Framing Through ‘Culture’:
Counter-narrative in organisation
In 2015, Danfoss launched its new strategy for further growth in China, “The 2nd Home Market 2.0”. A group of researchers from the Department of Design and Communication, SDU, visited Danfoss China in Shanghai to take the temperature of the implementation among the staff – and to collect data for a deeper understanding of the role of counter-narratives within a strategic and intercultural setting.
T By Qi Wang and Per Krogh Hansen
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he group consisted of Marianne Wolff Lundholt, Qi Wang and Per Krogh Hansen and accomplished individual interviews with the China President and the members of the China Management Team (7), followed by 14 focus group interviews with 59 employees - mainly middle managers. Danfoss opened its first production plant in China in 1996. Between then and now, the company has expanded its activities to several locations in China and numbers 4000 employees today. It was Jørgen Mads Clausen, son of the founder Mads Clausen, who spotted the possibilities in China, and the venture was launched under the headline “The 2nd Home Market”. What began in the 1950s as the supply of compressors to Chinese refrigerators should be developed into a much larger business. The goods should not only be sold in China – they should be developed and produced there too.