(2018-10-18) Platform Organizations The Next Big Thing Corporate Rebels

Joost Minnaar: Platform Organizations: The Next Big Thing? ...transforming the firm to a platform—a platform full of entrepreneurs who could interact directly with their users and all kinds of other stakeholders and resources

Zhang Ruimin introduced the RenDanHeYi model in 2005.

Ruimin transformed a traditional manufacturing company into an ecosystem of platforms that incubate entrepreneurs. Functional departments were gradually replaced by independent, self-managed micro-enterprises directly interacting with their users and other kinds of stakeholders.

Now, Haier operates over 20 platforms in 5 industries (white goods, real estate, investment & incubation, financial holdings and cultural industry). Micro-enterprises are incubated on the platforms with the help of Haier resources, but without company supervision.

Micro-enterprises can be setup in 3 different ways:

Self-start-up

Self-organization

Self-motivation

When micro-enterprises are successful, they grow bigger. They are then bought by the Haier Group, or go public on their own.

Zhang Ruimin often uses the micro-enterprise Thunderobot as an example to illustrate this philosophy.

niche of gaming laptops

During its lifetime, Thunderobot has leveraged knowledge and feedback from its users—from their first prototype to their newest product. As a result, Thunderobot, which started as a company that only sold gaming laptops, pivoted along the way into a company focused on live streaming of online gaming competitions.

Is the platform organization the future?

More than 4,000 micro-enterprises are on Haier’s platforms. Over 100 of them have annual revenues of more than $15M.