Leading from Behind

We all depend on banks. They help us save and they help us spend. Yet for many they represent everything that's wrong with the world of finance. Poor service, high fees, creaking IT infrastructure and a market controlled by just a few providers have combined in recent years to create a personal banking crisis every bit as severe as the global financial crisis. How have things got so bad? Why are banks unable to balance providing good customer service with making a profit? And what can we do to protect ourselves from the tricks banks play to part us with our hard-earned money? This ground-breaking book, written by three insiders, reveals why banks do the things they do. From designing products they know will rip customers off to cutting branches they know their customers rely on, they explain how many banks' failing business models force them to make the wrong choices again and again. They make a rallying call for us all to be better informed about how everyday banking products actually work and to be wary of the many tricks and techniques product managers devise to make money.

Since its origins in the 1920s as a refrigerator factory in Qingdao supplying the Chinese market, Haier has risen to become a major multinational company, overtaking the likes of Whirlpool and LG, to become the world’s leading manufacturer of household appliances today, with revenues of $30 billion. How did Haier achieve this amazing feat?

This book examines Haier’s organizational transformation, which can be traced back to 1984 when Zhang Ruimin (Haier’s current CEO) joined the company, and which became the essence of Haier’s sustained competitive advantage. In particular, it looks at the ͞RDHY Win-Win Model of Employee-Customer Integration͟, the latest management practice in Haier, which has had a profound effect on the company’s performance, and which has captured the attention of academics and managers around the world.