HBR On Strategy · Harvard Business Review

Turn Your Supply Chain into an Innovation Engine

·25 min·1 clip

Haier learned that people store skincare and herbal extracts in refrigerators, not just food.

1. HBR On Strategy focuses on Haier’s open digital supply chain platform, Cosmoplat, and how it became an innovation engine. 2. Curt Nickish hosts the conversation, and Kasra Ferdows, a Georgetown University professor, explains the platform’s design and significance. 3. The episode asks how a supply-chain platform can support product innovation, fast problem-solving, and collaboration beyond logistics. 4. Ferdows points to Amazon and Taobao as well-known digital platforms, then says Home Depot, Walmart, and Estée Lauder also use them. 5. He says most supply-chain platforms concentrate on ordering, inventory, fulfillment, logistics, and pickup. 6. He contrasts that with platforms that only cover one stage of the supply chain and exclude suppliers farther upstream or downstream. 7. Haier’s Cosmoplat is named as the unusual case because it is open and includes more than one supply-chain stage. 8. Ferdows says Cosmoplat also handles R&D, engineering and technical problem-solving, custom clearance, and help with regulations and safety. 9. He explains that the platform does not use a classic “control tower” model where the owner sits in the middle of every transaction. 10. Instead, Haier does rudimentary certification, checks claims when partners work together, and lets partners connect without acting as the gatekeeper. 11. Ferdows says the platform’s openness still carries brand and trust risks because companies need reputation and technological savvy. 12. He argues that the platform works partly because Haier’s internal organizational design supports it rather than relying on automation alone. 13. He links the vision to Jean Ruimin, Haier’s CEO and founder, who in 2013 wanted the platform to access resources and capabilities for new products and disruptions. 14. Ferdows says Haier has 108 manufacturing facilities across all continents, yet the platform is also designed to pull knowledge from outside the company. 15. He describes Haier’s smart refrigerator line and says the platform’s cooperative innovation, production resource integration, and delivery and service modules all contributed. 16. He gives a concrete example: users wanted to store skincare and herbal extracts in refrigerators, which required different humidity, airflow, and temperature settings. 17. Ferdows says the platform grows organically, like a tree, by exposing problems and supporting the places where solutions emerge. 18. He keeps the tone explanatory and practical, with Curt Nickish asking direct follow-up questions about openness, risk, software, and company size. 19. Listeners interested in operations, supply chains, digital platforms, and product development would get the most from this episode. 20. Listeners looking for a highly technical software walkthrough or a narrative story with spoilers may skip it.

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