With the world's unparalleled industrial chain eco-group, China's home appliance industry, which has the largest production and sales volume, has not been able to rank among the Fortune Global 500 companies two years ago, until Midea Group ranked 481th in 2016. After ranking on the list, the big industry of home appliances finally gave birth to a world-class company.
On the evening of July 19, 2018, Fortune Chinese Network released the latest Fortune Global 500 rankings globally. In the past two years, the star-studded beauty group in the Fortune Global 500 list is even more glorious this year. From the 450th in 2017 to the 323th this year, Midea Group spent more than a year in the Fortune Global 500, surpassing 127 top global companies and becoming a ranking One of the eight Chinese companies in terms of speed, and such a gorgeous transformation is based on the technological transformation that has been implemented in depth in recent years.
Technological innovation drives the status of enterprises
In the first year of March, the first year of the Fortune Global 500, Midea Group released a large-scale enterprise group focusing on home appliance manufacturing to integrate consumer electronics, HVAC, robotics and automation systems, and intelligence. The strategy of transforming the technology group of the supply chain (logistics), four months after the strategy was released, the position of the Fortune Global 500 list rose from 481 in 2016 to 450 in the same year. Midea is still the only Chinese home appliance company listed on the Fortune Global 500.
Perhaps coincidentally, perhaps the vision of the top management team, the strategic adjustment of the Midea Group couples the evolution of the macro economy and the industrial environment. In the following year, whether it is the macro level of liquidity contraction and deleveraging or the industrial level The consumption upgrades have increasingly highlighted the role of technological innovation in product structure, efficiency improvement, and demand creation.
After determining the three strategic axes of 'product leadership, efficiency-driven, global operation' earlier, the US investment in technology research and development has entered a stage of concentrated expansion. According to its published 2017 annual report, the previous five During the year, Midea Group invested nearly 30 billion yuan in research and development, and established 20 R&D centers in 9 countries including China. The total number of R&D personnel exceeded 10,000. The Global Innovation Report of 2017 issued by Corey Wei'an It is also mentioned that Midea’s invention patents in the field of home appliances have ranked first in the world for three consecutive years.
As early as the end of 2016, the European Commission released the list of global R&D investment in 2016. Midea Group is the only Chinese home appliance company listed on the list. It is like the “Fortune World Top 500” group in China and the United States became the only list in China’s home appliance industry. Enterprise's emphasis on technology research and development is sometimes surprisingly consistent with market position.
Technological innovation has brought abundant kinetic energy to the US group. In 2017, Midea Group's revenue reached 241.819 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 51.35%; the net profit attributable to the parent company reached 17.284 billion yuan, an increase of 17.71% over the same period. Enter 2018 After the year, the market sales of Midea Group showed a high level of growth. The quarterly report showed that the operating income during the reporting period was 69.738 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 16.7%, and the net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was 5.256 billion yuan. The increase was 20.76%.
The period of large-scale expansion of the household appliance industry's pre-production capacity has brought about a contradiction between supply and demand, which will continue to intensify and plague the entire industry. Labor and resource-intensive manufacturing methods are gradually withdrawing from the historical stage. Technological innovation and product upgrading will become the core driving force for enterprise progress. All the strategies and tactics of Midea Group over the years are based on the continuous improvement of product competitiveness.
Midea Group has surpassed 127 companies in the Fortune Global 500 in one year. Such a huge increase seems to be a bit sudden, but as long as the Midea Group’s initiatives in technological innovation have been sorted out in recent years, It can be found that the formation of the current ranking of Midea Group is also the result of the continuous precipitation, accumulation and natural fermentation of the innovative technology.
Man-machine new generation builds a bigger vision
In the process of attacking the technology group of consumer electronics, HVAC, robotics and automation systems, and intelligent supply chain (logistics), Midea has achieved self-transformation and is able to list Fortune Global 500 for three consecutive years. The rapid rise of the rankings fully demonstrates the depth of implementation of this strategy and its effects. Today's Midea Group, like other companies, faces new opportunities given by industrial Internet, digital, artificial intelligence, and human-computer interaction. The switching of the background of the times has also brought new development issues to the company. It has always been the beauty of long-sleeved and graceful dances. This time, we will build a more ambitious vision with the new generation of human-machine strategy.
