A Chinese business model for the Internet age

Editor's Note: China's economy is in transition. So is every part of it. But what does that mean? Higher productivity, less waste, and more dependence on the domestic consumer market - the answer commonly goes. But for Zhang Ruimin, leader of Haier Group, one of the largest electronic and electric goods manufacturing companies in the country, transition means much more. Interviewed recently by our staff writers Li Yang and Xie Chuanjiao, Zhang said he wants to create a new type of company - not a hierarchy, but a service-oriented platform of innovative groups and creative individuals.

Since the launch of reform and opening-up in 1978, China has imported and adapted international business theories and practices. But the winds of change may be coming as some of the more successful Chinese companies are trying to pursue their own innovative ways to work in the market.

Zhang Ruimin, chairman and CEO of the Haier Group, recently talked to China Daily about how the company, one of China's largest manufacturers of electronic and electrical appliances, is pioneering new values and practices in its organizational management.