Fortune 2023 China ESG Influence List, ranking first in the industry.
Plant a grain of millet in the spring and harvest 10,000 seeds in the autumn", it can be seen that Haier Smart Home has always adhered to the "long-termism". Whether it is to create an overseas independent brand, adhere to original technology, or lay out the best brand, these require huge capital investment. Taking overseas brand creation as an example, if you want to create a brand that truly belongs to you abroad, you need to have your own factory, R&D center and marketing service network, and these brand investment have made Haier Smart Home lose money almost all of the way to sea in the first 20 years, and this is why the outside world has been questioning Haier Smart Home's "low profits" in the early stage. However, Haier Smart Home has never been impressed by the OEM profits at its fingertips, nor has it hesitated to create a brand with low short-term returns and a long return cycle. Now, looking back, these efforts have come to fruition.
Trends are changing, the environment is changing, needs are changing, the times have never stopped evolving, and there are countless predictions and choices under the complex variables, which all determine the future of the enterprise. Therefore, the global leadership of Haier Smart Home is never the result of a phased choice, but a value presentation that has been at the same frequency with the times and resonated with changes for a long time.
*: China.com.