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Case Study

Midea: The digital transformation of a home appliances giant

By Mark J. Greeven, Yunfei Feng and Wei Wei

12 pages

January 2023

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Reference: IMD-7-2425

Over the past decade, Asian companies have been launching accelerated and wide-ranging digital transformation initiatives. This has enabled some of them to become leading national and even international players, as well as digital pioneers in their respective industries. This case examines the successful digital transformation undertaken by the Chinese company Midea, one of the world’s leading home appliance manufacturers. By digitally transforming the company, Midea improved its financial performance and reshaped its business on a wider scale. While many cases that address digital transformation focus on the early phases of the process, Midea’s case illustrates a successfully completed digital business transformation. This allows participants to have an overview of the entire digital transformation journey and see what the potential outcomes might be.

Learning Objective

Participants will discuss the factors that enabled Midea’s rapid digital business transformation, and learn

The “three stages” model of digital transformation

The value of the digital infrastructure, i.e. the “middle office”

The success factors for digital business transformation

Keywords

Business to Business, Digital Transformation, Disruption, General Management, Strategy, Technology, Chinese Corporation, China, Digital

Settings

Asia, China
Midea, Consumer Goods, Home Appliances
1968-2022

Type

Published Sources

Available Languages

English

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Teaching note

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