Middle managers play a role as more in bad less in good

             Frank   Feb. 7, 2016, in Waterloo, Canada.

[Highlight] For remodelling business model in Internet Era, China’s Haier Group lay off 26000 middle managers accounting for 30.2% of total staff in two year period. Due to those middle managers are a group of roasted goose without nerves, they can not reflect market situation.

Sept. 15, 2016, a Mandarin article Viewing change from Haier layoffs, what did change mean for business with a highlight: with the advancement of the level in staff knowledge, self-management has become the trend, the transformation of management functions will come out ahead.

The CEO of China’s Haier Group,  Zhang Ruimin who said that: Haier removed middlemen in outside and removed wall insulation in inside, the wall insulation refers to the middle managers. As intermediate layer, those middle managers are a group of roasted goose, they can not reflect market situation due to they have no nerves. In last year, Haier has removed 16 thousands accounting for 18% of all staff. This year is expected to remove other 10,000 in middle management mainly. Besides, the reason that roasted goose has no nerves; another reason is that intellectualization in management has replaced the jobs of those middle managers.

Mr. Zhang cited a parable: if an egg is broken from the outside, it must be the food for people. If it is broken from the inside, it must be a new life. The parable regarded as a response for the various arguments on Haier massive layoffs in recent community. Mr. Zhang admits that: "The challenge is very dangerous, it may achieve self-regeneration or to fall down.”

Haier set up more than 2,000 independent management bodies - small and micro companies. Zhang made clear that "the company now is not to provide a job for every employee, but to provide a business opportunity." “Haier now is to provide staff with a platform, a parallel ecosystem.”

In such parallel ecosystem, everyone has to face market. If who attract more customers with more order, whom will get more paid with no limitation on income, otherwise, has no income, there is no idle person raised in Haier anymore.

Those changes can enforce every staff towards market R&Ds and marketing.

Here, I have to make a special emphasis.

Haier is one of the first companies to implement Business process reengineering - BPR in last century China. In 2008, Haier promotes optimization in business process reengineering again. After several management innovation and process optimization, Haier is able to withstand the challenges of the changes. If the change fails, it is necessary to review the thoroughness of its business process reengineering.

After a thorough business process reengineering, employees develop a work procedure in "think according to the process, speak according to the process, and act according to the process", thus, the work load in business management is greatly reduced. The employees are working in following systematic regulations, standards and processes, rather than that of taking orders from superiors. Only when encountering a new situations and new problems that have no standard to follow, there is need of the help of manager. Of course, they can rely on exploring solutions by team work collectively. In this situation, that cut down management staff is granted.

In the Internet age, with the popularity of information technology, the storage of knowledge and experience is able to be resolved by information technology. With the improvement of staff knowledge level, their self-management has become the trend, the conversion of management functions will come out ahead.

The responsibility of a management staff is to establish regulations, standards, processes, to nurture employees and to handle some exceptions.

Thus, the old mechanisms that report work and ask for instructions from lower management to higher management in step by step, and then transfer the feedback and instructions from higher management to lower management in step by step, is no longer necessary.

If there is no process reengineering, it will be a risky that hastily conduct to reform in management, especially substantially reduction in management staff.

Canadian businesses urgently need to carry out management process reengineering

Based on my experience from working in Canada, the quality of many management staff is poorer, due to ignorance of poor cultured by poor civilization, they are boldly recklessly in misusing the rights for management to play according to their own animal instinct without the fear of being punished. There many of them play a role as more in bad less in good.

If they get a right for farting once, they dared put Atomic Bombs endlessly, even misuse promotion and increase payment to gang mindless individual up to badly play in workplace.