He is a leader in the eyes of his supervisor, the first doctoral student to graduate in his class, and the winner of "One Hundred Outstanding Doctoral Dissertations in China"...

Following the trajectory of most people, after graduating with a Ph.D. from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2005, Wan Xinming, who should have applied for a postdoctoral position to continue focusing on his academic career, resolutely joined the business world and transformed himself from a Ph.D. in engineering to a corporate scientific researcher, putting scientific research into practice on the production line.

Of course, Wan Xinming did not expect that the joy he felt when he encountered a Haier refrigerator in his Paris apartment in 2007 was the beginning of his fate with Haier.

This is a time that requires innovation more than ever before.

Whether it is a nation or an enterprise, the choice of innovation path can be "eclectic", including concept innovation, management innovation, product innovation, technological innovation... but there is no doubt that openness is a necessary feature of innovation.

When we try to explore the flow of knowledge, information, technology, personnel, etc. within and outside the boundaries of an enterprise, open innovation becomes an unavoidable topic.

Professor Henry Chesbrough, the father of open innovation, described the importance of open innovation in this way.

In 2012, Wan Xinming returned to China after seven years of in-depth scientific research in Britain and France. He received a call from Haier HOPE (Haier Open Partnership Ecosystem). At that moment, he was attracted.

Changes in users, technology, and the industry are forcing companies to abandon closed R&D and turn to open innovation to achieve ecological innovation. Haier is undoubtedly at the forefront. It was precisely because of this innovative factor that Wan Xinming, who originally planned to take a long vacation, joined the HOPE platform without hesitation after a short break.

Open innovation has become an important part of the global digital economy ecosystem. What Wan Xinming and his team are doing at the HOPE platform is to keep pace with the times and become a promoter of innovation through open innovation. Compared with his previous identity as a researcher who "fought alone" in the front line and experiments, Wan Xinming has switched to another way of scientific research.

He admitted that many people have misunderstandings about open innovation: open innovation is not simply "taking what is available", and independent innovation and open innovation have never been two extremes. Independent research and development is the foundation of open innovation, and open innovation is an accelerator of independent research and development.

Haier HOPE Platform

Discovering needs, matching resources globally, and seeking the best solutions is one of the key tasks of the HOPE platform team. This seemingly simple process of publishing, screening, and matching actually involves a lot of knowledge.

How to accurately analyze and release the needs? How to integrate global resources and select the best solution? How to judge the development trend of technology, draw a technology roadmap, and reserve cutting-edge technology in advance? This has actually exceeded the scope of testing and R&D, and the challenges faced are also greater.

But they enjoy it, even if they stay up all night for a simple request. In an open innovation environment, what is stronger than the hard work day and night is the excitement of constantly trying new things. Seeing the products they have worked hard on come to market, this sense of mission, honor and achievement is the biggest driving force for the team to move forward courageously.

Through the innovative ecological model of the HOPE platform, the geographical industrial production clusters of the past have been upgraded to digital industrial innovation clusters; the trickles of technology and patents created by scientific laboratories in the past have now converged into a great river of industrial technology and products.

Before joining Haier, Wan Xinming was a little nervous. "In the foreign companies where I worked before, even if I held a high position, I was still just a screw in the wheel. I rarely had the opportunity to participate in the decision-making of many major events. All I did was to do my own small part."

Can Haier really give me the space I want? Can my scientific research achievements be truly realized according to my beliefs?

Time is the best answer. Haier, which insists on being "user-centric" and maximizing human value, has given Wan Xinming the strongest reassurance.

Generally speaking, for a company engaged in industry, scientific research is only one link in the production chain. It must be pragmatic, efficient, and able to bring real growth.

But at Haier, under the foundation of "people-oriented and single-product integration", there is an atmosphere of tolerance and ease: "people" refers to employees, and "single" refers to the needs and experience of users. Employees realize their personal value while creating user value. As long as you have an idea, you can boldly do it, there is no limit. Researchers have ample room to play, discuss the most cutting-edge academics, and test and implement creative ideas. This is the atmosphere that all researchers look forward to.

More importantly, "when innovating on the HOPE platform, we don't listen to our superiors or the resource providers, but to the users." In Haier's open innovation system, the concept of "putting users first" is inherited from the beginning. The innovative forces from all parties are closely connected to user needs, thus finding the right direction for technological innovation and fundamentally avoiding ineffective innovation without market "buy-in".

Discovering user pain points makes the HOPE team’s work more targeted and innovation more effective.

A very simple example: During a micro-insight, the team found that many users have a common pain point when returning the plates to the refrigerator after a meal. They walk to the refrigerator door with the plates in both hands, but since they cannot open the refrigerator door directly, they have to put the plates on the top of the refrigerator, which may cause the plates to fall over.

"In fact, in this scenario, we can provide users with more convenient products through innovation." Although it is just a small action, the HOPE platform team is thinking about whether they can improve the way of opening the door, such as opening the refrigerator door through voice control or tapping with the elbow, to make the user experience more comfortable.

