This is worth listening to

[Wahalla]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01ksh8r

Smashed Fridges and Catfish: The Story of Haier

Duration: 29 minutesFirst broadcast: Saturday 09 November 2013

In 1984 Zhang Ruimin went into a failing factory which was making fridges and smashed them all with a sledgehammer. “Work started at 8am”, Mr Zhang tells Peter Day, “but if you went in there at 9am and threw a grenade nobody would die because they had all gone home”. This factory has now become Haier, one of the largest white goods manufacturers in the world. Zhang Ruimin tells Peter Day the company’s story and how he developed his own style of management. Managers at Haier, for example, have their own ‘catfish’ who always shadows them in order to stir things up when they are not performing at their best.

[Wahalla]

China miracle was based on cheap labour. While they improved their education system they also improve management. This is a triumph. China is a business academia dream. So many business models.
This catfish idea strikes me as the model of the communist armies of the soviet era with each officer having a political commissar in a dual command structure. However combined with the team structure for success. I dislike the immidiasy of the losing job if fail to meet targets on three periods. I like though the idea that the catfish can be substitute for the leader.

What this tells me China is evolving. I thought Haiber was a German brand! Good that Tsitao is mentioned it has an interesting history.