The micro-level market performance has actually been revealed in the industry trend. The demand for the air-conditioning market in the past two years has fallen sharply this year, while other multi-consumer electrical products have fallen into the muddy market, the industry and the market as a whole. The stagnation highlights the mismatch between corporate supply and user demand. In sharp contrast, the demand for high-quality, high-performing products is constantly magnifying.
Therefore, Midea Group proposed last year to build a user-centric business model and operating system to focus on the endogenous growth of enterprises and grasp the market opportunities of consumption upgrading and structural upgrading.
This is just a simple aspect of the essential functions of human-computer interaction in the new generation. More complicated is that the definition and requirements of consumer electrical products have also undergone tremendous changes. Especially with the mobile Internet for people everyday The full penetration of life, the popularity of Internet of Things technologies and elements in the manufacturing and consumption fields, has caused a shift in the relationship between people and products, and has led the entire industry from supply chain to manufacturing, from commercial circulation to after-sales service. And so on every aspect of change. And this is the background of Midea Group's intelligent manufacturing and smart home 'double intelligence strategy'.
Therefore, Midea Group has spared no effort to promote the digital transformation of enterprises in the past one or two years. It has built and driven the excellent operation of the whole value chain with software, data, and realized R&D, planning, manufacturing, procurement, quality, logistics, customer service installation, etc. Full coverage of all links in the full value chain.
More importantly, when KUKA, Gaochuang, these global outstanding enterprises are embraced by the United States, the integration of the US supply chain, industrial cluster, smart logistics, smart services and so on will have more space. This creates a driving force for greater efficiency. Moreover, whether it is an industrial robot or a service robot, the Chinese market itself is in a high-growth channel.
Therefore, Midea Group is painstakingly promoting business development in the field of robotics and automation, accelerating the layout of the entire industrial automation and robotics field, making full use of artificial intelligence, sensing and vision technology, expanding intelligent manufacturing, smart logistics, smart home, medical rehabilitation. Waiting for new fields.
In these respects, the United States has become a frequent visitor to Fortune Global 500 in the past three years, reflecting not only the continuous growth of the company's external scale, but also the expansion of the corporate connotation and extension of the US group.
The future of beauty in the post-industrial era
This year marks the 50th anniversary of Midea’s entrepreneurship. The past half century of the United States has basically witnessed and experienced the ambiguity of China’s economy from planning mechanism to reform and opening up to globalization. Now, when manufacturing overcapacity becomes a common Phenomenon, when the resource-intensive manufacturing model that relies on the release of labor dividends falls into the growth bottleneck, the post-industrial era will come to the fore.
From product leadership, efficiency-driven, global execution of the three major spindles to the 'smart home + smart manufacturing' dual wisdom strategy, from consumer electronics, HVAC, robotics and automation systems, intelligent supply chain (logistics) technology The establishment of the Group's strategic direction to the introduction of the new generation of human-machine strategy, the United States has gradually removed the cloak of traditional home appliance manufacturing, and every step has stepped up the upgrading pulse of the traditional manufacturing industry in the post-industrial era: from the outward-oriented investment expansion to the inside The system is driven by a simple, high-quality product supply to a package of service solutions.
The beauty group with the top ten business divisions is distinguished by the vertical depth of the industry chain and the horizontal width of the industry. It is outstanding in China's home appliance industry. This is why in 2017, Midea Group was able to win the online platform with a sales scale of more than 40 billion yuan. At the same time as the mainstream e-commerce platform as a whole, there are more than ten categories that are among the direct factors of online sales in the market segment. Although the system is large enough, Midea has kneaded the business model and the group matrix. Just right, the section represented by KUKA, Ande Logistics, etc., is the right combination of multi-industry linkage and integration effects, which also promoted the birth of the market innovation model of the US's pre-installed home appliances.
The transformation and adjustment of the United States over the years is based on the same frequency resonance of the times, and it is also a kind of return. From the perspective of overall thinking, it is returning to the user orientation. From the perspective of manufacturing, it is the return to the essence of products. From the perspective of enterprises, it is the essence of returning to efficiency. The platform perspective is the nature of the return service.
Perhaps, in the near future, when the US Fortune Global 500 ranking is still rising, its corporate attributes may not be fully affiliated with the home appliance industry.