Scientific research and innovation ultimately come back to the issue of value creation, and that is creating value for users. Research results take root in corporate innovation, and researchers realize their ambitions while also creating tangible social value.

When companies look to develop new technologies, they can and should leverage all valuable ideas from both inside and outside the company and use both internal and external market channels.

Because the growth rate brought about by this is undoubtedly astonishing.

Since its establishment in 2009, after more than ten years of development, the HOPE platform has covered more than 100 core technology fields around the world and can reach more than 1 million resources. It is also under its acceleration that Haier's disruptive innovation results continue to emerge. During the 13th Five-Year Plan period alone, Haier created 70% of the industry's leading products.

Tianzun air conditioner is an innovative air conditioner of Haier, which originated from the interaction between 673,372 netizens and the HOPE platform. After the platform discovered these user complaints, such as air conditioning disease , too cold air, remote control, etc., a disruptive air conditioner product developed by integrating global resources was soon launched. The air conditioner has the ability to "think" independently, and is no longer a simple cooling and heating tool, but has become an "intelligent air steward".

The world's first CO2-removing gas water heater was developed in just one month under the catalysis of the HOPE platform. From the proposal of requirements to the adaptation of solutions, and then to the successful mass production of technology-based products, the HOPE platform team used open and innovative technology to subvert tradition, overcome the problems that have plagued the industry for a century, and bring safe gas water heaters into thousands of households.

The industry standard for free-standing built-in refrigerators is also a wonderful life solution created for users by Haier's R&D team in conjunction with various innovative resources on the HOPE platform, including home appliances, home furnishings, design, and decoration. Within one month of its launch, the product occupied 60% of the market share of refrigerators at the same price. Users have proved the value of this open innovation system with their actual actions.

There are countless such cases on the HOPE platform. In addition to creating value for users, enterprises and industries, the platform is also fulfilling its mission of promoting the integrated development of large, medium and small enterprises. On the one hand, guided by the needs of large enterprises, it encourages small and medium-sized technology companies to participate in innovation and accelerate the transformation of domestic scientific and technological achievements. On the other hand, it will also cover important industries of the national economy such as automobiles and electricity to promote the integrated development of the industry.

Data shows that from January 1 to December 2, 2020 alone, the average cycle from receiving demand to actual delivery on the HOPE platform reached 11 days, greatly accelerating independent innovation.

In this scientific research acceleration race, the H0PE platform team never relaxed for a moment, and even felt the pressure was increasing. They have been deeply engaged in the field of their expertise and have received numerous recognitions: they have won the National Science and Technology Progress Award, the "Science and Technology Innovation China" Industry-University-Research Integration Organization Award, and HOPE typical cases have been selected for Harvard Business Review and domestic and foreign special publications many times.

Endless possibilities, vigorous growth.

With the advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the Internet and digital technology industries have made extensive use of open innovation to achieve explosive innovation growth. Open innovation is becoming a key driving force for the development of the digital economy.

In 2019, Haier announced that it had entered the ecological brand strategy stage. Through joint creation with users and partners, it will continuously provide a borderless and continuously iterative overall value experience, ultimately achieving win-win symbiosis among lifelong users and all parties in the ecosystem, and creating a value cycle for society.

This new brand paradigm will undoubtedly inject new energy into the development of the HOPE platform.

From being doubted at the beginning, to receiving endless requests for solutions on the platform, and then to proactively supplying solutions to industry research and development in advance after understanding user needs, the HOPE platform has burst out with tremendous energy.

Wan Xinming said that in the future, the HOPE platform will continuously iterate its business model based on user needs. At the same time, it will superimpose artificial intelligence and big data algorithms to continuously seize domestic and international innovation heights and gradually build a scenario-driven, infinitely interactive, and continuously iterative innovation ecosystem.

At present, the HOPE platform has established innovation centers in Israel, Silicon Valley in the United States, Singapore, Japan, Shenzhen, Hefei, Chengdu, Xi'an and other places. From deploying global technological highlands to focusing on domestic innovation highlands, the platform's technological ecological strength continues to grow, and its first-class status as a world scientific research and innovation platform has also been consolidated.

Open innovation stems from a mindset that recognizes and believes that companies can achieve faster growth through openness. The innovation journey is only complete after commercialization in the market is achieved.

At Haier, scientific research elites and enterprises are truly working together in a two-way manner. A steady stream of innovations continue to emerge in the fields of smart home, big health, industrial Internet, smart city, etc. This open ecology will also change the direction of the enterprise trend and create a more internationally competitive innovation ecosystem.

Tens of thousands of Haier researchers, represented by Wan Xinming, are continuing this cause. Wan Xinming said, "The most unique thing about Haier culture is that it can inspire people's creativity. You can play freely in freedom, but it can also stimulate your vitality. With the motivation of innovation, you can continue to create. I feel quite fulfilled."

累计承接任务数已超3000个的HOPE平台，只是海尔生态创新体系的一个缩影。目前，海尔在全球建立的10+N科技创新生态，链接20万以上的全球专家和100万+资源，24小时不间断创新，产品研发周期显著缩短，海尔这片创新热土的能量正在让世界为之瞩目。