Haier Chief Executive Zhang Ruimin vows the company will join the ranks of the 500 biggest companies worldwide.

FORBES: The Challenge From China

While defending Haier's strategy, Zhang Ruimin acknowledges that two constraints are already being felt even as the company gears up for international expansion: scarce financial resources and a shortage of qualified staff.

ECONOMIST: China and the chaebol

Reinventing Giants: How Chinese Global Competitor Haier Has Changed the Way Big Companies Transform (Wiley, 2013) by Bill Fischer, Umberto Lago and Fang Liu, explains how CEO Zhang Ruimin moved the Haier Group from the Traditional Economy to the Creative Economy.

FORBES: The Creative Economy: Can Industrial Giants Reinvent Themselves?