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Book

Reinventing Giants

How Chinese global competitor Haier has changed the way big companies transform

By William A. Fischer, Umberto Lago and Fang Liu

288 pages

Hardcover

Overview

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Overview

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Chinese firms are reinventing their business models, their corporate cultures, and themselves, becoming global competitors who increasingly offer knowledge rather than cheap labour in their quest to join the ranks of the “world′s best” companies.

This book offers a compelling profile of the most ambitious of these emerging Chinese competitors, the Haier Corporation (the world′s largest manufacturer of home appliances), and shares insights on how one organization has repeatedly reinvented its business model and corporate culture in an effort to sustain its success.

Reinventing Giants provides an exclusive look within the Haier Corporation and shows how managerial accountability and responsibility have been repositioned at every level of the organization, with the core value of market–centricity, while aligning strategy on each level of management. It includes actual work reports that show this process in detail from the ground up.

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Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications

Axiom Business Book Awards 2014
Category: Corporate History/Milestone
Silver medal

Hardcover

eBook

You can also buy the book on Barnes & Nobles, Book Depository, Orell Füssli and Routledge.

Publisher

Jossey-Bass

ISBN

9781118602232

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The power of brand-led differentiation: What Vanzetti Engineering learned from luxury brands (B) (Video case)

By Stéphane J. G. Girod and Martin Králik
Case reference: IMD-2696 ©2025

Summary

This case series explores what companies can learn from luxury brands without becoming luxury brands themselves. The video B case features interviews with three Vanzetti Engineering executives: the marketing director, the CEO and owner and the chief commercial officer. With the shrinking of the automobile industry, the company has had to reposition itself in other industrial sectors where it is significantly smaller than the customers. Vanzetti Engineering embraced some of the codes of luxury branding according to what suited it and ignored others. The company discovered that although it was focused mostly on creating functional value, it had to dwell much more on emotional and societal value creation. The process of brand elevation required a complete cultural transformation, and one of the lessons from the case is that a brand is not a slogan but a way of being and of delivering value.

Reference IMD-2696

Organization Vanzetti Engineering

Industry Construction and Engineering;Manufacturing

Available Languages English

Contact

Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications

Related topics

Luxury

Marketing

Strategy

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The power of brand-led differentiation: What Vanzetti Engineering learned from luxury brands (A)

By Stéphane J. G. Girod and Martin Králik
Case reference: IMD-2688 ©2025

Summary

Survey after survey shows that executives think their business is in danger of being commoditized. This means their company is not able to differentiate sufficiently to command higher market prices and profits. Luxury brands, by contrast, are the opposite of commodity. Their whole approach to branding is based on desirability. This case series explores what companies can learn from luxury brands without becoming luxury brands themselves. The written A case gives a short background on Vanzetti Engineering, which is facing intensifying competition in an evolving marketplace, and launches the first question for discussion.

Reference IMD-2688

Organization Vanzetti Engineering

Industry Construction and Engineering;Manufacturing

Available Languages English

Contact

Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications

Related topics

Luxury

Marketing

Strategy

Browse all topics

VARO’s twin-engine strategy on energy strikes the right balance

By Winter Nie and Ivy Buche
in I by IMD

Summary

The Swiss-based energy group is plotting a course toward a renewables-focused future, without abandoning its traditional customer base.

Contact

Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications

Related topics

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Sustainability

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Net ero - Political battles - How to survive

By Arturo Bris
in I by IMD

Summary

Business leaders must master the art of building strategies that take account of partisan divides over net-zero goals while progressing the interests of their company and society.

Contact

Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications

Related topics

Geopolitics

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Sustainability

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