Tata Motors Stands on Land Rover + Haier Up

choi

(1) Abheek Bhattacharya, Tata Motors See Its Empire Turn Empty. Wall Street Journal, Oct 12, 2013 (in the half page Heard on the Street)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB ... 28600493991052.html
("Tata acquired Jaguar-Land Rover five years ago * * * the British luxury car maker is now the jewel in Tata's crown. Between January and September, JLR sold 16% more cars than the year before, thanks to new products like the Range Rover Sport and new markets like China. It's driving four-fifths of sales at Tata Motors. However, the Indian business—legally separate from JLR—is struggling. Tata has sold 27% fewer cars and trucks in India so far in 2013 than in the same period of 2012")

Note: Except one assembly in Pune, India, all other facilities (R & D, headquarters, and everyting else) of Jaguar-Land Rover are located in UK.


(2) Chinese industry | Haier and Higher; The radical boss of Haier wants to transform the world’s biggest appliance-maker into a nimble internet-age firm.
http://www.economist.com/news/bu ... liance-maker-nimble
("Most think of Chinese companies as peddlers of cheap, undifferentiated kit or mere copycats. In contrast, Haier is recognised globally for reliability and marketing know-how. * * * Haier’s quality exceeded norms set even by Japan’s exacting standards bodies.* * * It was judged the eighth most innovative firm worldwide, ahead of Amazon among others, in a ranking drawn up last year by the Boston Consulting Group")

My comment:
(a) "in 1984 the municipal government of the Chinese city appointed a young employee, Zhang Ruimin, as the firm’s [Haier's] boss. * * * Mr Zhang had spent time in quality-obsessed Germany, where he observed that even manhole covers were precisely made and numbered. It made a deep impression. Incensed that a fifth of the products his plant turned out were defective, in 1985 he handed out sledgehammers and joined employees in smashing 76 faulty fridges in public view."

"A fifth"? That was better than Soviet Union's commercial products.
(b) "But surely it is barmy to tinker with a successful business model?"

barmy (adj; alteration of balmy): "chiefly British: "balmy"
balmy (adj): "CRAZY, FOOLISH"
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/balmy

(c) "his firm’s fast and frugal engineers came up with clever products like mini-fridges built into computer tables (for students), freezers with a slightly warmer compartment (for keeping ice cream soft) and horizontal deep freezers with two tiers of drawers (for Americans too lazy to dig to the bottom). Haier also developed new niches, such as affordable wine fridges"
(i) "For the first appliance, I can find a 2005 description in the Web that sais, "Haier designed a refrigerator with wooden flaps on the sides that can be folded out to make acomputer table."

What does (or did) it look like? I can not find it in images.google.com, or in the Web site of Haier. If it is such a good idea, how come it was discontinued?
(ii) The "wine fridges" have been there for decades, not invented by Haier. I can not find anything indicating Haier's wine fridges are better than competitors'.
(iii) I can not find the otehr items.