Haier’s Radical Experiment: What If Every Employee Was an Entrepreneur?
Most companies hire employees. Haier breeds entrepreneurs.
For the past few weeks, I’ve been diving deep into transcripts from multiple Q&A sessions with Haier insiders as part of our Corporate Rebels Masterclasses. I found what I was looking for: a business that functions nothing like a traditional company.
At Haier, entrepreneurs don’t just show up for a paycheck. They’re expected to start their own businesses inside the company.
Not metaphorically. Literally.
This is not your standard "intrapreneurship" initiative where people pitch an idea and hope leadership gives them a green light. No. At Haier, if you have an idea, you own it, fund it, recruit your team, and make it happen. If it works, you share in the profits. If it fails, you try again.
Entrepreneurs, Not Employees
Haier, a Chinese manufacturer with 80.000 entrepreneurs, doesn’t measure employee satisfaction in surveys. They measure it by how many entrepreneurs launch new businesses within the company.
- If you join Haier, you’re not applying for a job—you’re entering an incubator.
- If you don’t have the ambition to build something, you won’t last.
- If you fail, you don’t get fired—you go back to the talent pool and try again.
This system is built on what Haier calls “human value maximization”—the idea that people thrive when they have full autonomy to create, lead, and reap the rewards of their efforts.
No Pay Scales, No Fixed Salaries
Most companies promise stability. Haier promises opportunity.
Instead of fixed pay scales, many Haier entrepreneurs earn based on the value they create. They:
- Define their own goals.
- Set up a profit-sharing structure within their teams.
- Bid on projects and compete in an internal marketplace.
If you want security, you can opt for a stable job inside Haier with fixed hours and a set salary. But if you want to grow, you bet on yourself.
Failure Isn’t Fatal
In traditional companies, failure kills careers. At Haier, failure is just another step toward success.
If a team (internally called a "microenterprise") fails, the entrepreneurs don’t get laid off. Instead, they:
- Join another microenterprise.
- Start a new project from scratch.
- Go back to Haier’s "talent pool" and find their next challenge.
One Haier entrepreneur put it simply: "You don’t fail to fail. You don’t worry to fail."
Learn From Haier Firsthand
Haier isn’t just a company—it’s a living, breathing experiment in radical entrepreneurship. And it works.
We explore Haier’s self-managed business model in our Masterclass on self-managing organizations.
Want to learn how to build a company that runs on autonomy, ownership, and real skin in the game? Join us.
